Kobe's Great, Jordan's The Greatest

Though Kobe Bryant's greatness cannot be denied, when compared to that of Michael Jordan's it staggers and will ultimately crumble. As Bryant prepares to win his 5^th NBA championship, the predictable conversation then turns to Michael and how his career stacks up. Well, let me be the first to tell you that stack up, it does not. As I said on the show, though I do believe Kobe Bryant is currently in the conversation for 2-7 on the all time list, Number 1 is and will always be Michael Jordan. Kobe was fortunate enough to win his first NBA MVP 3 years ago, while Jordan has 5. People also forget that not only was Jordan the biggest offensive threat in the league, but he was also a very formidable defender winning the Defensive Player of The Year Award in 1988. In true Jordan fashion he became the first NBA player to win both the MVP and Defensive Player of The Year Awards in their career. This has since been matched by Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, and Kevin Garnett who all share one common attribute, their size. Jordan also ranks 2^nd on the all time list in steals behind the great John Stockton, who unfortunately because of Jordan retired without a championship. Many of the NBA's best players had the disadvantage of playing through the Jordan era thus leaving each of them unfulfilled and questioned. Players like Charles Barkley and Karl Malone may not receive their deserved recognition because of their lack of championships. The ladder of which still remains as the NBA's 2^nd all time leading scorer, a fact you would never know. Kobe has been an important piece of 4 NBA Championship teams but it must be noted that he had the privilege of playing with Shaquille O'Neal for his first 3. At that point of his career Shaq was the most dominant player in the league, and showed why as he won The Finals MVP in each of those years. This again cements the fact that those teams were Shaquille's teams and Kobe was simply "the support". Jordan's support were players like Luc Longley, Bill Winnington, Ron Harper, Steve Kerr, John Paxton, B.J. Armstrong, and Bill Cartwright. Do you remember any of these guys? Of course you don't, as all of these players had very forgettable careers. The same cannot be said for Scottie Pippen, as I'm sure many of you have heard of him. In my opinion, Scottie is the most overrated player in the history of the sport. Though a very good player, he is the definition of a player improving because of his surroundings. I must say though, he is the greatest role player of all time. But a role player he was. Shaquille was not a role player, he was THE player. So in my scoring system Jordan has 6 Championships and Kobe has 1……And of course those 3 Shaq rings.