With Kobe finally winning his own title last weekend, the aftermath naturally centered on his place among the all-time greats. No question Bryant belongs in the mix, or that this ring elevated his status even more among the league’s greats, but where exactly does he fall relative to the history of his position, his franchise, and the league as a whole?
Kobe as a Shooting Guard
Kobe’s position here is most clear-cut. Like everyone else, he’s a level below Michael Jordan but beyond that, there’s only one player at his level – the man who drafted him, Jerry West. But with all due respect to Kobe, he still ain’t The Logo.
Too often we lose perspective of just how great the legends from the past are, and this is true of West perhaps more than anyone. He played before the invention of the 3 point line, meaning that his 27.0 ppg scoring average – already good for 6th all time – would not only have been enhanced, but very well could have become the greatest of all time had he played in a later era. Similarly, West is regarded one of the greatest defenders in league history, yet even this designation isn’t fully appreciated because the league only started tracking steals during his last year in the league; incredibly, at age 36, West still averaged 2.6 swipes per game. For his career, West averaged 27.0 ppg/6.7 apg/5.8 rpg on 47% shooting – each of which surpasses Kobe.
Come playoff time, West got even better. His scoring average of 29.1ppg is third best in league history, and he made the playoffs in all but one of his NBA seasons. Some of these campaigns were just downright silly, such as 1964-1965, during which he averaged 40.6 ppg while shooting 44.2% from the field and 89% from the line.
West’s detractors try to mitigate the significance of these achievements by pointing out that despite nine Finals appearances, he only has one ring to show for his efforts. Of course, West’s Lakers continually ran into the buzz saw that was Bill Russell’s Celtics, a group chock full of future Hall of Famers and who, by the way, might be the greatest dynasty in the history of sports. West is, however, the only player in league history to win Finals MVP on a losing team for his performance in the 1969 Finals.
Overall, Kobe’s one advantage over West is having three more rings, but his competition was nothing compared to West’s. As amazing as Kobe is, The Logo was better across the board and truth be told, enjoyed a career closer to Jordan’s than Bryant’s has been to West’s.
Kobe as a Laker
This is one is pretty tough, because the list of all-time great Lakers is a very long and distinguished one. Ultimately, I put Bryant 6th behind the following players:
*Jerry West, for reasons we’ve already discussed.
*Magic Johnson – Perhaps the greatest Laker (if there is such a thing), as well as the greatest point guard of all time and probably one of the five greatest players ever. Kobe’s good, but not that good.
*Wilt Chamberlain – The single most physically dominant player of all time. Owns the league record for highest scoring and rebounding averages both on the single season and career levels, as well as the distinction of being the only man to score more points in a single game than The Mamba.
*Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – The most decorated athlete in NBA history – and yes, I’m including Jordan. 6 rings, 6 MVPs, 19 All-Star games, the league’s all-time leading scorer… hell, the guy even won a Finals MVP at age 38! Only a couple of other players are in the same stratosphere as that, so there’s no shame in saying that Kobe isn’t one of them.
*Shaquille O’Neal – I could go into why Shaq is probably the second most physically dominant player of all time, or how he made the careers of tons of mediocre role players, or all the specific numbers of how unstoppable he was in his prime but it all boils down to this simple, unavoidable reality: Shaq and Kobe won 3 titles together, and Shaq was Finals MVP all 3 times. In fact, even during the 2003-2004 Finals against Detroit, when Shaq was beginning to decline and Kobe was clearly the best player on the team, Shaq put up vintage numbers (26.6/10.8 on 49% shooting) while Kobe struggled (22.6 ppg on 38% shooting). Although there is a six year age difference between them, those four years dovetailed nicely between Kobe’s ascendance as a superstar and the latter half of Shaq’s prime years; in sum, both were relatively near their peak years, both were two of the game’s most important stars and yet it was indisputably Shaq’s team.
So, Kobe doesn’t crack the top five. Of course, we’re talking about five of the greatest players ever, so this exercise is much more about how loaded the Lakers have been more than it is about Bryant himself.
Kobe as an All-Time Great
Ranking the greatest players of all time is a much larger and more comprehensive project than this column demands. In many ways, it is a futile one; comparing and projecting players across different eras and positions is an impossible task, resulting in an irresolvable debate that would divert attention away from the matter at hand.
Normally I’m all for these, and someday I’ll put together my own list. But for now, we’ll deal in approximates. I’ve heard some columnists say that Kobe has cracked the top 10 but I’m skeptical. After all, we just named five Lakers with better resumes and adding Jordan, Russell, and Bird to the list, that’s an easy eight right there. Going strictly off the top of my head, I’d struggle to place him above Oscar Robertson or Tim Duncan; with some research, you probably can make a case for a few more as well.
What I will say is that he’s firmly entrenched somewhere in the top 20, and most likely in the top 15. Regardless of the exact number, there’s no longer any denying just how great a player #24 has become, and this comes from a man with a long history of attempting to do just that. Winning a title on his own cements Kobe’s status as one of the all time greats, and it is certainly well deserved.
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