Kobe Bryant: Disrespect Him, Call Him Older, He Wants You to

Oct. 18, 2011. 9.31 p.m.

It was this instant at which ESPN sowed the seeds for what would be quite the uproar.

We all know what the issue at hand is.

Over the last few weeks, a panelist of 91 journalists and basketball experts have been ranking NBA players on a scale of one through 10 based on overall ability. Needless to say, the list was rather boring and tedious when we were in the earlier stages. No disrespect to the man, but I don’t think many fans were interested to see Eric Dampier judged as being the 325th best player in the NBA.

Things began to get interesting as we got to the top.

Was Kendrick Perkins, possibly one of the top three post defenders in the league along with Dwight Howard and Joakim Noah, and the anchor in the middle of the best young team in the Western Conference, really just the 95th best player in the league?

Did a few playoff games in which J.J. Barea lit up poor defensive point guards like Derek Fisher and Mario Chalmers put him at 92, ahead of someone like OJ Mayo who’s shown us that he is capable of scoring 20 points a night regularly?

Even these were not such travesties.

People got very antsy when Blake Griffin came in at No. 10, though.

One season. One whirlwind season of highlight-reel dunks, scoring binges, no postseason and a 23-12 average was apparently enough for the columnists to justify ranking him over the likes of proven playoff beasts Carmelo Anthony and Steve Nash?

This was all fine. We could deal with it. Each to their own.

That attitude came to an end when the players ranked six through 10 were released.

According to the writers, Kobe Bryant is the seventh best player in the NBA.

No, you don’t need to go to your optometrist. You did read that correct.

What is to follow is not a frustration-filled rant of hatred by a clueless Laker fan. No, sir; I intend to properly break down and find out just what exactly was going through the heads of the voters who decided there are six individuals on this planet who are more dangerous with a basketball in their hands than Kobe Bean Bryant.

Versatility and Efficiency

As the aim of this article is to be as objective as possible, let’s have a look at the most basic argument possible.

Kobe’s stats for the 2010-2011 season:

25.3 points per game. 5.1 rebounds per game. 4.7 assists per game. 45 percent shooting from the field, 33 percent from the three point line and 83 percent from the free-throw line.

He did this averaging 33.9 minutes per game.

I’ll let you swallow that. The man was on the bench for 29 percent of the game time. He could have checked out before the end of the third quarter every game and still finished with a 25/5/5 average, something only one other player in the league has been able to match this season: LeBron James.

Don’t worry, there will be more on the self-proclaimed King later.

So to begin with, Bryant was able to put up all-around numbers that five of the six players ranked ahead of him were unable to, and he did so while averaging 3.7 minutes less than the mean minutes played per game by James, Wade, Paul, Howard and Nowitzki.

How’s that for efficiency and versatility?

Scoring

Now, there are people saying that Kobe is no longer as unstoppable a scorer as he once was. He’s lost a step, they claim. Defenders are given more trouble with the likes of Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant than they are with Mr. Bryant.

I have a simple statistic for you.

Kobe Bryant led the NBA in scoring per minute.

I shouldn’t have to say more on this topic, but there are three things certain in life: death, taxes and that there will be haters commenting on Bleacher Report articles. I would rather not give them ammunition.

The statistic is honestly mind-bogglingly simple. It means that Kobe was essentially the most effective scorer in the league.

Had everyone played the same number of minutes, Kobe would have scored more points per game than anyone else. Aforementioned Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant included.

People argue that the lesser number of minutes he plays should contribute to his lower ranking.

I would advise those people to read the title and objective of the ESPN ranking system. They were ranking the best players in the NBA. Not the most durable.

That means that in terms of ability, Kobe is still the best scorer in the league. And by quite a margin might I had. Per minute, he averaged more than five percent more points than Kevin Durant and 8.5 percent more points per game than LeBron James.

No one can put the ball in the basket as well as Kobe Bryant.

Defense

We all know that, yes, scoring is not the solely most important aspect of the game. If that were the case, Allen Iverson would have been anointed one of the five greatest players in NBA history quite a while ago. Let’s look at defense.

To begin with, I will not be using blocks and steals to judge defense. Even though Bryant still averages a respectable steal and a half per game, these two stats are very tricky and misleading.

For example, if a player attempts to steal the ball five times in a game, he may be successful twice. On the other three occasions, he is left in a vulnerable defensive position. His man gets an easy look at the basket. If there was a stat that accounted for missed steals, I would have made use of that, but that is not the case.

The best way to judge a player’s overall capabilities on defense is the Defensive Rating metric. It calculates the points allowed by a player per 100 possessions. Unsurprisingly, Dwight Howard was the best defensive player in the league by this metric, allowing just 94 points per 100 possessions.

Out of the players ranked above in ESPN’s list Bryant, only Howard, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade had a better Defensive Rating than him. Wade and James were at 102 each. Chris Paul and Nowitzki finished in a virtual tie with Kobe at 105. Kevin Durant, never known for his stopping abilities in any case, was at 107.

So to those who say that Kobe is not as good a defender as the other elites of the game, I have three words: Stats don’t lie. At least, these type of logical and sophisticated stats do not. We can all agree that Howard is far and away the best defender in the league. But among the other players in the top seven, all are more perimeter oriented and Bryant is neck and neck with them in defensive ability.

And just another note: Bryant was voted to the All-Defensive First Team for the fifth straight season, along with James, Howard, Rondo and Garnett. The latter two do not feature in any argument about the league’s best player, so let’s look at the others: Chris Paul was a guard on the All-Defensive Second Team. Wade, Durant and Nowitzki were nowhere to be found.

The All-Defensive Teams are selected by all 30 coaches across the NBA. Thirty men paid millions of dollars a year for their knowledge of basketball. Knowledge that I daresay is greater than anyone who will disagree with it. In a nutshell, if the coaches think that Kobe is a better defender than the above mentioned players, he is.

"Selfishness"

One more point that I tire of is Kobe being called selfish.

He hogs the ball, detractors say. He shoots too much, and that takes away from his team’s effectiveness. He should average more assists.

Kobe averaged just under five assists per game last season. That’s good to top the Lakers, for starters, even though he has superior passers such as Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol who have quite a few touches themselves.

The main point, however, is that Bryant’s passing ability is not accurately reflected by his assists per game average. The reason for this is very simple.

The triangle offense.

The triangle offense has been employed by Phil Jackson and Tex Winter since 1989-1990 in Chicago and Los Angeles to great effect. Jackson coached one of the teams playing in 13 of the last 20 NBA Finals series.

The reason for the effectiveness of the triangle offense is its emphasis on movement. Every pass is followed by multiple cuts, screens and more passes. If Kobe catches the ball on the wing from Fisher, who then cuts to the edge of the key, Sports Science has calculated that there are 340 shot options in the next five seconds based on the next movements and passes.

In order for the Lakers to be firing on all cylinders on offense, the ball needs to be moving. The triangle offense flourishes when Kobe is making plays according to the structure of the triangle offense and not dribbling on the perimeter until someone gets free due to a screen or driving and then kicking it out ala the manner in which the likes of James and Paul (the only two players who had more assists per game than Kobe who were ranked above him) get their assists.

So to be brief, it is because Kobe has been playing by the team’s structure that it has been so successful. His style of play does not take away from his team; it improves it exponentially.

The icing on the cake is an anecdote from the career of a player who is the benchmark for all 2-guards, no, all players that have ever dribbled a basketball.

Michael Jordan’s last season playing outside the triangle offense was 1988-1989. He averaged a phenomenal eight assists per game. The Bulls, however, finished only 47-35 despite his 32.5 ppg average.

Next season, Phil Jackson joined and implemented the triangle offense. Jordan’s assists dropped to six per game.

In fact, through the eight seasons he played in the triangle offense, Jordan averaged 5.1 assists per game. Kobe has been playing in the triangle offense his entire life, and has a career average of 4.7 assists.

I rest my case.

Athleticism

People call Kobe Bryant slow. They call him old. They say he has no athleticism left.

I would ask you to kindly watch the video that is embedded in this slide.

Also, have a look at this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjWNZeXuVoU

And this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Iat2Rtbi8

Still not athletic according to you?

Clutch Factor

Last but not least, we come down to the very essence of basketball: winning games.

That is what Kobe Bryant does, plain and simple. He comes through when it matters most, jaw jutting out with an ugly scowl on his face. He is the man who was picked by 79 percent of the general managers in the league to take the last shot of the game. He is the man who hit seven buzzer beaters in the 2009-2010 season. He is the man who made a contested three in the last few minutes of game six of the 2010 Western Conference finals and then tapped the opposing coach on the behind, almost as if to say, “Don’t try defending me. You won’t succeed.”

Again, people still call him out on his clutch performances. Don’t ask me how that is possible, but I’ll even counter those claims.

According to 82games.com, clutch time is defined as the fourth quarter or overtime, less than five minutes left, neither team ahead by more than five points.

And by the same source, no surprises: Kobe led the league in scoring during clutch time. Per 48 minutes of clutch time, he averaged 49.8 points. Derrick Rose was well behind, in second place, at 47.8. Dirk Nowitzki, the man who choked in the playoffs for eight straight seasons, the man who many claim has usurped Bryant as the best clutch player in the NBA, was in a far off eighth place, averaging 42.9 points per 48 minutes of clutch time.

He's Gonna Prove It.

Lastly, I think what most epitomizes the stupidity of Bryant being ranked No. 7 will be his reaction to it. When games will be played, expect to see a Bryant with a point to prove.

And make no mistake, he will prove it.