lmao at this bullshyt spin. Kobe angled his way to the Lakers over the Hornets, the Lakers who'd just acquired a Top 5 player in The League, rather than grind it out in Charlotte...
The same Top 5 player who became the best player in The League, and had one if the highest peaks ever, in the same Laker uniform Kobe wore, gifting Kobe 3 championships....while Kobe went on to play 12 years without said player, winning 2 rings, so 60% of his rings were won with this great player leading the charge...
But Kobe didnt get the "elevator ride"
Kobe's legacy is immensely helped by manipulating his way to a Shaq-led LA, because without those 3 extra titles that he wasn't the best player for, the conversation around his career would be different. Hell his career in total as is, is widely viewed as just fringe Top 10. If you take away the Comeback Kobe run and just leave the 3peat, he'd be viewed as Pippen level. If you take away the Shaq years and just leave the Comeback Kobe run, we talking about a guy who is probably Top 20 but he wouldn't be in any Top 10 conversations...
Before his passing he was hotly debated as possibly just outside the Top 10, theres dozens of published articles to attest to this. Yes there were people who called him Top 10 bit the range in how people regarded him was wider than any other top tier All-Timer...
Then he passed and all of a sudden sayinv he wasn't Top 10 was viewed as "disrespectful"......even though plenty of people and publications had said he wasnt for years.
You could make the argument he's had the biggest elevator rides in history because no one gets the "popular vote" the way this guy got, and has gotten. To the point mf's acted like it was bullshyt to say Duncan was a better All-Time player...
•30-30 (.500), ~41-win pace; better than Wizards actual 37 wins; if Mike played full year Wizards still would've missed the 8-seed
•37-45 (.451); missed playoffs
Total Wizards record, in games he actually played:
67-75 (.472), ~38.7 win pace
Bron in the games he actually played in a Laker jersey:
•28-27 (.509), ~41.7 win pace; better than Lakers actual wins (37); Lakers still would've missed playoffs
•50-17 (.746), ~61.2 win pace; better than Lakers actual ~60 wins and they won it all anyway
•30-15 (.667), ~54.7 win pace; better than Lakers actual ~48 wins; Lakers would've been 3-seed
•25-31 (.446), ~36.6 win pace; Lakers would've been better than SA and made play-in
•30-25 (.545), ~44.7 win pace; better than Lakers actual wins (43); Lakers likely would've been 5-seed but they made WCF anyway
•41-30 (.577), ~47.4 win pace
•44-26 (.629), ~51.5 win pace
LeBron as a Laker, ib games he actually played:
248-171 (.592), ~48.5 win pace WHEN HE PLAYS
He missed a ton of time in 4 of his 7 Laker seasons ('19, '21, '22, '23). 2021 is the real lost year for the Lakers, if he plays a normal ~70 games or so that year (which wouldve been aggregated to 61 in the covid short year), instead of the 45 he actually played, the Lakers may have repeated. The Suns and Jazz and Mavs weren't beating them if he was healthy that year...
Regardless, his Laker tenure is infinitely more successful than Mike's Wizard tenure. +10 more wins/year on average, and won a championship...
100 fukking percent...
A guy who is a 4x champion with 10 Finals appearances and 4 MVPs, 4 Finals MVPs, is a "career loser", brehs
U DONT BELONG IN BASKETBALL DISCUSSIONS
U THOUGHT THE BOBCATS WERE THE ORIGINAL HORNETS RENAMED LOLLL
IMAGINE BEING DUMB ENOUGH TO SAY THAT THE MAN WITH THE MOST IMPRESSIVE PLAYOFF RUN OF ALL TIME- THE ONLY PLAYER EVER TO DEFEAT 4 50 WIN TEAMS IN ONE PLAYOFF RUN .. AND DID SO WITH A SECOND FIDDLE NOT EVEN NAMED TOP 75 .. AS WELL AS BEING THE ONLY PLAYER EVER TO REPEAT WITHOUT A TOP 75 PLAYER... WHO SET SCORING RECORDS IN AN ERA WHERE THE AVERAGE NBA SCORE WAS 97 PPG ...
TO CLAIM THAT MAN WOULDNT EVEN BE TOP 20 HAHAHA
WHEN HE WAS ALREADY CALLED BETTER THAN JORDAN BY MEDIA CATS PRIOR TO THOSE CHIPS!!!
THIS SPORT NOT FOR U MY DUDE
