Alright, enough is enough. I get into these arguments about Kobe Bean Bryant quite often. It could be a discussion of whether I'd rather have him or LeBron to build a team around, it could be that I still think Chris Paul deserved that MVP a few yrs ago more than Kobe, it could be a lot of other things. They are usually in a somewhat joking fashion for the sake of arguing. But one argument in particularly got under my skin recently. It was argued to me by a teammate of mine that Kobe will very soon be the best Lakers player of all-time. Talk about being heated...He almost got swung on. I told him like Vince Vaughn "YOU BITE YOUR TONGUE" for saying something so blasphemous. I'm not a Kobe fan for a multitude of reasons - Snitchin on Shaq, Letting His Ego Help Torpedo a Dynasty In Vain, Sodomizing Random White Women, Bad Talking Teammates On YouTube, Giving Himself a Number Right Above Jordan's, Plays for the Evil Empire of the NBA, etc - but I can admit that he's a phenomenal player and will retire as one of the top two or three players to ever have played the shooting guard position. But that statement was a slap in the face of many great players, two in particular who are among the best to have ever played the game. Look back at that picture, notice who's on top of who. For him to dismiss Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (not to even mention West, Baylor, etc.) so smoothly was downright insulting and I wasn't even alive during their primes. Jabbar revolutionized the way the center position was played, before him big men had no footwork, no low post moves or anything. Hell, the man invented the "skyhook" (shown in the picture) which is a staple of every big man's game now. He's the one who made the position into art. And Magic...he's undoubtedly the only player in NBA history that he could have been legendary at all five positions. If u don't believe me, ask the 1980 Eastern Conference Champion Philly 76ers who fac
ed the Lakers in the Finals. Magic, a rookie point guard, had to fill in at CENTER (against their legendary players Julius "Dr. J" Erving and Moses Malone) for Jabbar due to injury in Game 6. What did he do?? Only went for 42 pts, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists as the Lakers won the Championship. He undoubtedly changed the game with his versatility and he stands beside Oscar Robertson as the mold for the current floor general versatile point guard. So as my anger over this blasphemy subsided, I realized the problem. There are many sports fans who simply don't know their sports history. This causes people to automatically say that the best players they saw in their lifetime have to be the best to ever play the game. This has been going on since the Jordan Era, fortunately he deserved it so it wasn't a problem. But it also causes statements I've heard like "Brady, Manning and Favre are the 3 greatest QBs ever", "Steve Nash and Jason Kidd are the best point guard floor generals ever", and more applicably "Kobe and Shaq were the best duo ever," All of the people named are legendary and will go down in history among the best of their eras for sure. But don't make statements about "all-time" or "ever" without doing your research. Kobe is currently the most polished player in the league and is remarkable at what he does, however, he's mimicking in the Jordan mold. Unless he either finds a way to fundamentally change the way the position/game is played like the others did or just wins a ridiculously high number of rings, he will not pass them in the history books. He's fabulous, but pump your breaks overstep your boundaries promoting your favorite player. History deserves that much. Do Better...
Alright, enough is enough. I get into these arguments about Kobe Bean Bryant quite often. It could be a discussion of whether I'd rather have him or LeBron to build a team around, it could be that I still think Chris Paul deserved that MVP a few yrs ago more than Kobe, it could be a lot of other things. They are usually in a somewhat joking fashion for the sake of arguing. But one argument in particularly got under my skin recently. It was argued to me by a teammate of mine that Kobe will very soon be the best Lakers player of all-time. Talk about being heated...He almost got swung on. I told him like Vince Vaughn "YOU BITE YOUR TONGUE" for saying something so blasphemous. I'm not a Kobe fan for a multitude of reasons - Snitchin on Shaq, Letting His Ego Help Torpedo a Dynasty In Vain, Sodomizing Random White Women, Bad Talking Teammates On YouTube, Giving Himself a Number Right Above Jordan's, Plays for the Evil Empire of the NBA, etc - but I can admit that he's a phenomenal player and will retire as one of the top two or three players to ever have played the shooting guard position. But that statement was a slap in the face of many great players, two in particular who are among the best to have ever played the game. Look back at that picture, notice who's on top of who. For him to dismiss Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (not to even mention West, Baylor, etc.) so smoothly was downright insulting and I wasn't even alive during their primes. Jabbar revolutionized the way the center position was played, before him big men had no footwork, no low post moves or anything. Hell, the man invented the "skyhook" (shown in the picture) which is a staple of every big man's game now. He's the one who made the position into art. And Magic...he's undoubtedly the only player in NBA history that he could have been legendary at all five positions. If u don't believe me, ask the 1980 Eastern Conference Champion Philly 76ers who fac
ed the Lakers in the Finals. Magic, a rookie point guard, had to fill in at CENTER (against their legendary players Julius "Dr. J" Erving and Moses Malone) for Jabbar due to injury in Game 6. What did he do?? Only went for 42 pts, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists as the Lakers won the Championship. He undoubtedly changed the game with his versatility and he stands beside Oscar Robertson as the mold for the current floor general versatile point guard. So as my anger over this blasphemy subsided, I realized the problem. There are many sports fans who simply don't know their sports history. This causes people to automatically say that the best players they saw in their lifetime have to be the best to ever play the game. This has been going on since the Jordan Era, fortunately he deserved it so it wasn't a problem. But it also causes statements I've heard like "Brady, Manning and Favre are the 3 greatest QBs ever", "Steve Nash and Jason Kidd are the best point guard floor generals ever", and more applicably "Kobe and Shaq were the best duo ever," All of the people named are legendary and will go down in history among the best of their eras for sure. But don't make statements about "all-time" or "ever" without doing your research. Kobe is currently the most polished player in the league and is remarkable at what he does, however, he's mimicking in the Jordan mold. Unless he either finds a way to fundamentally change the way the position/game is played like the others did or just wins a ridiculously high number of rings, he will not pass them in the history books. He's fabulous, but pump your breaks overstep your boundaries promoting your favorite player. History deserves that much. Do Better...
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