Kobe Bryant: The Greatest Los Angeles Laker Ever?

Never in my life will I claim to know more about the game of basketball than "The Logo" himself, but Jerry West stating that Kobe Bryant is "the best Laker ever" is a bit much.

Anyone that knows me knows that in the past decade Bryant has surpassed Scottie Pippen and Shaquille O’Neal and my second favorite player of all time (nobody could ever top MJ), but even still I can’t let my bias get in the way of good sense.

Kobe Bean Bryant will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer—no question about that. He is one of the greatest players in the post-Jordan era (the others are Tim Duncan and Shaquille O’Neal because all three of them have four rings), but as of right now he is not the best player to ever wear the purple and gold.

Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar not only have five rings and an almost endless amount of all-time stats, but they’ve accomplished the greatest thing a Laker could ever do—something that wasn’t ever done until they came around—beat the Celtics to win the NBA Finals.

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Ray DeVone aka Static is a Jabberhead and an SJ contributing author

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