Revisionist History

The problem with sports, and other facets of life, is we tend to remember what we want. We call this phenomenon revisionist history. When it comes to the "clutch" debate, the casual fan from the most hardcore fan tend to agree Kobe Bryant is the most "clutch" player in the game. Over the past year there has been a bevy of articles trying to educate people that this belief about Kobe is simply not true. Yes, Kobe has won championships and made clutch plays during these runs. But I argue that "clutch" has been redefined over the past few years in many fans eyes to include only Buzzer Beaters. Clutch is not hitting the buzzer beater w/ .7 seconds left. Its about making plays down the STRETCH RUN of the game to keep your team in it or propel your team to a win. I have heard so much nonsense this year that LeBron is not clutch because he's missing fade away threes as time expires. I am in the school that clutch is the lat 5 minutes of the game by games decided by less than 5 points during that span.

Just for arguments sake I am going to post Kobe Bryant's playoff misses and makes and let you be the judge of how clutch these numbers are. I have verified this statistics from various sources. I first want to post playoff only because that's when player's legacy's are defined.



I have nothing else to say except 6/23!

Now this is not to discredit Kobe Bryant, this is to raise an awareness that when players miss buzzer beaters it doesn't mean they are not clutch. And the most widely considered "clutch" player in the NBA, shoots roughly 25% in buzzer beaters. Because so many fans are revisionist historians today we forget that Robert Horry and Derek Fisher were the ones hitting the clutch shots in the waning moments of games. But, since Kobe is the best player remaining on the Lakers and one of the last pieces remaining from the dynasty we give him the benefit of the doubt for being the most clutch player during that time. In regular season games to tie or go ahead during the final 24 seconds Kobe Bryant is a whopping 36/115, this information was gathered from a Henry Abbot article on TrueHoop. That's roughly 30% which again is significantly below his career average for shooting percentage.

I just hope people can realize clutch is more than hitting the buzzer beater. When watching the games down the stretch see who takes the charge, grabs the rebound, makes the perfect pass out of the double team, hits the shots, and makes the steak to cease control of the game. Those plays are just as clutch as the game winner, because without those plays in the most crucial times of the game, the buzzer beater would not be possible.

but so you know this isn't a Kobe smear campaign I posted all of Kobe Bryant's game winners over his 15 year career. Despite a terrible shooting percentage he has hit 28 buzzer beaters in his Laker's tenure. That deserves some respect and notoriety in it's own right.