Don't Call It Hate, Call It Being A Realist

(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

I find it highly illogical that when someone puts up an argument in regards to Kobe Bryant and it's not one that's going to shine a light positively on Kobe Bryant, his fans in a rush to pass judgment over you begin by calling you a "hater."

Their beliefs are that you do not believe that Kobe is a great player, which isn't the case. It just happens that after watching Kobe the realization is the fact that he'll never be what the media portrays him as.

It's not Kobe's fault. It's the media's fault for trying to push this idiotic notion that every talented player needs to be compared to Michael Jordan. Before Kobe it was Jerry Stackhouse and Vince Carter.

Why were Stackhouse and Carter compared to Jordan? The answer was that they were both extremely talented players who came out of the same college as Jordan—the University of North Carolina—but even though Stackouse and Carter have had solid careers, they truly were never going to be Jordan.

Remember Harold Miner? He was called "Baby Jordan" because of his ability to dunk the basketball, but Miner never did anything impressive except for dunking the ball. 

At the time these players came out, it was about the athletic ability and dunking the ball. Not much else. It was like the other accomplishments of Jordan were thrown out based on Stackhouse's, Carter's, and Miner's ability to dunk the ball.

When Kobe came into the league he was also another player that was considered the next Jordan. Arguably there are similar characteristics between the two, but there's never going to be another Jordan.

Bryant is going to be Bryant, Jordan is going to be Jordan, Miner is going to be Miner, Stackhouse went from athletic scorer to role player, and Carter...well Carter is Carter.

Recently, there was a slide show titled "5 Reasons why Kobe's the GOAT." I followed with more of a sarcastic slideshow stating the "5 Reasons why Kobe's not the GOAT."

Kobe fans are about to put Kobe on a pedestal of greatest player in NBA history, when his numbers don't add up to it. I'm pretty sure a lot of Kobe fans are Laker fans in general as well, so they choose to ignore the rich history of the Laker franchise.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Wilt Chamberlain played for the Lakers franchise. You can take the name Chamberlain out because he played only a few years for the team, but he still is considered one of the greatest players in NBA history regardless of his team afiliation.

Even with the current crop of players that have been around with Kobe ,there's an argument that Kobe would be tough to be considered the greatest of his era as well. There are Tim Duncan, Shaq (who was a teammate), and Kevin Garnett.

We've learned not everything is about the number of championships a player has. Karl Malone is one of the greatest power forwards in NBA history and he has no rings. That's because there's a difference between player stats and team stats.

Even though Bill Russell has 11 championship rings he is not considered to be the greatest player in NBA history. He was also blessed with having a great supporting cast as well so his numbers aren't as impressive as Chamberlain's or Abdul-Jabbar's!

When you look at Kobe, he is just 31 years old, so he's going to keep up putting up great numbers individually. Yet, if we're talking right now, Kobe's not the greatest and it will take a while for him to even get to that point.

Could Kobe become the greatest? Time will tell and other factors are involved as well. In time will people remember Kobe for his immaturity when he first came into the league, his lack of leadership skills, his questionable shot selections at time, and his inconsistent jumper? 

The answer is no, fans are going to look at numbers. The numbers will not lie. There's a reason why NBA fans don't think John Havlicek is better than Kobe. His numbers aren't on par.

It's also time to set personal feelings aside and just look at the numbers. Although, Mark Twain did say there were three types of lies. "A lie, damn lie, and statistics."

Yet, when comparing players those numbers are really what proves who were the better player. It doesn't take into account other factors like rule changes, types of defenses, less skills involved, expansion teams, etc....

In this the most common comparison between Bryant is Jordan. So, let's take a look at the numbers both regular season and in playoffs.

Regular season stats

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