Kobe Bryant vs. Michael Jordan: An Honest Analysis from a Die-Hard Lakers Fan

I was tempted to digress on my last article, and dive right into this one, but I knew that a topic of this caliber requires more than a half-assed report on statistics. Not only will I draw a lot of heat and criticism, but this is a timeless debate that will continue even after Kobe’s name is immortalized in the Hall of Fame.

Frankly speaking, I didn’t want to write this article for just that reason. Too many haters. But it’s inevitable. Kobe is on the verge of surpassing Magic Johnson as the greatest Lakers of all time, and with that, he is now treading in the territory of simply the greatest of all time in basketball history. And as there are as many Kobe and MJ debates flooding the google search engines, what perspective can I share with you that you haven’t heard already?

It’s that Kobe never will be the Greatest of All Time.

Did I hear right? From a Lakers blogger?

This should raise some red flags among fellow Lakers fans. Before you crucify me at the stake, allow me to finish my thoughts.

Every debate has been played out. Kobe will never match Jordan’s stats. But then, Kobe fans will retaliate by arguing that Kobe’s first two years were spent coming off the bench. It’s unfair to compare. Another heated argument will spark as to the number of championships, and how Kobe’s first three are nullified by Shaq’s presence as the leader in the team. Then others will say Shaq couldn’t have done it without Kobe. It’s an endless cacophony of verbal disagreements.

It’s true. Kobe never will match Jordan’s numbers. No matter how hard he tries from now until the day he announces retirement, he can’t compensate for the seasons where he didn’t score as much, assist as much, steal as much. That’s why Kobe gave up the MVP race. It’s foolish at the age of 32 to chase a scoring title, or a MVP status when your body feels the undeniable impact of age with every smash, crack and thump that happen on the court. He’s already riddled with injuries as it is, so if Bryant played ball like Larry Bird did in his final years, his legacy might end sooner than you think.

Now, it’s not my belief that Kobe still couldn’t have achieved the G.O.A.T. title. Unlike Jordan, Bryant never started until two years after his draft, and to add to that, he always lingered in the shadows of a young Shaquille O’Neal entering his prime. Had Kobe been under similar circumstances as Jordan (i.e. becoming the face of the franchise since rookie year), he might have taken a very different route.

Looking at Kobe’s earlier years, he was notorious for being selfish and a ball hog. But so was Jordan. Like Kobe, Jordan could not trust his teammates early in his career. So after seven years of experimenting and trying to win on his own, Jordan finally figured out “The Secret” that Isaiah Thomas passed onto Bill Simmons: basketball is not about basketball. In Layman’s terms, basketball is a team game. It’s about people. Kobe learned the same lesson recently in 2008. After much struggle in trying to balance out dominating the game, and banking on opportunities for others to score, Bryant finally achieved his first real championship in 2009.

Let’s talk hypothetically. If Kobe was traded to the Lakers, and was placed into the starting line-up from day one, I believe his legacy would have been very different today. He would have had his struggles without a doubt. But by the time he’s figured it out, (let’s say 7, as Jordan took 7 years, and even Kobe took a little less than 7 years since the Shaq-Kobe split), Bryant would only be 25. If he had the right pieces around him, as he does now, is it so hard to believe that he could have taken 6 (or even 7) championships since then? We’ve seen what he could do when he takes over games. He beat the entire Mavericks team on his own. He single-handedly brought back the Lakers from a near 20-point deficit to the Raptors and scored an electrifying 81 points.

And would his legacy end there? Even now, Kobe may be on the downhill side of his career, but he’s as smart as ever; constantly changing and adapting his game to compensate for his debilitating athleticism. But he’ll never be able to prove that. And he knows it.

In one of his interviews on Media Day, someone asked Kobe if winning 6 championships will put him in the same ranks as Michael Jordan. He smiled, and brushed it off saying, ”It has nothing to do with Michael, it would be special to win again.” Remember what I said about Kobe not forgetting anything, in my previous article? This is Kobe Bryant. Deep inside, he earnestly believes he is better than Jordan. Such is his ambition. The same Kobe Bryant who so badly wanted to guard Jordan at the age of 19. The Kobe Bryant who dropped 33 points on Jordan in ’98. At that time, Kobe wasn’t thinking, “It has nothing to do with Michael.” It had everything to do with Michael.

Kobe knows the opportunity to prove himself in numbers has already fled, but even then, numbers can always be argued. If you wanted to defend the greatness of MJ by the numbers he carries, Oscar Robertson’s got him beat with several triple-double seasons. Seasons, not games. Jordan could never pass Chamberlain’s 100-point mark. Even Kareem holds the record for 6 MVP titles.  But we don’t give them the title of G.O.A.T. We give it to Jordan because it’s not about the stats.

So it’s not about the numbers. There’s nothing Kobe can prove by chasing numbers at this point. If Kobe went into his infamous “zone” and beat Chamberlain’s 100-point single game record, it says nothing about him except that he can still take over games. Even if Bryant somehow miraculously contends statistically with Jordan, it’s a meaningless chase unless he has rings to back it up. He’ll just be another Oscar Robertson. And after 34,000 minutes, it’s just physically not possible. So he pursues the one thing that can elevate his status closer to Jordan’s: championships.

It’s a smart move. No one really talks about Magic Johnson’s stats. We always talk about his five rings. We don’t discuss how many rebounds Shaq collected in his career. It’s his four championships. So in Kobe’s pursuit of his sixth, he can take himself one step closer to Jordan, and this is where it breaks my heart to admit what I’m about to say. That one step is a giant chasm between Bryant and Jordan.

One thing we have to acknowledge is that not even championships can get you the title of the Greatest Of All Time. Bill Russell ended his career with 11 championships in 13 seasons. And yet, MJ is King of the Hill with half of that number. Why? Because it’s all about how you dominated and impacted the game. There was no one as ruthless as Jordan. If he wanted a championship, he got it. Kareem with his all-time scoring list can’t compete with that. And this is where all the arguments for Kobe fail. In the absence of Pippen in game 6 of the ’98 finals, Jordan carried his team to his second three-peat championship: a feat Kobe couldn’t accomplish with Bynum and Ariza missing from the line up in 2008.

He blew his chance at G.O.A.T. in ’08, and in an embarrassing way, too:, with a 38-point loss. One important advantange (and perhaps the biggest) that Jordan has over Kobe is that he’s never lost a chance at a title. And that is the one area Kobe can never prove himself in. Kobe could have put up Jordan numbers. He could have gotten 5 MVP titles under the right circumstances. But the loss in 2008 has sealed off his chances of a G.O.A.T chase and this is the one topic of discussion that won’t allow for any arguments.

Could Kobe have been the greatest? I certainly believe so. The game has changed drastically since Jordan’s impact on the NBA. Kobe is facing a completely different ball game than Jordan was used to. More competitiveness. More international players. More restrictions. There is no argument as to the greatness of Kobe’s game in this ever-changing league, but is there a way for Kobe to redeem himself? I can’t say. Honestly, I don’t see many options, if any at all. The one factor that does stick out to me is if Kobe can consistently win championships until the final years of his career. Jordan couldn’t make the playoffs with the Wizards in his two year comeback, but if Bryant can show us he can still claim titles in spite of the inevitable effects of age, perhaps this could be his bargaining chip to claiming the Greatest of All Time.

But not now. Until Kobe retires and they hang up his jersey at Staples Center, this is all just generalization and hypothetical what-ifs. For the time being, Bryant has to accept the fact that he’s not the greatest. Not yet. But we’ll have to revisit this topic ten, twenty years from now, and see where Kobe truly stands, but I hope he can stand at the top when the time comes.