Kobe Bryant Belongs in Any List of Top 5 Greatest Players in NBA History

Don’t fall for the lists that rank Kobe Bryant out the top five. About six years ago, the mainstream outlets figured out that if they ranked Kobe outside the top 5 on their bi-annual lists, it would invoke one of the three most passionate fanbases in basketball (along with MJ and LeBron) and guarantee a reaction plus bring eyes to the rest of their recycled and outdated lists, in which they do other reaction ranks and cause havoc in a comment section. In 2014 when this started to become a thing, Ekam Nagra from Ball Don’t Stop asked Kobe to his face after a game how he felt about all the players calling him the best or second-best to Michael Jordan and this is how he replied: “Their opinion is the one that really matters the most, it’s the guys that you play against right, the people you respect, your peers. That means the most to me.”

Prior to the digital boom, the conversation used to be MJ and Kobe. He was always next to Mike in these all-time convos. New fans don’t know this but the energy even around 2012 and 2013 was that he’s next behind Jordan and still in striking distance to MJ’s six rings. To this day I believe MJ is 1 and Kobe is 1A just like four-time NBA champion Horace Grant said. Grant compared Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant during an AMA session on Reddit in 2020.

Horace Grant played with Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant during his successful 17-year NBA career, winning three NBA Championships with MJ on the Bulls and one with Kobe on the Lakers.

Grant gave a slight edge to Jordan over Bryant but also said that Kobe was “right there” when it came to matching MJ’s work ethic:

“In terms of his work ethic, he was right there with MJ. I have never seen two individuals work as hard in the offseason as they did during the season. They didn’t take a play off in practice, or anything like that. So I would say 1 and 1A, just giving MJ a little edge.”

Kobe Bryant is often said to be this generation’s Michael Jordan. The late Lakers icon admired Jordan, who became like a big brother to him and he followed his example, which helped him win five NBA Championships, two NBA Finals MVP awards and one regular season MVP award.

Bryant averaged 25.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.7 assists in 1,346 career games with the Lakers and is possibly the greatest Laker ever. Two jersey numbers in the rafters at the STAPLES Center prove it. Kobe was able to take over games in ways that not many players could.

His drive to win at any cost helped him succeed on and off the court. An 18-time NBA All-Star, five-time NBA champion and one-time NBA MVP, Kobe tragically passed away on January 26, 2020. Kobe’s game was influenced by Michael Jordan, he never denied it.

Kobe worked like he had no talent, then he played like he believed he was the best player in the world. Prepare with humility; perform with confidence, that’s one of the many lessons he taught us.

It’s hard to believe that Michael Jordan was cut from high school team as a sophomore but it really happened. Just a few years later, North Carolina claimed the 1982 national championship after MJ made the game-winning jumper against Georgetown. This was the beginning of Jordan’s legend. Hpe then won six NBA championships in six trips to the NBA Finals, as well as eight scoring titles, five regular season MVP awards, six NBA Finals MVP awards, three NBA All-Star game MVPs and one Defensive Player of the Year award.

Michael Jordan established a record by making the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team nine times and he was a 14-time NBA All-Star and a former NBA Rookie of the Year (1985). Jordan finished his career with 32,292 points, averaging 30.1 points in 1,072 games over 15 years (13 with the Bulls). He also had 6,672 total rebounds, 5,633 assists, 12,192 field goals and 5,633 steals.

MJ averaged 31.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists in 930 games over 13 seasons with the Bulls and he was the star of their legendary teams in the 90s. He averaged 28.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 38.8 minutes over 82 games to win the NBA MVP award in his final season with the Bulls in 1998.