John Schuhmann of NBA.com wrote an interesting article last week that looks at how players perform in “the clutch” (i.e. the last five minutes of a game with a margin of five points or less).

So who is Mr. Clutch? The man in the picture.

Manu Ginobili has the highest true shooting percentage of any player in the last five seasons. He’s not a particularly good shooter (44%) in the clutch, but he gets to the line a ton and makes his free throws at a high rate (86%). Mehmet Okur is second and Steve Nash third.

You also might notice that there’s no Bryant, James, Wade or Carmelo Anthony in the top 10. They’re a little further down the list. James ranks 12th, Anthony ranks 22nd, Wade ranks 28th and Bryant ranks 38th.

Who has the biggest difference in overall TS% and clutch TS%? Or, in other words, who steps up their game the most in the clutch?

Okur is tops in that category, trailed by T.J. Ford and Carlos Boozer. Ginobili is fourth.

Who’s shooting declines the most in the clutch?

Kirk Hinrich is first, followed by Pau Gasol and Hedo Turkoglu.

Where do our big four stand? James and Anthony shoot better in the clutch, while Wade and Bryant do not.

It’s an interesting read.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

- SPORTSbyBROOKS has the details about Kareem’s admission that he is fighting leukemia.

- BALL DON’T LIE has video of Kobe Bryant’s appearance on Lopez Live.

- THE BIG LEAD says that “The Broncos Are Who We Thought They Were.”

- MONDESI’S HOUSE is skeptical about Larry Johnson’s desire to join the Pittsburgh Steelers. Good luck with that, Larry.

- THE 700 LEVEL discusses Mike Vick’s preference not to be a ‘Wildcat guy.’

MyFoxHouston reports that Kobe Bryant worked out for two hours with Hakeem Olajuwon, trying to learn the post and mid-post moves that made “The Dream” such a nightmare on the block.

Olajuwon said Bryant reached out to him for help with his moves in the post.

“He gave me the biggest compliment,” Olajuwon said. “(He said) You are the best (at the) mid-post and post move.

“He wanted me to show my moves to him.”

Olajuwon said his style of play in the paint is really suited for a guy like Bryant.

“In my mind most of my moves for a guy (with) that agility can use it better than the big guy,” Olajuwon said. “Because my moves are not really for the big guy.

“It’s for the guards and small forwards. So he would benefit most on the post because of his agility.

“It was so much fun because how he picks it up. I worked with him for two hours, step by step.”

Kobe is nothing if not smart. He knows he’s getting older and wants to pick his spots when attacking the basket. Michael Jordan developed a devastating post up game in the back half of his career and it’s no surprise that Kobe would want extend his effectiveness in the same way. Look for Bryant to spend more time on the block this season as he incorporates these post moves into his game.

- SPORTS BY BROOKS has the details on the new Miami Dolphins cheerleader calendar.

- Remember when Kobe Bryant tried to charge $50 to be an exclusive member of his website? Well, LA BALL TALK informs us that prices have been slashed to $24.95.

- EPIC CARNIVAL has video of a New Zealand broadcaster who forgot to turn his mike off when he went to the bathroom. Hilarity ensues.

- DEADSPIN ponders why so many athlete marriages end in divorce.

- THE BLEACHER REPORT provides 10 reasons why the Steelers won’t repeat as Super Bowl champions.

According to a report by SI.com, Kobe Bryant has decided not to terminate the final two years of his contract and will remain a Los Angeles Laker instead of becoming a free agent.

Now the Lakers and Bryant’s agent will negotiate a contract extension. If they somehow cannot agree, he would earn $23 million next season and could opt out next June.

However, Bryant has spent his entire 13-year career with the team, winning four NBA championships and on June 19 he said, “I’m not going anywhere. I know I ain’t going nowhere, so it’s just a waste of our breaths just talking about it.”

Bryant has urged the Lakers to bring back unrestricted free agent forwards Trevor Ariza and Lamar Odom, who played key roles in the team’s recent run to its 15th NBA title.

Bryant will make a guaranteed $47.8 million over the next two years and could earn another $90 million with an extension. As the SI.com article notes, the Lakers can now turn their attention on retaining Ariza and Odom.

Check back for TSR NBA guru John Paulsen’s take on this subject later.

Bill Simmons isn’t too keen on all the talk about how Kobe Bryant went through a metamorphosis this season.

They had the second-best player in the league (Kobe), the second-best center (Pau Gasol), a talented forward with a unique set of skills (Lamar Odom), a breakout swingman (Trevor Ariza), a terrific leader and character guy at point (Derek Fisher), and that’s about it. They caught three breaks from February on — Kevin Garnett’s knee injury killing Boston’s season, Cleveland stupidly opting not to move Wally Szczerbiak’s expiring contract for one more piece, and Yao Ming breaking his foot in Round 2 — and cruised from there. You would not call them great, just very good. I would compare them to the 2003 Spurs, 2005 Spurs or 2006 Heat — the cream of a flawed crop of contenders.

Did they deserve to win the title? Of course. But they didn’t win because Kobe “really wanted this” and “trusted his teammates” and “finally figured it out” and all that revisionist crap.

If you’re playing the “Shut up, Kobe was better this spring!” card, your only real evidence is two signature Kick-Butt Kobe Finals Games (Games 1 and 5). But if you’re selling the “Kobe finally gets it” angle, then why was he gunning for 40 points at the tail end of a Game 1 blowout when he had already taken 30-plus shots? In Game 2, why did he go one-on-four for the winning basket (and miss) and ignore three wide-open teammates? Why did everyone so willingly gloss over the fact that, from the second quarter of Game 3 through overtime of Game 4, he missed 31 of 46 shots and kept shooting, anyway? Or that, near the tail end of Game 5, Kobe was so desperate to drain the clinching dagger that he clanged two 27-footers and allowed Orlando to climb within 12? Or that he didn’t have a single clutch moment in the Finals other than his sweet dish to Gasol during their frantic Game 4 comeback.

The entire piece is worth a read, especially for all of the Kobe apologists and Kobe haters out there. Simmons is quite complimentary towards the end.

I think Bryant altered his game somewhat, but it had as much (or more) to do with a much improved supporting cast as it did with any substantive changes to his mentality as the Lakers’ best player. He still took a number of bad shots, but he passed the ball more. The mentality to take over is still there and he doesn’t have complete trust in his teammates, but I’d say he has an appropriate trust in his teammates.

Simmons focuses on the change between last year and this year and, honestly, I don’t think Kobe changed much in that span. In the instant the Lakers acquired Pau Gasol, Kobe went from unhappy to happy. It was that acquisition that made Kobe believe that the Lakers really had the roster that could go the distance. His outlook was more positive and it (usually) translated to his on-court demeanor.

Tim Legler was on SportsCenter giving his take on the series:

“…really were only seriously challenged in one series, the Houston Rockets, who surprisingly took them to a seventh game. They did it with relative ease.”

Really? So one Orlando win and two Laker wins in OVERTIME isn’t a serious challenge?

I wrote the following last night after the game…

Unfortunately for the Magic, the competitiveness of these Finals is going to fade as time goes on. The Lakers’ ability to clinch in five games seems dominant on paper and people are going to forget that if not for two plays — Courtney Lee’s missed alley-oop in Game 2 and Jameer Nelson’s failure to contest Derek Fisher’s game-tying three in Game 4 — this series easily could have gone into Game 5 with the Magic leading, 3-1. But by losing tonight the way they did, most people are going to forget how evenly matched these two teams were.

…but I had no idea that the revisionist history would start so quickly.

Then there was Magic Johnson, talking about Kobe:

“Kobe proved all the doubters wrong and all the Kobe haters wrong.”

While he certainly proved those that doubted his ability to lead a team to an NBA championship to be wrong, how exactly do you prove a “hater” wrong? The New England Patriots have a lot of haters, but how does a Super Bowl win prove them wrong? The same goes for Duke or the Yankees. People don’t hate those teams because they can’t win a title, they hate them for reasons that are intrinsic to the franchise or program.

For Kobe, it is his insular, “above-it-all” personality early in his career, the perception that he ran Shaq out of town, the way he acts/acted towards his teammates, the alleged rape in Colorado, the $4 million dollar ring he bought for his wife so she’d forgive him for the alleged rape/cheating, and the carefully constructed public relations campaign we’ve been subjected to over the last few years.

Oh, and of course, there’s this face.

Kobe haters didn’t think that he couldn’t win a title, they just think he’s a dick. How does last night’s win against the Magic prove them wrong?

Trevor Ariza should not be so surprised. He played great. Anyway…

Kobe did it, after a few failed attempts and a whole lot of drama he has succeeded in leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the top of the NBA, and finally without Shaquille O’Neal there to throw his coattails under everyone. This marks Kobe’s 4th championship, tying O’Neal’s tally.

Other big news is of course Phil Jackson winning his 10th championship, making him the all-time leader for coaches. For more on that look a couple of posts down.

You can check the box score here and see the stats for yourself, but of all places, Canada.com seems to be the first place with a nice summary of the game:

Despite falling behind by nine points in the first quarter, the Lakers stepped on the gas in the second, reeling off 16 unanswered points, a run keyed by Trevor Ariza, and took a 56-46 lead at the half. The Lakers were in front by as many as 18 in the second half and didn’t allow the Magic a rally to send the series back to Los Angeles.

The 15 titles by the Lakers are two shy of Boston’s all-time record. It was also a sense of redemption for the Lakers, who lost in the Finals to the Celtics last year. It’s their first time raising the trophy since 2002, the last of three consecutive championships.

Over the course of this series, the Magic never seemed to have things go their way. In fact, watching the games, even when Orlando was winning by considerable margins I felt like it would only be a matter of time before the Lakers steamed back. The inconsistency of the Magic play didn’t instill any confidence in me, and it doesn’t seem to have done much for the Orlando players either.

Credit Kobe Bryant though, he may not have had any incredible performances in this series, but his excellence each night more than enough makes up for it. He’s a deserved Finals MVP.

I’m not going downtown tonight.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS has the video from Dwyane Wade’s late night appearance where he plays a prank on an unsuspecting fan.

- DEADSPIN has the story of the giant douche bag who tied up his girlfriend’s kids in the garage so he could hit the bar to watch the game.

- HUGGING HAROLD REYNOLDS was name-checked in John Gonzalez’s column about the Raul Ibanez steroid speculation, and the blog chimes in with its take. For Anthony Stalter’s measured take, click here.

- If you’re wondering what happened to Stephen A. Smith, he is doing a podcast on his website and AWFUL ANNOUNCING has it in YouTube form. He is in classic SAS form as he discusses Brett Favre.

- NO GUTS NO GLORY has quotes from Alonzo Mourning where he says that Phil Jackson isn’t really the coach of the 2009 Los Angeles Lakers.

Kobe Bryant went 11 for 31 from the field, and struggled to score down the stretch. Luckily for the Lakers, Derek Fisher continued to shoot well in the series and knocked down two huge threes, one at the end of regulation and one in the extra period to completely change the complexion of the game, and as a result, the series. (Lakers win, 99-91.)

But this one never should have gone to overtime. With a five-point lead and 0:39 to play, Rashard Lewis had a chance to push the lead to seven, but missed the 15-footer. Up three with 0:11 to play, Dwight Howard missed two free throws, either of which would have made it a two possession game. On the ensuing inbounds play, Jameer Nelson ponderously laid off of Derek Fisher who pulled up and hit the game-tying three. I don’t know if Stan Van Gundy had the foul on there, but at the very least Nelson should have been crowding Fisher to force the drive.

The Magic really lost this game at the start of the third quarter. Their 12-point halftime lead was gone within six minutes, and they didn’t even force the Lakers to expend a lot of energy to cut into the lead. Trevor Ariza led the charge with 11 quick points in the first half of the quarter.

Van Gundy will look at the box score and scratch his head. The Magic had 17 turnovers, and most of those were in the first half. Had they took care of the ball, they probably would have pushed the lead to 20. Orlando also missed 13 free throws, eight from Howard, who was just 6 of 14 from the line.

Bryant finished with 32 points, eight assists and seven boards, and had a good all-around game even though he didn’t shoot the ball well. Pau Gasol and Trevor Ariza pitched in with 16 apiece.

Hedo Turkoglu played a great game, posting 23 points, three assists and five boards. He put the Magic in a position to win, but his teammates couldn’t seal the deal. Turkoglu isn’t infallible, however. He did miss three free throws down the stretch. Howard posted 16 points, 21 rebounds and nine blocks, but he turned over the ball seven times. Outside of a tough three to give Orlando the lead in OT, Lewis was a no-show. He went 2 for 10 for six points. Mickael Pietrus once again played great off the bench, scoring 15 points and making life tough for Kobe.

For all intents and purposes, this series is over. The odds of the Magic winning three straight games (two in L.A.) are very, very long. After the tough loss in Game 2, they had to win all three games in Orlando to have a realistic shot at upsetting the Lakers.

I know there are a lot of people out there that aren’t very happy to see Kobe win another ring (and I’m one of them). But you have to give him credit for maturing enough to trust his teammates. He gave the ball up in a couple of key situations and they both led to Fisher threes.

It’s not quite over, but the Laker fans have reason to celebrate. Heck, most of them started planning the parade when L.A. won Game 2.