interesting grist
interesting grist
Late-game heroics
Throughout much of his career, Kobe Bryant has been heralded as one of the premier "clutch" scorers in the NBA. In a sense, this term refers to a player's ability to take over and lead his team to victory under pressure during tight games, notably at the end of regulation or in overtime periods. Bryant's exceptional ability to will his team to victory in the last seconds of a close game has often been compared to the legendary Michael Jordan's capacity to do the same thing. According to an NBA poll directed at general managers throughout the league before the 2005?06 season, Bryant was overwhelmingly voted as the player they would choose to take the last shot during the crucial moments of basketball games.
Interestingly though, there are some who question whether Bryant's reputation in this regard is fully justified. One prominent such group would be APBRmetricians, who have performed a number of statistical analyses yielding results indicating that Bryant's reputation for performing "in the clutch" exceeds his actual deeds in that regard.
In February of 2006, USA Today conducted an analysis which took into account NBA players' scoring, rebounding, assist and turnover statistics within the final two minutes and in overtime periods of the games of the 2005-2006 NBA season prior to the All-Star break. Kobe Bryant's name was noticeably absent from the league's individual leaders in every category, as were the Lakers in every team category.
Moreover, from the 2003-2004 season through March 16, 2006, Bryant has hit a lower percentage of his "game-winning" shot attempts (defined as a shot taken when one's team is tied or trailing by one or two points, and with 24 seconds or less left in the game) than the overall league average, and a substantially lower percentage of such shots than many other players, such as Allen Iverson, Michael Redd, Carmelo Anthony, and Jalen Rose, who are not nearly as widely lauded for late-game heroics as is Bryant.
