(YAHOO) Step Aside, Kobe Bryant: Houston Rockets' James Harden Is the Best Shooting Guard

anthony1604 · Aug 4, 2013

COMMENTARY | There comes a time in every great player's career when he is surpassed by one of his younger peers.

In my generation, we saw Michael Jordan retire (three times, but let's just call the second retirement the real retirement for argument's sake), and we saw Kobe Bryant emerge as the best shooting guard in the league. Now, it's time that Bryant loses that title and hands the reigns over to one of the league's best young stars: James Harden.

Harden was absolutely spectacular last year for the Houston Rockets, while Bryant was part of a Los Angeles Lakers team that went through one of the more disappointing seasons in NBA history. As Bryant has gotten older, he's become more of diva, thus making it harder for talented guys to play next to him.

Last year was the culmination of everything wrong with Kobe Bryant. He struggled to fit in with his bigs (Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol), threw his coach under the Buss (pun intended), and, to top it all off, he ruptured his Achilles with only a few games left in the regular season. Bryant was joined by a declining, but still offensively potent Steve Nash, and one of the three best centers in the NBA in Howard. but Bryant struggled to be the backbone of the team amongst a host of injuries and the media frenzy that surrounds Lakers basketball.

On the other hand, Harden led the upstart Rockets to their first playoff berth in four years while becoming a bona fide superstar despite his lack of excessive length or athleticism. In his first year as a starter, Harden averaged 25.9 points, 5.8 assists, and 4.9 rebounds per game, and he played a big part in Howard's decision to leave Los Angeles. The smoothness and intelligence of Harden's game is a thing of beauty to watch, as the 23-year-old lefty possesses a knack for scoring in every imaginable way.

From his 3-point shooting to his ability to finish through contact to his late-game prowess to his staggering Euro-step, Harden has asserted himself as the most creative scorer in the league. On top of his scoring ability, Harden is an underrated passer and ball handler, which will become more apparent as the talent around him improves.

While the notion that Harden is now a better player than Bryant may seem ridiculous to some, Bryant's rise from exciting young player to the best shooting guard in the league to the best player in the league, was also gradual. In 2000, when the Lakers won their first title, Bryant asserted himself as the best shooting guard in the post-Jordan era. However, it wasn't for another few years before Bryant became a more dominant player than Shaquille O'Neal. Once Shaq's impact on the game lessened due to age (and weight), Bryant had the Lakers all to himself. Finally, somewhere around 2005 or 2006, Bryant became the best player in the league (although he most likely thought he was since the age of 8).

Within a few years, though, Bryant was surpassed by LeBron James as the best player in basketball, but putting a year on that isn't so simple. My personal opinion is that LeBron took the crown around 2008, while many argue that Bryant was the best until LeBron put a ring on his finger in 2012.

Once Kevin Durant hit his prime, which was during the 2009-10 season when he averaged 30.1 points per game and won his first of three straight scoring titles, he became the league's best pure scorer -- a title that Bryant held for a number of years.

Finally, we've reached the point where Bryant loses his crown as the league's best shooting guard, and James Harden receives it. This doesn't mean that Harden will have a better prime than Bryant, or that he'll have more rings than Bryant, because that question can't be answered until the two of them have their jerseys hanging from the rafters. Bryant's demise was inevitable, and two years ago, no one in their right mind thought that Harden had a chance at rivaling Bryant for the league's best 2. However, with Bryant's latest injury and age, the nightmare that was last year for the Lakers, and the promise that Houston showed last season, the argument can now be made.

They say that when superstars begin to decline, they're usually the last ones to know. Judging by Bryant's overall demeanor and his Jordan-like competitive nature, he'll probably be on social security before it actually hits him that he's no longer the best. There's no doubt that Bryant is one of the greatest players of all time, even if his first three rings were as the Robin to Shaq's Batman.

For all the greatness that Bryant has shown over the years, there have been plenty of bumps in the road: his ugly breakup with Shaq, the years between his third and fourth titles, his inability to adjust his game to his team's personnel (except when it meant shooting more), and the fact that he couldn't win a title without Phil Jackson, to name a few.

I know there are a lot of people out there shaking their heads, but Kobe's reign as the king of the 2 is over. There's a new sheriff in town, and, my god, he has a great beard.
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J Sizzle · Aug 4, 2013

Already posted. IB4TL

AndySwanny · Aug 4, 2013

Sorry dude. Already posted.

anthony1604 · Aug 4, 2013

damn my bad didnt see it anywhere

Voice of Aus · Aug 4, 2013

hes a question regarding these two..

Who would you take with a tied game with 2 minutes to go in the 4th if both have the same supporting cast pre kobe injury?

To me i hate to say it but dam kobe is clutch i hate him more than most but you gotta respect his game.

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(YAHOO) Step Aside, Kobe Bryant: Houston Rockets' James Harden Is the Best Shooting Guard

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