Ranking players in such a way is great for conversation and a great tool for providing context; measuring the greats of different generations offers fans a historical framework for viewing sports. It helps us understand when we are seeing a truly transcendent athlete versus merely a very good one.
With Kobe Bryant recently hoisting another NBA Championship trophy, the discussion of his greatness and his all-time place is unavoidable. But first we need to break the conversation down into more manageable categories. Without doing so, the list of players to compare to Kobe gets rather unmanageable. So first let’s look at Kobe against the best players of his era, meaning post-Bird, Magic, and Jordan.
As I see it, and this is a critical phrase because subjectivity is an unavoidable force affecting this conversation, there are a handful of players that we should compare to Kobe from this generation; call them his contemporaries. Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade seem to be the only players of the post-Jordan era worthy of discussing alongside Bryant in an all-time great type of conversation. Now that we have some players to compare Kobe to, we need some set of standards for ranking these players. Championships must be the top criteria, although clearly not the only one. If I were to exclusively judge based on titles, Derek Fisher would enter this conversation despite never making an All Star game, and LeBron would never enter the conversation at all. Yet clearly the point of competition is to win and who wins the most thusly is the most proficient at the art of competition.
The next category is accolades (All Star selections, awards, All-NBA, etc.) with durability factoring into the discussion as well. Then come statistics which are so valuable because of their relative objectivity. Finally, and most subjectively, is the eye ball test, which I use to indicate how I felt while watching each one play. How much I felt each player controlled the outcome of the game they were in and their ability to feel the pulse of a game and dictate possessions, especially in the playoffs.
Garnett cannot be on the same level as Bryant simply because of the number of titles he has won in comparison to Kobe. You could reasonably argue that Garnett could have three-peated had he played with Shaq, but could he have won two more titles as the alpha dog? Besides, just assuming that Garnett would have come out with four more titles than he currently has simply by being a Laker is an extreme assumption and an exercise in uncontrolled revisionist history. They each have one MVP, and have split when they met in the finals, but Kobe has four more rings and you simply cannot argue with that.
Garnett cannot be on the same level as Bryant simply because of the number of titles he has won in comparison to Kobe. You could reasonably argue that Garnett could have three-peated had he played with Shaq, but could he have won two more titles as the alpha dog? Besides, just assuming that Garnett would have come out with four more titles than he currently has simply by being a Laker is an extreme assumption and an exercise in uncontrolled revisionist history. They each have one MVP, and have split when they met in the finals, but Kobe has four more rings and you simply cannot argue with that.
Duncan gives Kobe a serious run in the all-time discussion, and may ultimately fall short for superficial considerations. Many hold his low key demeanor against him; his game has zero sex appeal to it. However, effectiveness is the measure of a basketball player and Duncan was perhaps the most coolly efficient player of his generation. He has won two MVPs and four titles. Yet he falls behind Bryant because his scoring was never in Kobe’s neighborhood, he has one less title and could easily fall further behind, and Duncan’s Spurs were dominated by Kobe’s Lakers repeatedly when they played head-to-head in the playoffs. Additionally, Duncan, while a dominant force, did not take over a game and close it down at the end like Kobe has and does.
Shaq falls behind Kobe because Kobe has now won two titles without him, and because Shaq was more dominant than he was great. He never improved his free throw shooting, and for as much criticism as Kobe gets for being a difficult teammate, Shaq has now played on five separate teams and feuded with nearly every coach he has had. Additionally, Shaq’s abilities have declined steadily for the past six years and he has not been able to adapt his game like Kobe has. Nowitzki and Nash cannot match Bryant in numbers or championships, and although they have three MVPs between them, it is nearly futile to argue that they can be in the same historic class as the five-time champion Bryant. Nowitzki and Nash have one finals appearance between them, whereas Kobe has seven appearances and five titles.
Wade is a great player but has missed many games due to injury, while Bryant has been a model of durability over his fourteen year career. Wade has one title to Kobe’s five, and simply does not have the list of accolades to compare with Kobe.
LeBron has the ability to have perhaps the most impressive numbers outside of Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain in NBA history. And while it is clearly too early to write the book on LeBron’s career, he is six finals appearances and five titles behind Kobe. Heading into his eighth season, LeBron needs to start adding rings soon if he hopes to come anywhere near Kobe’s championship total. Numbers are great, and important in this discussion, but to be in the all-time debate you need multiple titles.
Thus far I have argued that Kobe is clearly the best player among his contemporaries, and while you could maybe argue Duncan, and might eventually insert LeBron into the argument down the road, I feel secure with Kobe’s place in his generation, and he is not nearly done yet. Duncan appears to be on a severe decline with an aging team, so he will likely continue to fall behind Kobe for the rest of his career.
Thus far I have argued that Kobe is clearly the best player among his contemporaries, and while you could maybe argue Duncan, and might eventually insert LeBron into the argument down the road, I feel secure with Kobe’s place in his generation, and he is not nearly done yet. Duncan appears to be on a severe decline with an aging team, so he will likely continue to fall behind Kobe for the rest of his career.
With Kobe carrying his generation’s banner we need now to compare him to the greats of other NBA generations. Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird represent the best of the 80s and 90s. Isaiah Thomas, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, Gary Payton, John Stockton, and Charles Barkley are also interesting names but clearly fall short of Bryant’s résumé.
Bird averaged twenty-six points and eight boards a game, numbers pretty darn similar to Kobe’s career marks. Yet he won two less titles than Bryant and with Robert Parrish, Dennis Johnson, Kevin McHale, and Bill Walton as teammates he had a much better surrounding cast than Kobe has ever had, even considering the last three years.
I place Kobe above Magic as well despite their very similar career accomplishments and numbers, including Magic’s three MVPs compared to Kobe’s single MVP honor. Magic averaged nineteen points and eleven assists for his career, while Kobe has averaged twenty-five and five. Neither player has the clear edge there and they both have five career titles. So given the MVP deficit, how can I put Kobe ahead of Magic? In a word, “help.” Magic had two teammates counted among the top fifty players of all-time in James Worthy and Kareem. He also had great role players that could have been stars elsewhere in Michael Cooper and Byron Scott. A lineup of Magic, Coop, Scott, Worthy, and Kareem would be like if Kobe had played with this lineup for the bulk of his career: Fisher, Kobe, Artest, Gasol, and Shaq, and that probably still does not give Kobe as good a cast as Magic. Kobe goes behind Jordan because Jordan’s numbers were better by a substantial margin; he won five more MVP’s than Kobe, one more title, never lost in the finals, and was perhaps an even more intense competitor than Kobe. Additionally, he was the lead dog on every team he ever played on and did not have the insane amount of talent surrounding him that Magic did.
Kareem goes ahead of Kobe because he played twenty-two years, is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, has six MVPs and six championships. In fact, on numbers, Kareem could easily be placed ahead of Jordan, but because of Jordan’s iconic status that is unlikely to happen.
So from the 80s forward my Mt. Rushmore in this order is Jordan, Kareem, Kobe, Magic. But now we have to go back further and consider Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Moses Malone, Julius Erving, Bob Cousy, and Bill Russell. I have to punish this era slightly because there were far less teams and thus winning titles was moderately easier.
West, Baylor, and Chamberlain all fall behind Kobe because they played with each other (an insanely talented team) and yet were beaten nearly every year by the Celtics and won only 1 title together. Wilt had incredible numbers and was perhaps the most dominant singular force in basketball history, but winning matters and he did not win enough especially in an era with so few teams.
Oscar Robertson averaged a triple double over the course of a full season and averaged near that for his career. However he only won a single title, and again it was in an era with much less competition and fewer teams.
Dr. J was a revolutionary force in basketball and reserves a special place for his part in revolutionizing the game, but does not have the list of accomplishments or the all-around game to be mentioned above Kobe. He had a spectacular ABA career winning four MVP’s and three titles, but in the NBA he won only one title despite playing with another all-time great…Moses Malone was as dominant a big man as there was in his era averaging twenty-four points and seventeen boards a game. However he won only a single title and much of his career was spent in the ABA.
Cousy won eight championships as a part of a great Celtic team, but was not the lead dog on his team and played with a handful of other Hall of Famers, and was on the severe decline for the last few titles his teams won. His dribbling style was a vision of the future, but he was not the offensive or defensive force that Kobe is, and was never the best player on a title team.
Russell goes ahead of Kobe because he was the original winner, he coached his team and played on it at the same time, was the best defender and rebounder in NBA history, and has a whopping eleven total rings. ‘Nuff said.
So finally after our odyssey through NBA history (an inexact science at best, I know) we have the top 5 all-time list and it goes in this order: Jordan, Kareem, Russell, Kobe, and Magic. Not bad.
I now do a little projecting here figuring that Kobe will likely be a top player for 2-3 more years and will at least continue to be effective for 4-6 more years. If Kobe can stay at a high level for five more years, he could become the NBA’s all time leading scorer, add another title, perhaps another MVP, and move behind Kareem with the second most All Star Game appearances of all time. It is not inconceivable that Kobe could be a top-two player in NBA history by the time he hangs up his sneakers, and whether you hate Kobe or not, his résumé will be nearly impossible to refute if he plays until age 36 or so. To finish this piece, let’s take a look at Kobe’s career accomplishments.
NBA Titles - 5
NBA MVPs - 1
NBA Finals MVPs - 2
Scoring Titles - 2 (including a season where he averaged an immaculate 35 per game)
All Star selections - 12
All Star MVPs - 3
8-time All-NBA first team
2-time All-NBA second team
2-time All-NBA third team
8-time first team All-Defense
2-time second team All-Defense
Named to NBA All-Rookie Second Team (1997)
1997 Slam Dunk Contest Champion
81 points in a single game (2nd all time)
7 NBA Finals appearances
12th on the all-time scoring list (with a chance to move as high as 6th by the end of next year)
--from Adam
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