The Melo Backpedal

Updated April 7, 2007

Jemele Hill, a writer for ESPN.com’s Page 2, wrote an interesting article last week about how Kobe Bryant right now is a better player than Michael Jordan once was. Funny thing though, she admitted that he wasn’t as successful, wasn’t as marketable, didn’t win as much, and won’t win as many MVP awards during the course of his career. My question: than what exactly is he better at?

I’ll be the first to admit, Kobe Bryant is the best player in the league today. Period. End of statement. I personally would prefer to start a team from scratch with Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, or even Dwight Howard, but there’s no denying that Kobe Bryant has the ability to take over a game more often than anyone since MJ. Having said that, however, I still have a hard time going along with the theory that Michael Jordan in his prime is somehow inferior to Kobe Bryant in his.

Jordan won six rings during his reign. SIX. That’s impressive. Few in the history of the league have won more as a player, and he was a dominating force during all those runs, winning Finals MVP in all six of his finals appearances. He didn’t simply win six rings, but was the driving force behind those championship teams during the 1990’s. Kobe has won three rings, but on all three occasions, the Finals MVP was teammate Shaquille O’Neal, who was the dominating force behind those championship runs.

Michael Jordan’s Robin to his Batman was Scottie Pippen, an ALL-NBA forward and one of the greatest players in league history. However, Kobe Bryant had Shaquille O’Neal on his side for many years. Bryant was the Robin, not the Batman during those years, as O’Neal has widely been considered the best big man of his, if not any, generation. Although both Jordan and Bryant had a future Hall of Famer at his side during their title years, few will argue that Pippen had a greater impact on the game than O’Neal. Perhaps only a few diehard Bulls fans would take exception to that statement. Kobe surely benefited from Shaq getting double and triple teamed over the years. While the Bulls rode on Jordan’s back to six NBA titles, the Lakers did the same with Shaquille O’Neal, not Kobe Bryant.

Not to take anything away from Bryant and Pippen, but they weren’t driving the bus during those title runs. The Lakers had a record of 435-189 (.697) in regular season games while Shaq and Kobe were together. Since Shaq has taken his game to South Beach, the Lakers have been only 113-121 (.482), including 34-36 this year, as of March 27, 2007. Kobe wanted a team of his own, to perhaps prove that he could win without Shaq, but has been unsuccessful so far. Kobe Bryant hasn’t even won a playoff series without Shaquille O’Neal at his side.

Jordan was a better scorer. Much has been made of Kobe’s recent string of 50 point games, where he was only the second player in league history to post four straight. That is an impressive feat, no doubt, but some people forget that Michael Jordan dominated on offense when he was in his prime, and could have put together a string like that if he really wanted to. He scored 50 points or more 23 times from ’86-’89. Kobe hasn’t had that many 50-point outings during his entire eleven year career. People quickly forget that it was Jordan who averaged over 37 points per game back in ’86-’87, and over 35 points per game in ’87-’88, playing in every single regular season game during that two year span. Kobe Bryant has only averaged over 30 points per game three times during the course of an NBA season. Jordan averaged over 30 points per game (30.1) during the course of his career, more than any other player, including Wilt Chamberlain.

Jordan won five MVP awards. The article mentions how Kobe has two players that have each won two MVP awards in his own conference, and that’s something Jordan never faced. Right, like Jordan had no other great players around to steal his MVP awards away? That is such a lame argument. Jordan wasn’t competing against the Tim Duncan’s and Steve Nash’s for MVP awards, instead it was Magic Johnson (3-time winner), Larry Bird (3-time winner), Karl Malone (2-time winner), Hakeem Olajuwon (1-time winner), Moses Malone (3-time winner), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6-time winner), Julius Erving (1-time winner), and Charles Barkley (1-time winner), just to name a few.

In Jemele’s article, you’ll find mentions of off the court issues concerning Jordan as reasons to give him the Kobe treatment. She claims Kobe has been singled out, that MJ was just was much of a coach killer and just as much of a “ball hog” as Kobe. She also brings up Jordan’s recent divorce and past gambling transgressions to use against him. The fact is, Kobe brings much of the media scrutiny on himself. He was the one who went on ESPN to tell the world about the infidelity in his marriage, and about how innocent he was of alleged rape charges back in 2001. He made public statements about other player’s supposed infidelity, and even named names. Later, Bryant made another statement, saying his hometown was Los Angeles instead of Philadelphia, where he was raised. Then he wonders why fans continually boo him whenever he visits his hometown. If Philly fans booed Santa, do you really think Kobe’s getting let off the hook? He’s also the one who broke up the best team in the league because he wanted to have his own team, and not share it with another star. Oh yeah, and he’s also the one who’s been suspended multiple times for “unintentionally” smacking opposing players in the face after getting his shot blocked. These are not character traits I can vouch for.

I can certainly recognize Kobe’s contribution to the game as a player. In the end, he’s going to be a Hall of Famer whether people like it or not, and I have no problem with that. The bottom line is compared to Michael Jordan, he’s not nearly the player or winner Jordan was, and I doubt he’ll ever be. That’s okay though, because in most people’s opinion, there’s Michael Jordan at the top, and everybody else below.