Last week Kobe Bryant led the Los Angeles Lakers to another NBA Championship and that gives him five NBA titles. He won three in a row with Shaquille Oneal and he’s led the Lakers to the last two NBA titles.
Both his critics and fans have to admit the facts.  The guy is one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA.
I don’t list him as the greatest because Michael Jordan sits in that position but he’s second on my list in the modern era of basketball.¬† Jordan and Bryant are the two players who do it all.¬† They’re great scorers, great defenders and most importantly great winners.
Jordan was a killer down the stretch and Bryant is a killer down the stretch.¬† These two take it personally when games are on the line.¬† They also have no problem guarding the other team’s best scorers and shutting them down.¬† They will rebound if that’s needed.¬† They also demand excellence from their teammates and organizations and will accept nothing less.
Many Philadelphia basketball fans don’t like Bryant because he said he was going to cut the heart out of the Sixers in 2001 during the NBA Finals then he went out and did it.¬† He’s a local guy who should be given his respect here and celebrated when he’s not playing against the Sixers.
Bryant played his high school ball in the area at Lower Merion High School.  I was there in the high school gymasium when told a crowd he was going straight to the NBA right out of high school. He was cocky.  I remember him wearing the sunglasses on his head as he made the announcement of his intentions.  He was barely 18 years old.
Bryant made it a point early on that he wanted to be a player on the level of Jordan and now looking back we see that he is serious.  He has worked his butt off just like Jordan to be the best.
I don’t think you have to like him, but you have to respect him and you should acknowledge his greatness.
Yeah by the time it’s all said and done is has to be top 5 all time and like you said right after Jordan in the modern era. He plays the game old school and does it all on the floor. The people in Philly that don’t like him, are just hating because he’s “not Philly enough”. Whatever that means. Looking back, I’d rather have taken him in the draft than Iverson. Iverson was great for us, but nowhere near Bryant’s level. And because of his work ethic and desire to be great, he was going to succeed anywhere he played.
i guess he’s second for now. the king is the overall best player in the nba though kobe has the best team. and scorp imagine if sixer took kobe #1 and he came to a 22-60 team vs gettin drafted 13 and traded to a 60-22 team who sent 5 players to the all star gm his 2nd yr. if u put kobe here in philly he wins 0 chips and if u put ai out in la i dont know how many he would have won but its safe to say that ai and shaq during both their primes wouldve certainly netted 1 i believ he could have got 3 too but thats just me
How about that white dude .. Kyle Korver I think his name is…
I rank him right up there with the best as far as the 76ers go ..
A slow, white guy who cannot jump, run, pass or defend.. this is how bad the Sixers Franchise has been over the last 20 years or so… good grief…
g i dont have many issues with your articles but go back and watch the 2001 finals kobe did nothing major he was avg at best shaq was the mvp he avg’d the most points in a chip series since it went to 7 game series format.
Kobe’s avg 2001 finals
24.6 points per game
7.8 rebounds per game
5.8 assists per game
41.51 field goal percentage
46.8 minutes per game
Shaq avg’d 33 ppg 57% 15 rebs 4 blks and was mvp
ai had games of gm 1 48 gm 2 23 gm 3 35 gm 4 35 gm 5 37 he just needed a shaq too wish yall could see this
hahah u know we had louis almondson lmao how bout him
hey serious question so if ur ranking kobe this high where does shaq rank i mean kobe was shaq’s pippen i mean shaq has 3 finals mvps he was the dominating force and the best player on the team. he singlehandedly beat the sixers we had a guard to equal out kobe’s production our guard actually shattered kobe’s production ai 37 avg kobe 24 avg i dont see any articles up here about scottie pippen im just wondering where does shaq rank i personally rank shaq higher than kobe am i wrong?
PW, I hear you but I just think Kobe is/was the type of player that was going to be great anywhere he went. Of course he would have eventually needed help to win championships, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t going to still be a great player. Look at Lebron. He went to the garbage Cavs and turned them around and there’s no doubt in my mind that Kobe could have had the same impact if he needed to. Point is, he didn’t need to because of the players already on the team. But I wholeheartedly believe that whatever team he would have played on, he would have been great. Not only is he just that good, he wants to be the best. Just my opinion.
If AI could turn the dreadful sixers around, so could Kobe.
oh i agree kobe’s great cant take that away from him at all but i just dont think people realize the comparison between him and mike is so far off kobe was robin for his 1 st 3 chips shaq was batman mike was always batman period and in this last chip gasol could have easily been mvp fisher hit more cluthc shots then kobe. he’s no where near mike and kobe couldnt turn the dreadful lakers around and they werent as dreadful as philly kobe went 2 yrs without the best big man in the game he led the league in scoring and lost 1st round twice
so what happens la steals the best big in the league and thne u compare kobe to mike just awful
imagine mike with shaq and not cartwright or will perdue or bill wennington lmao
imagine mike with a pau gasol and a andrew bynum he just made horace grant great and wo mike horace is a bum
kobe need the best big in the league to win chips basically
lbj went 2 the chip and he had basically the 2001 sixers 1 superstar and 4 scrubs around him so they got swept lbj couldnt put up 48 in gm 1 and win 1 gm like my boy lol
kobes great i just dont know how to rank him
Shaq was dominatin player but only for a short period of time due to his laziness..
He should have dominated the sport for 10-12 years but did not work hard enough as he got older and
only played to his abilities for 3-5 years window… A very overrated,under-achieving player in my book..
I think Kobe has won 3 Championships without old big Shaq around,…
Best players in the NBA Modern Era (since 1980)
#1) M Jordan
#2) M Johnson
#3) K Bryant
#4) L Bird
#5) T Duncan
#6) D Powe
#7) S O’Neal
shaq clearly was a dominating force for 10 to 12 yrs easily pman i wont argue ur rankings cause they r so hard to do i cant really come up with a system to do it with all the eras together so kudos to u for even trying but i dont really agree with ur list but its not bad couple names missing wilt jerry west bill russell kareem abdul jabbar has to rank somewhere tim duncan while he maybe the best pf of all time (considerable arguments there ) cant be top 10 all time
These rankings are since 1980 but still missed a lot of great players…
You really think Shaq dominated the Game for that long (10-12 years..)
They why doesn;’t he have more NBA Championships..
I think he was good for about 5-7 years and got fat,dumb, & lazy and has hung around for about 4-5 years too long and should have retired years ago. I do like him though and he is a great guy off the court for he had a funny Comedy Special on SHowtime a couple of weeks back that was funny with some great comedians…
Best NBA Players since 2000
#1) Kobe Bryant
#2) L James
#3) D Wade
#4) T Duncan
#5) D Nowitzke
#6) S Nash
#7) P Pierce
#8) C Boozer
#9) M Gonobli
#10) K Garnett
That’s it