Quote:
Originally Posted by King Glorious
The thing that will always keep Kobe from the list of the greats like Jordan, Magic, Bird, and to a lesser extent James is that he doesn't adapt his game. It's always got to be his way. Back when they won their three-peat, he was complaining about the offense then. While winning titles. He's always been selfish but now he's disappointing. I remember Bird playing a game where McHale scored 56 points. I can't imagine Kobe every letting someone else have that kind of success. Those other guys, they would see what the team needed and try to give them that on that night. If Kareem wasn't playing, Magic might go for 15 boards or 40 points. If McHale wasn't playing, Bird might go for 45 or 20 boards. When Jordan lost his point guard, he played the position and put up seven straight triple-doubles and 10 in 11 games. James is often criticized for deferring but in most of the cases, analysts agree that it was the right basketball play. Kobe should have been able to see that Bynum had it going and couldn't be stopped and adapted accordingly. He refuses and it's sad.
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Who's list is that? Many consider Kobe better than all of the guys you've named except for probably Jordan and there are some that think he is better than him as well. I don't think he is better than Jordan or Magic but I would take him over Bird or Lebron on most days.
In fairness, all of them saw/see the court much better than Kobe ever could. It always seems to me that when Kobe "decides" to pass, that is pretty much all he is going to do for that quarter or half. Its almost as if he has to force himself to do just that as opposed to it coming naturally and coming within the flow of an offense.
Kobe's lock down ability on the defensive end is tragically overlooked. None of those guys you named could play man to man defense like Kobe. Lebron, by virtue of his size, can cover front court players making him more versatile (yes, chuck, i said it
) and Jordan played passing lanes better but none of those guys could contain a young Iverson at a time when he was virtually unstoppable.