MJ/Kobe Comparisons, what do you think? Options

[rangercal]

I'm tired of listening to Mark Jackson and other members of the media compare these two. Last season, you could not make an argument for Kobe as a top 10 player of all time. Now, all of a sudden he has leap-frogged to Jordan status. How?



In 35 Finals games, Jordan averaged 33.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists a game.

In 20 Finals games (including Game 1) , Bryant has averaged 22.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists a game.



A few things Kobe will never do....


Reach a career scoring average of 30.1 ppg, go UNDEFEATED in finals appearances and win 6 Rings as the TOP guy.


Sure, Kobe has a better 3pt shot than MJ 34.0% compared to 32.7%


Kobe can have that extra 1.7% career 3pt fg% Ill Take MJ's 6 Finals MVPS (to Kobe's 0) any day.

[ZoomSlowik]

A few reasons Michael is still better than Kobe and always will be:

1) Michael had a freakishly good shooting percentage for a guard, especially one that shot as much as he did. There are talented big men that don't have a 49.7 career shooting percentage.

2) Michael doesn't get anywhere near enough credit as a ball-handler. For a 5 year stretch in his prime his AST/TO ratio was north of 2 (and his career rate was 1.97/1), which is point guard like, and for someone that ALWAYS had the ball in his hand averaging under 3 turnovers a game for 6 of his seasons with the Bulls is pretty ridiculous.

3) Michael dominated a lot more consistently. Michael had 11 seasons or so playing at a ridiculously high level, Kobe has regularly been very good but only played on a Michael-like level for about 6. Granted without Shaq he'd probably have a few more, but he also wouldn't have the rings.


At his peak, Kobe can play like Michael, but he hasn't been a consistent killer long enough to be in the conversation.

[eddog2]

Kobe's got to win like 5 more titles, continue to build his tarnished image, get a few more MVP awards for both the regular season and finals, and have a few more 30+ ppg seasons where he averages 6+ apg in order to be in the same class when he retires as Jordan. Kobe won the first 3 title's b/c he was with Superman when Superman wasn't around kryptonite. If he doesn't win the title this year he'll never get to the same class b/c the one thing Jordan always did was will his team to win the title one his team made the finals.

Jordan was clutch. Kobe's a clutch as there has been since MJ but he's just not as good when it matters most.

[Steve9347]

Kobe has the look and the feel of Jordan, but the results don't compare. His career playoff ppg is almost 10 lower than Jordan.

It's not even close.

[TeaLeafReaderII]

Not to mention that you aren't allowed to guard guards anymore. If Jordan played in today's NBA he would be averaging 40ppg

[ZoomSlowik]

Not to mention that you aren't allowed to guard guards anymore. If Jordan played in today's NBA he would be averaging 40ppg

Aw damn it, that was the point I was forgetting, Michael's prime came before the rules against hand-checking.

[Balta1701-B]

Another thing people forget about MJ is his defensive ability. If he was in the mood, you could put him on a player and he'd just shut them down. I vaguely remember when they played the Sonics in the finals and people were spending time talking about "The Glove" and his defense, and MJ just shut him down for the series.

[eddog2]

Another thing people forget about MJ is his defensive ability. If he was in the mood, you could put him on a player and he'd just shut them down. I vaguely remember when they played the Sonics in the finals and people were spending time talking about "The Glove" and his defense, and MJ just shut him down for the series.

I agree that Jordan was a great defender but I think you are a little mistaken on who the better defender was. Gary Payton won Defensive Player of the year that year and if I'm not mistaken that was Jordan's worst finals perfomance of the 6 that he had. He only averaged 27.3 ppg (and yes I said only b/c keeping Jordan under 30 was impossible until then). I really think Dennis Rodman should have been the MVP of that series but oh well. The Bulls were pushed to game 6 by a sick Sonics team that in any other year would have won the title. I think the Sonics won like 64 games that year but the Bulls set the record by winning 72. It was an awesome series. I remember Payton and Jordan trash talking to each other.

Game 1 Jordan 28
Game 2 Jordan 29
Game 3 Jordan 36
Game 4 Jordan 23
Game 5 Jordan 26
Game 6 Jordan 22

Payton wasn't the scorer that Jordan was so you can't say he shut Payton down. He did do a great job on him but I also think people don't realize how well Payton played him in the series.

That being said, Jordan had some good shots in game 5 which they lost (but most of the shots were not on Payton)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heKycoi-vWY

But Game 3 was his best game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjOnim0REqw

[Chi-town23-33]

The Kobe-MJ Comparisons get on my nerves so much. Kobe Bryant, as great of a player as he is (Hall of Famer in fact), he is nowhere close to Michael Jordan or players like Magic, Bird, Kareem, Russell, or Chamberlain when it comes to both individual and team accolades AND historic impact. Shaq and Duncan are still ahead of him too, but all of a sudden he is the best player of this era?!

Look Kobe is good, and his skill set is comparable to MJs (it should be, cause Kobe's game is like a carbon copy, although he shoots the three more). But as all of you have said before, the success does not match by any stretch of the imagination.

Kobe throwing up 81 is when this new love fest began really. He should get props, great game. But, is it really more impressive than Wilt's 100 or Pete Maravich throwing up 68 on Walt Frazier or Elgin Baylor scoring 70 something points? Hard to say, because the league is very different. The point is, however, that people are on Kobe right now because he is hot right now. People forget how great the older players are, even happening to MJ who played relatively recent.

When Kobe wins some titles as the lead guy, couple more MVPs and All-NBA selections, it will be a better comparison. If anyone has a chance of joining the Jordan/Kareem/Magic/Bird/Wilt/Russell group playing now, it's LeBron James (pending a #2 option).