Category: Basketball

Our 33 Favorite Kobe Bryant Moments, Part VI

Brandon King

      We have come down to the final 8 of our Kobe countdown. We have enjoyed bringing you this list and it was a lot of fun debating what moments to include and what order they should be placed. It was an honor getting to see a legend such as Kobe play and a joy rehashing some of these moments.   8. Getting drafted then traded http://youtu.be/eKVpg-rPm-A Hindsight is always 20/20, so I’m not going to go with the lazy take on this one, which would be to lambaste…

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Lakers Hire Walton as Head Coach

Brandon King

            Although they were questioned and criticized for the timing of breaking off former head man Byron Scott because of the recent hiring of highly prized coaches such as Scotty Brooks and Tom Thibadeau, the Los Angeles Lakers announced earlier today the team had reached an agreement with Warriors’ Assistant Luke Walton to become their head coach. In a statement, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said: “We are excited to bring Luke back to Los Angeles, where we feel he’s going to start an outstanding coaching…

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Our 33 Favorite Kobe Bryant Moments, Part V

Brandon King

Our reminiscing of our favorite Kobe moments continues its move toward the top our list.     13. The Latrell Spreewell dunk Honestly,nothing I could write here would be better than the reaction of the commentary team and the crowd. Watch and enjoy.     12. December 17,1997 v the Chicago Bulls http://youtu.be/0dxFuZJDMN8 This was a very highly anticipated game between the Lakers and Bulls. Although the Bulls were in control of the game from the opening tip, people got to see Kobe and MJ matchup a little bit and…

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Our 33 Favorite Kobe Bryant Moments, Part III

Brandon King

23. The Steve Nash dunk Taking Shane Battiers in college is fine and looked upon favorably. It has is place in the Association(especially if you have no way of vertically challenging the shot) but it can get you put on a poster. Steve Nash had to learn this lesson the hard way.     22. The Yao dunk http://youtu.be/DJtcus-JMZU Personally, it was the first time I’d ever seen anyone dunk on Yao. Standing O’s were indeed in order.       21. Dunking Vincent Yarbrough right out of the league Outside of age…

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Our 33 Favorite Kobe Bryant Moments, Part II

Brandon King

  28. Kobe’s sneaker free agency After his departure from Adidas, Kobe came into the 2002-03 season sans a shoe deal. What ensued was an awesome season long sneaker smorgasbord. As he destroyed cats that season,Bryant rocked Nike, Jordan Brand, Reebok, as well as And1, just to name a few. I’m not sore if we will ever see such sneaker variety from a player of his caliber, but it was fun because you never knew what we was going to wear from game to game       27. Surpassing 31,000…

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Our 33 favorite Kobe Bryant moments, part 1

Brandon King

The book on Kobe Bryant’s career has unfortunately been closed. All season long the Kobe farewell tour has garnered major attention, and rightfully so. In looking back on the legendary career of one Mr. Kobe Bean Bryant, we here at SneakerShopTalk decided ,over the next few days, to identify our favorite 33 moments from the Mamba’s 20 years in the Association. We hope you enjoy reliving these moments as much as we did.   33. The 1997 Slam Dunk contest http://youtu.be/POWX-Ki78Qo   32. Taking Brandy to the prom Back in the…

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TNT graphic kills Rockets

Brandon King

After being on the receiving end of two beat downs from the world champion Golden State Warriors, not people thinking the Rockets can even be competitive with the Warriors, much less win a game. Well, it appears the graphics department at TNT feels that way. After the Spurs throttled the Memphis Grizzlies again, this time to the tune of 94-68, TNT showed a graphic for the remaining games in the Rockets/Warriors series which listed games 5,6,7 as “not necessary.”  Based on what I’ve seen through the first two games of…

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Make A Free Throw! 

Brandon King

Last night I watched the Clippers beat the trailblazers, I knew the inevitable parade to the free-throw line with DeAndre Jordan as the grand marshal would soon ensue. Once again we were treated to Jordan’s consistent bricks from the charity stripe. While he was an abysmal 8-18, his usual fashion on ineptitude didn’t hurt and the clippers as Portland was an able to capitalize on the bounty of misses.   I know some people absolutely hate the hack-a-[insert horrendously bad free throw shooter] strategy, citing it slows down the game…

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Kobe: End of a Career; End of an Era

Brandon King

   I met Kobe Bryant’s last game with a mixture of anticipation and sports sadness. Anticipation because I was curious about how Kobe would perform in his swan song; the sports sadness stems, selfishly, from the basketball fan in me not wanting to see an all-time great hang them up. It is also in knowing that his retirement marked the end of era, as Kobe brought an old school mentality and competitiveness that will be sorely missed in today’s NBA. When he missed his first five shots’, I started thinking…

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Nike and athletes pay homage to the Black Mamba

Brandon King

As we unfortunately and inevitably march toward the end of the legendary hoops career of one Mr. Kobe Bryant, Nike is honoring this all-time great with a global tribute. Starting today, Nike-sponsored athletes will rock black and gold shoes, which is intended to be a metaphoric tip of the cap, or sneaker in this case, to Kobe’s golden career fading to black. https://youtu.be/Qlg2NVpRqac This black and gold tribute will culminate with the Mamba Day celebration on April 13, the day of Kobe’s last NBA game in which the Lakers play…

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