Marc Jackson on ESPN the other day said that Kobe at the end of his career may be greater than Jordan. That got me to think. Offensively, IMHO, Kobe is not even close to where Jordan was in his heydays. Jordan made the game boring, because you he was going to score 40+ points to win the game. Also arguably, Kobe has a better supporting cast than Jordan ever had. Jordan didn't have a 7 footer as good as Gasol. Now, the question is defensively, is Kobe as good as Jordan? What do you think?
Jordan played defense back when you were allowed to play defense... Young Jordan played the passing lanes, he looked like a quick free safety. Fadeaway Mike played some physical man to man. Jordan wins at everything.
Jordan had another one of the 50 greatest players on his team though in Scottie Pippen. Jordan had some very good help too, quit trying to dismiss it so easily.
Kobe had Shaq. Plus Odom is like a Pippen lite. Wait till Kobe wins a couple rings w/o Shaq then lets compare.
I'm not saying that Kobe is better than Jordan I'm just saying Jordan didn't do it by himself either and had some great help around him and not just Pippen. Kobe might not have been option number 1 but both guys had some great help, Jordan didn't play 1 on 5.
Considering how young he was, and how massive a part of LA's title winning sides he was, I cant believe how many people have dismissed Kobe's championship rings in the last few days. You'd think he was a bench warmer that was carried to the titles! Keep in my, Shaq didnt have a ring until he has Kobe by his side! What it all comes down to is that, when you NEED points, and when the games on the line, and when its the championship minutes that really matter in the BNA, no body right now is even close to Kobe. He can take over a game completely, he can carry his team on his back single handedly and hey, he is back in the finals with a completely new lineup around his just a few years after his last set of rings. I think the fact that he is part way through his career and people are asking if he is as good as a now retired Jordan says alot about where Kobe is right now, and where he is going.
Kobe will universally be considered the better player when the people who didn't get to watch Jordan but grew up with Kobe will make up the majority of the NBA fandom. See the Jerry West vs. Kobe thread. I'd like to see how the poll would look if you subtracted the votes from people who never saw West play. As for defense, Kobe's always been overrated, Jordan as well, possibly. But offense alone settles the debate.
No IMHO it says a lot about how fast nba fans forget players who are retired. I have said this in a couple of the previous 10 threads about Kobe. First let him win a couple of championships as the main man of a team, and then we can see who was better Jordan or him. Since he hasn't been able to win any championship as the main man (and do not doubt that shaq was the main on that team, he won all the finals mvp's), i would not rate kobe among the top 10 players to ever play the game. So certainly not top 3 (which Jordan is without a doubt).
I'm not sure if you are insinuating that Jerry West was equal to or better than Kobe, but you would get laughed at for making that argument by anyone with any knowledge of the game.
We have to wait until his career is over. It's like at 60 percent. It's wayyyyy to unfair to ask this question. However, the stars are in place and he definitely has the potential to be better than MJ, but knowing his mindstate, he knows he needs to win 3-4 more championships in dramatic fashion(beating the Spurs and hopefully the Celtics would be a wonderful start before people can even begin to argue for ever, which they will... That's the reason I have always loved Kobe. In his mind, he HAS to win, other guys WANT to win. And that is the difference.
I'm not in a position to compare. I didn't see Jerry West play. That's why I didn't vote in that poll. But I bet I was one of the few. I did see Jordan late in his career, however and past his prime he was at least equal to what Kobe is now and Kobe probably won't get any better than he is now.
Will you guys please grow up and stop the Kobe threads? We already have one for this exact same subject.
IIRC, Bulls didn't pass the first round that year. Without Kobe, I will say the Lakers are still a playoff team in the West. I know Jordan had Quitten, young Horace Grant, Rodman, but Kobe had Shaq and Gasol, big difference.
Without Bynum, Kobe's Lakers have been a 500 team, now replace Kobe with Gasol, and you expect them to make playoff? You can be biased, but then again we don't have to argue.
We don't know that, but we do know how many games the Lakers would've won without Gasol. The average 40 and one series and out which had defined Kobe's career before Gasol and after Shaq. Let's face it. If you want to enshrine a player into Jordan's plateau, at least make sure part of thier prime years weren't spent racking up lottery/mid-40 win seasons with what was a decent team, especially seeing as how Kobe doesn't come close to Jordan's individual awards or statistics. Sure, Kobe still has a lot of basketball left to play. However, it will be and still is nearly impossible for him to reach Jordan's level. I mean, this is nothing on Kobe. Jordan's just way out there...here, to put a little perspective on it, Kobe has to do the following things to match Jordan. 1-Win SIX more Finals MVPs. 2-Win THREE more championships. 3-Win a DPOY. 4-Win FOUR more regular season MVPs. 5-Ramp his FG% up five points. Or at least get ONE 50+% FG season; by now it's probably too late for Kobe to get the six 50%+ FG seasons Micheal had in his prime. 6-Have at least one 6+ APG season (Kobe's career high APG is 6.0). Jordan had THREE 6+ APG seasons. 7-Have at least one 2.5+ SPG season (Kobe's career high SPG is 2.2). Jordan had SIX 2.5+ SPG seasons. 8-Ramp up his playoff scoring average...by NINE points. (Jordan averages 33.4...Kobe averages 24.2) I mean, man, just look at this list. Sure, Kobe has time...but this is going to be nearly impossible to accomplish. And that's only a few items, there are definetly more.
LOL dude not just that, Jordan has something like 8 scoring titles, that is damn near impossible and insane
Seriously - why do people make this comparison daily on CF? Kobe and Jordan aren't comparable players. Jordan is superior in every conceivable stat and he holds a huge advantage when looking at personal accolades.
