Originally posted by Joecool:
Originally posted by TheG0RE49er:
Originally posted by LA9erFan:
Originally posted by StOnEy333:
Originally posted by HudsonValley:
Originally posted by dobophile:
Originally posted by valrod33:
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9285372/phil-jackson-compares-michael-jordan-kobe-bryant-book
This.
Jordan is better, and by a wide margin. The only ppl I've known that have a hard time accepting this are Laker fans. They come up with an array of justifications to excuse Jordan's superiority over Kobe. Wouldn't be surprised to see them discount Phil Jackson just to show some Kobe love.
I don't know any Laker fans personally that think Kobe is better than Jordan. I think he's easily the best player since Jordan. Maybe Lebron can take that title from him someday, but he's gotta long way to go before that happens.
Phil writes a book about something that everybody already knows just to make some $$$ and all of the sudden it's a hot topic again. I only have one response to Phil's book. "Yeah, no s**t. 
" lol
LOL, same here. My problem was always the considerably disparity that people put between them. Jordan's almost universally overrated and outside of LA Kobe is largely underrated by fans, but MJ was still the better player.
Kobe is the best player since MJ. McGrady, Carter, Iverson, Pierce, all these guys came into the league around the same time as Kobe, and these are arguably the best players (not counting the big men such as Garnet, Duncan, Shaq) of this era. West, Chamberlin, Russel, Kareem, Magic, MJ, Kobe...all these guys dominated their eras. This is now Lebron's era.
This is actually unfair for Kobe. He played in an era with 2 extremely great players. One could argue Tim Duncan or Shaq are the greatest player of Kobe's era. Jordan's era had some great players but no one was close to as great as Duncan and Shaq. Maybe Hakeem, but only because he was in a two year zone.
Personally, I think Kobe and Michael are closer than most think with Mike having a slight edge. Kobe is just unfortunate that guys like Duncan and Shaq played in the same era. Duncan and Shaq were far beyond any second fiddle in Jordan's era. Not only that, now old Kobe has to deal with Lebron conversations that diminish what Kobe has actually done.
Duncan and Shaq are arguably the greatest players at their position, but it's a position that is limited, and can't dominate 4 quarters of a game or take over any aspect of the game.
Big men, great or not, mostly just influence that paint and mid range area; their defense mostly shows up around the paint area; they only influence so much in a game. While a guard, or small forward, can technically take over any part of the game. Assists, 3 point shot, points in the paint, offensive rebounds, and on defense they also have the potential to do it all. That's why when it comes to the greatest players off all time, I tend to only put guards or small forwards in there. Magic, MJ, Kobe..these guys could do it all on the court, and unlike big men they could put up 50+ points at will almost.
" lol
