If Kareem was seen as the 1A in all 6 of his titles he’d be considered the GOAT. Same with all the other players listed. Stop crying because it’s rightfully pointed out Kobe was the B side in the Lakers chips.
It’s brought up all the time that Magic and Bird walked into championship organizations and virtual allstar teams and Jordan built Chicago from nothing as to why he is better than them despite losing most head to head matchups.
Saying Bird/Magic went into championship organizations and MJ didn't isn't the same as saying Magic wouldn't win without Kareem, or Bird without Mchale/Parish etc.. Magic can play most of his career with Kareem and vice versa and nobody question what option either of them were when they won specific rings. Magic has 5, Kareem has 6. With Kobe its well he has 5, but 3 of them with Shaq.
You would have a point if we didn’t actually see Kobe struggle to usurp Shaq and take the franchise over. From 1999-2007 he did not have the emotional intelligence to lead a franchise.
I'd say from 01-07 is when Kobe was trying to sprout his wings as a leader. But whatever it is, that's 6-8 years to get the hang of leading down. How long did it take MJ? How long did it take Lebron (he wasnt leading in Miami just as KD wasnt leading in GS)? Hakeem, Shaq, Giannis, Curry, Jokic? etc... all didn't come out the gate winning either. Tim Duncan had vets when he came in and won soon after getting drafted and so did Magic but for the most part, everyone takes time to get the hang of leading down. What you said isn't a knock on Kobe or any player its part of the game..
Let's do some math. From 2000-2004 Lakers played in 98 games.
Kobe 27.6 ppg 5.7 rebs 5.3 asts
Shaq: 26.4 ppg 13.8 rebs 3. asts
The number of finals games they played in was 20. So the way a team played in about 20% of the 98 games played outweighs the other 80%(78)? Someone can take the way a team plays in 16 specific games out of a 82 game season and pretend that 20% overrides the other 80%/66 games?
Tmac who didn’t practice hard won a scoring title averaging 32 points a game.
What was Kobe doing that Tmac couldn’t do?
I’m not gonna assume that somebodies back could’ve gotten better because they didn’t rehab correctly. Same way I don’t assume Kobe didn’t have the longevity of LeBron, Durant and Steph because he didn’t take care of his achilles
If someone says they didn't practice hard then Im going to assume they didn't rehab hard either. Why would I assume they'd work harder with more resistance than they worked when they faced no resistance?
So it's not about what TMac couldnt do but what he didn't do. He could've worked hard but by his words, he didn't. Thats the difference between him and Kobe. If you have 2 lazy players as your leader you're not winning 3 straight. Just because a player has pretty looking regular season stats doesn't mean when the pressure is on him to close in the playoffs that he comes thru. But when you're just a stat watcher then that's how you think the game of basketball works
Just complete braindead babble
