in NBA Articles
Why It’s Unfair To Compare Kobe To Michael Jordan
by Tim Furious
Kobe Bryant Is The Best Player In The Wrong Era
I hate comparing players from different eras. You can wax poetic about how Kobe Bryant doesn’t compare to Michael Jordan all you want, but what metrics are you going to use? Stats? Averages? Championship rings? Career totals? The truth is that nothing you can do can properly measure Michael Jordan against Kobe Bryant.
To put things simply, Kobe Bryant is in the realm of Michael Jordan from a talent standpoint. He’s just playing in the wrong era.
Jordan played at a time where you could win with one, maybe two, future Hall of Famers. Scottie Pippin was largely unaccredited during his career as MJ’s sidekick, even though now we’re starting to realize that Pippin was one-of-a-kind. Rarely will you find a player as talented as Pippin willing to assume a second fiddle role.
We can remember countless times that Michael Jordan put the Bulls on his back to help them win six titles under Phil Jackson. From 1990-93, Jordan vanquished the Lakers (Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Vlade Divac), Trail Blazers (Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Clifford Robinson) and Suns (Charles Barkley, Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle) to win his first three titles.
In 1996, Jordan beat Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton to win his fourth title. In back-to-back championships in 1997 and 1998, Jordan would lead the Bulls past the Utah Jazz led by Karl Malone and John Stockton to earn his fifth and sixth rings.
It’s apparent that Jordan faced great teams in the NBA Finals, but during his tenure there weren’t super teams. He played, in large part, during an era where teams had two superstars at the most and the talent in the league was more widespread than ever.
This isn’t meant to deflate what Jordan accomplished. His place as the greatest player of all time is untouchable in my eyes. It’s not just that he won six titles, five league MVP awards and six Finals MVP trophies but he also lifted the NBA in to the limelight by being one of the most marketable sports heroes we’ve ever seen.
Yet with the 2009-10 Lakers facing a championship loss after losing Game 5 of the NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics, all the Kobe Haters are racing to conclusions that Kobe is to blame for the Lakers’ woes. Listen, he’s the best player in the NBA. He’s won four NBA titles and a league MVP in 2008. Kobe’s detractors love to slam his name in to the dirt by comparing him to both Michael Jordan and LeBron James largely because he’s an easy guy to hate (the whole rape thing didn’t do his public image any favors).
Saying that Kobe isn’t deserving of the blame is dumb. It’s unfounded. It’s stupid. For the most part, it’s unnecessary. It’s also very untrue.
Never had Jordan faced a team that boasted three or four potential Hall of Famers in the NBA Finals. I’ve argued endlessly with friends and associates that Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen are virtually guaranteed spots in the Hall of Fame, while Paul Pierce is a dark-horse and Rajon Rondo’s career is too young. Still would you be surprised to see all four in the Hall of Fame? I’d be stunned, but I’d hardly be convulsing.
Bryant has averaged 29.6 points, 5.8 assists and 5.3 rebounds in the 2009-10 NBA Finals. At this point, what more could ask of him? He’s playing damn good basketball, hitting impossible shots and putting his team in positions to win. The Lakers are now 10-10-1 ATS in 21 post season games and certainly the finger should be pointed at Lamar Odom (7.6 points per game against Boston) and Ron Artest (7.8 points against Boston) instead of the Lakers’ fearless leader.
Just ask LeBron James how easy it is to win an NBA title without a good team. The Lakers are a very good team, but they aren’t stacked with talent. At the most, the Lakers have a six-man rotation with only one other player (Pau Gasol) being mentioned as a potential Hall of Famer, and even then it’s about 30-70 that Gasol even gets on the ballot unless they just allow the best players from every country in one day (keep your fingers crossed, Hedo!).
The NBA climate is much different than it was a decade ago. How well do you think Michael Jordan’s supposed infidelity, his obvious gambling problems, his exhausting ego and his failed efforts as an entrepreneur would’ve fared in the age of the internet, Twitter, sports bloggers, TMZ and paparazzi? Tiger Woods’ seemingly invincible reputation was derailed like a Japanese bullet train slamming in to the remaining population of panda bears.
We’re seeing an arms race in the league. The talent level of mid-carders who are in that $5-$10 million salary range is much higher than it was in the 80’s and 90’s. Sports science, nutrition, rehabilitation and training methods have improved ten-fold across the board making the mid-level talent of the NBA much better than it was ten or twenty years ago.
You also can’t negate the fact that there’s a 7-foot-6 Chinaman playing at an All-Star level and a guy who’s 5-foot-9 three-peating as a dunk champion – the league is filled with genetic freaks of nature that are maxing out their potential.
Kobe isn’t one of those freaks of nature. He’s a slender 6-foot-6 and 205-pounds, but his talent is all-universe. It’s just that, no matter how good you are, you can’t win a title on your own, or with just one, other good player. Not consistently, anyways.
LeBron James can’t win a title on his own, Kobe can’t win without Shaq or Pau, and even KG, Ray Allen and Pierce can’t win one without each other. That’s part of the reason that the free-agent frenzy of 2010 is so important. Putting LeBron on the same team as Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and potentially Chris Bosh is astounding and terrifying on paper, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re championship material.
That’s the way the NBA is in 2010, and moving forward. The competitive nature of the league has been amplified by an influx of tremendous physical talent which has raised the benchmark throughout the NBA. As great as Michael Jordan was, could he have done any better than Kobe given the circumstances of the modern NBA climate?
The Lakers and Kobe Bryant have the chance to decide their own fate at their home court of the STAPLES Center on Tuesday night when this series swings back to Los Angeles. The Lakers are already -6.5 point favorites heading in to the game. If they win, they’ll push this series to a definitive Game 7.
If they lose, don’t blame Kobe.
