Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce -
Milestones accomplished in the 2010-2011 season (Part-1)
Phil Jackson
The hall of famer Phil Jackson had an abysmal end to his splendid career after he finally called it quits followed by Los Angeles Lakers dramatic crash down against the eventual NBA champions Dallas Mavericks. Although Phil failed
to guide his team towards a three-peat, however the legendary coach marked yet another huge milestone in the history of the National Basketball during the 2010-2011 season.
On 29th October 2010, Jackson won his 1100th game in a regular season meeting against the Phoenix Suns and became the fifth NBA coach ever to reach that mark. Phil went on to gather 55 more victories and helped Lakers
finish as the second seeds in the Westerns Conference.
After procuring the fifth rank in the NBA's all-time coaching wins list with 1155 wins, Jackson’s stride to end his inspiring career with an NBA title remained unfulfilled. The retirement of one the greatest basketball coach came
shortly after the Los Angeles Lakers were swept out of the post season by the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference semi-finals.
Kobe Bryant
Five-time NBA Champion and Los Angeles Lakers legendary shooting guard Kobe Bryant furnished his resume with another record during the 2010-2011 season.
On 11th November, while playing against the Denver Nuggets, the All-Star Bryant blistered away with 34 points to reach his 26000 career points mark at the age of 31, becoming the youngest player ever to accomplish the
landmark. Bryant kept on firing on all cylinders till the end of the regular season and finished with 27,868 points which makes him the leading active player in points after the big man Shaquille O’Neal retired from NBA this offseason.
Despite of Kobe Bryant’s dominating performance throughout the year; Lakers struggled in the play-offs and failed to land third successive NBA title. However Kobe Bryant continued to set milestones in his career and was one of
the biggest highlights of the last season.
Kobe is the best active player in NBA and a big reason for Los Angeles Lakers unyielding success since more than a decade. In the coming years, the league can expect many more milestones from the Black Mamba. Bryant is also now
ranked sixth in the NBA All-time scoring list.
Paul Pierce
Even though the Boston Celtics failed faded away towards the end of the regular season and eventually bowed out in the Eastern Conference Semifinals at the hand of the mighty Miami Heat, the captain of the team Paul Pierce picked
up the limelight with his record setting performance during last season.
Playing against the Milwaukee Bucks on 3rd November 2010, the prolific small forward erupted with 28 points and became the 37th player in the history of the league to reach a career mark of 20,000 points.
The season continued to shower its blessing on the veteran forward as he finished with 21410 points which placed him as the sixth active leading scorer in NBA.
The legendary Larry Bird is only 381 points ahead from the Boston Celtics superstar and if Paul continues in the same vein, he will surely surpass Bird’s record pretty soon.
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