IS KOBE AS GOOD AS MICHAEL? IT’S NOT EVEN CLOSE

Kobe Bryant is an amazing basketball player and a terrific scorer, but to mention him in the same light as Michael Jordan is fucking ridiculous! I’m serious, are you kidding me, he is not even close to the player that Michael Jordan was, in fact no player is.

Let’s look at the different stages of their careers, for starters Michael Jordan averaged 28.2 points, six dimes, and 6.5 rebounds a game in his FIRST NBA season, oh and I forgot to mention he was second in the league in steals that season too with 3 per game. Many would argue that Kobe came out of high school so, it’s unfair to compare their rookie seasons, I completely agree. So let’s compare Kobe’s third year in the league to Michael’s first, which would put them both at 21 years on age. Kobe, already with two NBA seasons under his belt, averaged 19.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game, NOT TOO BAD, but nowhere even close to Michael’s ROOKIE season.

Now let’s compare their best year in the NBA. In the 1989 season Michael was absolutely ridiculous. He averaged 32.5 points, 8.0 boards, and 8.0 assists per game, while shooting 54% from the field and was on the first team All-Defensive with nearly 3 picks a game. In what I believe to be Kobe best season, he averaged 30.0 points, 6.9 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 2.2 steals a game and shot 45% from the field. Notice that is every case Kobe is inferior to Michael.

The next argument that you Kobe lovers will make is that Kobe’s statistical numbers are lower than Michael’s because he had Shaq for the better part of his career. True, sort of, actually not really. In Kobe’s first year without the big man in the middle he averaged an unbelievable 35.4 points per game on 45% FG shooting in 41.0 minutes per contest. Did Michael ever do that? Actually he did, and did it better, in the 1989 season, in which Jordan played in all 82 games, he averaged 37.1 points per game, on 48% FG shooting, in 40.0 minutes per contest.

How about we compare career numbers, in Kobe’s 12 NBA seasons he averages 24.7 points (on 45% FG shooting), 5.2 rebounds, and 4.6 assists, and 1.5 assists per game. Kobe has been apart of the All-NBA (first/second/third) eight times in his career and apart of the All-Defensive team (first or second) seven times. However he has NEVER been the defensive player of the year or the league’s MVP. A hall of fame career for sure, but comparable to Michael? Let’s find out. Jordan career averages stand at 30.1 points (on 50% FG shooting), 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 2.4 steals per game. In Michael’s first 13 seasons he was on one of the All-NBA teams 11 times (10 of which were first team All-NBA) and he was on the All-Defensive NBA FIRST team nine times. Jordan has also won the league MVP four times and the Defensive player of the year award in 1988. Again Jordan is the victor!

Ahhh! The Playoffs, this is where it all counts, Bryant has to have Jordan in this category? WRONG AGAIN. As good as Michael’s regular season career numbers were he took it to an even higher level during the play-offs. Jordan’s career playoff averages are incredible, at 33.4 points (on 49% FG shooting), 6.4 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and over 2 steals per game. Kobe’s playoff averages are actually below his regular season averages at 23.2 points (on 44% FG shooting), 4.9 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.3 steals per game. Again NOT TOO BAD, but NOT even close to MJ.

Maybe the numbers are deceiving, I DON’T THINK SO, Michael Jordan has won twice as many NBA championships (6) and twice as many Olympic gold Medals (2) than Kobe Bryant has. In ALL six Chicago Bulls NBA Championships, Michael was voted the MVP of the NBA Finals. Conversely, in ALL 3 championships Kobe has won, he has NEVER been voted the NBA Finals MVP. Which begs the question can Kobe ever win the big one without a dominant center as Michael did? We will see, but I won’t hold my breath, because it’s highly unlikely.

I will leave you with this, Kobe will go down as one of the greatest players of all time, but to compare him with the greatest player in ANY sport that ever lived is absolutely absurd!! In life there are YES questions and there are NO questions, this ones a NO question. Michael is better than Kobe is all aspects of the game.

Peace Out and please respond, as I would love to hear some thoughts about Kobe being better than MJ so that I can shut you up!!!!