Trippster Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Following Kobe's 81-point performance pundits began comparing Kobe to Jordan. My question is whether Kobe is better at this point in his career than Jordan was at the same point in his. My vote would be no. Even though Jordan never put up 81 points, he certainly was capable of it (69 against the Cavs.) No Jordan team was ever as one-dimensional as the Lakers are now. Second, by this time in his career Jordan already had an MVP award and his team was headed in the right direction. It doesn't seem like Kobe is making his teammates better like Jordan did and it seems like the Lakers are heading backward. That's my vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief skin Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Oh He11 no Jordan was the best to ever play the game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Chaos47 Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 It always seemed like Jordan was one of those very special players that really did make everybody else around him better. Kobe seems to be the opposite of that, seems like he has to play better to compensate for the fact that he DOESN'T enhance the play of his team mates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Harris Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 kobe scored 2 points in an nba finals game vs. detroit. 'nuff said. and i'm no jordan fan by any stretch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PleaseBlitz Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Jordan is the best player of all time. Kobe is one of the 5 best players of his era. Not even close. I may give this more than 1 seconds thought when Kobe starts winning championships WITHOUT Shaq. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thiebear Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Does he play offense / Defense and goes 100% EVERY game? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOF44 Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Nope not even close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseto Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Kobe is a better shooter than Jordan, but Jordan didn't force a lot of bad shots like Kobe does now (although he doesn't have any choice b/c his teammates suck). Kobe has the potential to be better than Jordan, but Kobe won his 3 titles earlier in his career and don't think he learned from all those years beforehand what it takes to win a championship (including make teammates better). Kobe now has to learn that and it may take a while, especially since this Laker team has a lot less talent than Jordan's team ever did (excluding the Wizards of course). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseto Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 I may give this more than 1 seconds thought when Kobe starts winning championships WITHOUT Shaq. Shaq never won anything without Kobe. Nobody ever seems to bring that up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Predicto Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Jordan was the best defensive player on the court as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseto Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Does he play offense / Defense and goes 100% EVERY game? I think he does. I'm a huge Laker fan and watch almost all their games. Kobe's made All-Defensive teams before. As far as going 100%, there may be a few times where Kobe had let up a bit when they were winning titles with Shaq, but Shaq is in a whole different class when compared to MJ's teammates. Shaq is the most dominant center to ever play the game and puts up huge numbers. None of MJs teammates ever scored more than him or put up outstanding numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drex Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 I think he does. I'm a huge Laker fan and watch almost all their games. Kobe's made All-Defensive teams before. As far as going 100%, there may be a few times where Kobe had let up a bit when they were winning titles with Shaq, but Shaq is in a whole different class when compared to MJ's teammates. Shaq is the most dominant center to ever play the game and puts up huge numbers. None of MJs teammates ever scored more than him or put up outstanding numbers. Kobe has made the All Defensive First Team 3 times, and the All Defensive Second team once. He is one of the best defenders in the league at the 2 guard position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APBT Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Kobe is not better than Jordan as of now but he did do something very special when he scored 81 points Jordan wasn't able to do that even when he was stingy with the ball. You can also look at it from this angle, Kobe scored 81 points from the parameter. The 100 point scored before was 95 percent dunks. If you ever watch the NBA finals when teams were doing the "HackaShaq" on Shaq, it was Kobe by himself the single handily won the finals games that counted. He also set his teammates up and scored the winning points when the almighty Shaq was on the bench. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rincewind Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Shaq never won anything without Kobe. Nobody ever seems to bring that up. He won an eastern conference championship - then got schooled by the Dream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PleaseBlitz Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Shaq never won anything without Kobe. Nobody ever seems to bring that up. Jordan never won anything without Pippen. Nobody ever says Pippen is the best player ever. Why? Because he had Jordan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APBT Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 I think he does. I'm a huge Laker fan and watch almost all their games. Kobe's made All-Defensive teams before. As far as going 100%, there may be a few times where Kobe had let up a bit when they were winning titles with Shaq, but Shaq is in a whole different class when compared to MJ's teammates. Shaq is the most dominant center to ever play the game and puts up huge numbers. None of MJs teammates ever scored more than him or put up outstanding numbers. How abot Sreve Kerr and Hodges or Pippens? They have scored more than Jordan a few times. Jordan was held below 7 points a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camyj15 Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Kobe is a great scorer and good defender. His 81 points was quite a feat, but in terms of the historical (despite what ESPN says), it really not that great. A lot of players can score many points these days if they have the gumption to do so. To me, Kobe has been able to imitate Michael Jordan in many ways, but he does not quite measure up. Jordan came into the league and took it to a different level. He did this with his playing ability in that no one had seen a player perform quite like Jordan. Then he (and Nike) revolutionalized what it meant to be an athletic endorser. There are many Jordan wannabes, would-bes, and imitators, but no one has yet matched him. One person that might - Lebron James. Lebron combines Jordan's athleticism with Magic's passing skills. He could possibly take the game to the next level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peele Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Jordan never won anything without Pippen. Nobody ever says Pippen is the best player ever. Why? Because he had Jordan. Yeah and Pippen didn't stand a chance without Jordan. Jordan made Pippen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thiebear Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Let Kobe win 2 more then talk... OHH and personel opinion Jordan is number 2-4 (with all them being mixed in). This guy is #1. http://www.nba.com/history/players/russell_summary.html Honors: Elected to Naismith Basketball Basketball Hall of Fame (1975); NBA champion (1957, '59, '60, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66, '68, '69); NBA MVP (1958, '61, '62, '63, '65); All-NBA First Team (1959, '63, '65); All-NBA Second Team (1958, '60, '61, '62, '64, '66, '67, '68); NBA All-Defensive Team (1969); 12-time NBA All-Star (1958-69); All-Star Game MVP (1963); One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996); Olympic gold medalist (1956). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gichin13 Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Personality wise, I am no Kobe fan. I defended him on the rape case deal, but the guy seems like a ****y arrogant tool who manages to offend and alienate his teammates. MJ is one of the top 4 players of all time in my book. Top four (in no order): Bill Russell Wilt Oscar Robinson MJ Turning back to Kobe, despite my personality reaction to him, he really is a great great player. He can score at will. Like MJ, he is incredibly skilled in fundamentals. I think Kobe gets the edge as a pure shooter. Kobe clearly has more consistent mechanics, is a better threat from three point range. Both guys are about equal going to the rack. Perhaps a slight edge to Jordan early on slashing drives, and again a slight edge to Jordan posting guys up, but it is pretty close. Kobe plays both ends aggressively every night. He would be in my list of defenders on one hand to shut down an opponent. Despite that, Jordan gets the edge on defense. On the "je ne sais quois" factor, edge to Jordan. Can we see Kobe kicking it back to Paxson to win the game at the buzzer? Can we see Kobe taking the edge off a loss with a ****y saunter onto the team plane going to Portland with a lit cigar in his mouth saying the series is over and Portland will never make it back to Chicago? Can we see Kobe owning the minds of his opponents and exerting his will to victory? I just do not see Kobe having the Flu Game, or picking Malone on one end and hitting the series winner at the other. Great as he is, on both ends, he really is just that mental step down from Michael. Folks cannot get on Kobe for taking too many shots given his current team -- outside of him, they are in trouble and he needs to shoot a lot to keep them in the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopper Dave Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Kobe is Lemieux. Jordan is Gretzky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrockster21 Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Second, by this time in his career Jordan already had an MVP award and his team was headed in the right direction. It doesn't seem like Kobe is making his teammates better like Jordan did and it seems like the Lakers are heading backward.That's my vote. By this time in his career?? Dude...Kobe has been in the league for 10 seasons!! By his tenth season, Jordan had won 3 championships just like Kobe and had 3 MVP awards (88, 91 and 92). However the thing that makes Jordan better than Kobe will ever be was his defense. 1988 DPOY, 9 time all-defensive team (88-93, 96-98). Not to mention, by this point in his career Jordan had 2 Olympic gold medals. Its not even close...there will never be another Jordan, no matter how badly the NBA analysts want one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseto Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 He won an eastern conference championship - then got schooled by the Dream. I don't really call a conference championship, a true championship. The champion wins the entire league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmwills1 Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Lets also not forget that Kobe had 62 through 3 quarters a few games back against the Mavs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrockster21 Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 He won an eastern conference championship - then got schooled by the Dream. That team had loads of talent, just came together at the wrong time. Put Hardaway and O'Neal on a team 5 years later and they would be tearing it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.