To most sports fans, this topic has been a continuing debate for years. Love him or hate him, Kobe Bryant has emerged as possibly the biggest star in basketball in today’s game.
Now that the basketball season is ended for Kobe, it’s time to reevaluate the comparisons of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
Jordan is a few years into his retirement and has taken more of the businessman role in the NBA. Bryant and his Lakers on the other hand just got eliminated in a first-round domination by the Phoenix Suns, thus creating conflict for the upcoming off-season in Los Angeles.
Taking a closer look at the comparison of Jordan and Bryant requires more than just subjective standpoints based on fan bias and common assumptions. Most longtime fans would agree that Michael Jordan is the superior player. However, some of the younger fans choose Kobe over MJ. When taking full analysis, it comes quite clear that MJ is the better basketball player, and possibly the best of all-time.
Jordan globalized basketball during his career with his unique athleticism and graceful style of play. When asked for the complete basketball player, he has the whole package. Jordan has a keen sense of putting the ball in the hoop by any means necessary as well as making the highly improbable look easy. It should be noted that Jordan played in the best defensive era in NBA history, which is largely due to the lack of sensitivity when calling fouls.
Bryant is the closest thing to Jordan we’ve seen in the history of basketball. He shares that same rare ability to score at will, no matter what a defense throws at him.
Although Bryant has not quite reached the same point in his career that Jordan has, it is still safe to compare the honors and awards each player has earned throughout their playing days. While these achievements are not necessarily everything, it is definitely a significant piece of information. Jordan has six NBA championships to Bryant’s three. Jordan has been named MVP five times. Bryant has zero MVPs to his name. Bryant has three scoring titles, but Jordan eclipses that number with ten. Bryant has been acknowledged for his defense by being named to the all-defense team multiple times, but Jordan has been elected best defensive player of the year, something Bryant has never done. Jordan made a direct impact on the game when he arrived to the league and was the NBA’s rookie of the year in 1984. Bryant developed his game after a couple of seasons before making any impact on the league. Yes, some of these awards can be based on a popularity contest as well as a reflection of a team, not an individual.
In respect to Bryant, in recent years, he has accomplished feats Jordan never did. There are two most notable by fans. The first is the 81-point performance Bryant made in a single game. Jordan’s closest game to that only left him with 69 points. The other remarkable achievement occurred this year when Bryant scored at least 50 points in four straight games. Throughout Jordan’s illustrious career, he never reached this number. Although, Jordan did score at least 50 points in three straight games on multiple occasions.
Bryant does have those two statistical marks over MJ but unfortunately for him, there are not too many more he excels at over Jordan. Jordan averaged more points, assists, rebounds, steals and blocks throughout his career than Bryant has in his career.
Jordan’s playoff numbers exceed Kobe’s as well. Nobody has outscored Jordan in the playoffs, considering his average for points per game is higher than every other player in NBA history. Also, Jordan holds the record for the highest points per game average in a single playoff series as well as for the NBA Finals.
Stats may not be everything in the playoffs, but while MJ posted these astounding numbers, he also led his team to six titles in a single decade, recording six NBA Finals MVPs while doing it. In Kobe’s three titles, he has no NBA Finals MVPS due to him, not even being the best player on his team at the time.
Many Jordan backers argue that Bryant never could win without Shaq, while Bryant fans state that Jordan never won without Pippen. However, most people fail to remember the NBA title won in 1998 by Jordan and the Bulls. Why this championship was so special is because Scottie Pippen, Jordan’s Robin, remained injured due to his back throughout the entirety of the playoffs. This caused MJ to put the team on his back and lead the Bulls to another title ultimately by himself, something Bryant has yet to do. Also, a key example of Bryant’s failure to finish off in the NBA Finals was in 2004 when he had an ensemble of four future hall-of-famers in the starting lineup. In attempts to take over, Bryant took multiple unadvised shots as he got shut down by Tayshaun Prince and the Pistons. The Detroit Pistons dominated the series, winning four games to one.
Jordan won every single NBA Finals series he played in. Not once did he get shut down when it mattered the most.
If you look at Bryant and the Lakers’ recent struggles, the first impression would be that Bryant has no support to help him win. However, if you take a closer look, Bryant is going through a similar phase Jordan did early on in his career. In both cases, both players scored spectacular amounts without getting their teammates involved. The difference between the two situations is that Jordan went through this phase in an immature stage of his career. Bryant is currently in his prime with less time to make a fix.
In fact, Jordan’s latest stint in the NBA took place when he was 40 years old, plenty of time past his prime. During this time, it is arguable that Jordan had less support than Bryant did this past year. Each team finished with a final regular season record of 42-40. If Jordan can pull out the same amount of wins at the age of 40 as Bryant can during his prime, Bryant’s ability to get his teammates involved should be seriously questioned.
Although skills are arguably determined through subjective view, most would agree that Jordan exceeds Bryant in passing, rebounding, defense, winning, making his teammates better, attacking the basket and completing ultra-spectacular highlights. The skill in question for Jordan in comparison to Bryant would have to be his shooting. However, Jordan’s career field goal percentage of 49.8 percent is drastically better than Bryant’s. Not once has Bryant averaged at least 50 percent in even one single season.Bryant’s 3-point shooting and free throw shooting is better by a hair, but this only includes regular season play. Jordan’s shooting percentages are overall better than Bryant’s when it comes to the playoffs.
Another category that some find debate in would be shooting in the clutch. Jordan is famously known for his spectacular game winners, and Bryant is getting the same great reputation. However, in a study made beginning with the last year of Jordan’s career, Jordan outplayed Bryant in the clutch by shooting almost seven percentage points better in such situations. This is while an older, chubby Jordan is supposed to be in the worst shape of his career, having knees that can barely function, and in one of his worst shooting seasons of his career. Bryant makes plenty of game winners in the regular season, but nobody has made more huge shots in the playoffs than Jordan. Jordan’s ability to take over in the fourth quarter is undeniably the best ever, especially in the postseason where it matters the most.
With all the statistics, awards, and championships, Jordan seems like the easy pick over Bryant as the superior basketball player. His skill set, selfless attitude, and basketball smarts outclass Bryant’s. Jordan is considered by many the greatest basketball player ever. If Bryant wants to be seen in the same light as “His Airness,” he has a long, rough road ahead of him.
