This is such a dumb thread with a bunch of idiotic remarks...
Most people here were either into ball before Bean (currently 35 and up) or we grew up watching him (currently 25-35). Some things I've never seen or heard until joining this board:
•never heard that white people didn't like Kobe. Benefit of doubt, maybe some people here didnt grow up around or go to school or work with white people often. Anybody who has, knows he's ALWAYS had a large white fanbase...
•never heard there was widespread media hatred for him. That isn't true and the lengths some of yall go to, to portray that, is a gross exaggeration---->every great player has critics. In every sport. There isn't a single player that every fan loves unanimously. How y'all conflate that with "hate" is mindblowing, overwhelmingly Kobe was loved...
•you can't be black if you don't think he's a Top 2 player you ever saw. This argument is never made in real life, people who grew up on his era, and especially people older than us who seen previous GOATs, remember when other guys were seen as equals to him. We had playground debates in the neighborhood about Kobe and Mac, Iverson, and briefly Vince, and I'm probably forgetting a player or two. But specifically regarding AI and Mac, in junior/high school, it was FAR from a hot take for people to believe those guys were better basketball players...
This is to say nothing of bigs like Shaq and Duncan...
Obviously all these guys careers played out and they aren't all equal all things considered, but this idea that Kobe for some elongated stretch of time was far and away superior to his contemporaries is revisionist and tells someone either has an agenda, or maybe weren't watching ball for a quarter of his career...
•if you're not a Kobe Stan you hate him. There were ALWAYS Kobe Stans, just like other players had Stans. That said, I have never in my life encountered hostile Kobe Stans, this has to be an online thing. We all knew Kobe Stans in real life and there was never this degree if dependency and hostility...
This is far and away the most pro-Kobe community I've ever seen, he's by far the most mentioned and supported athlete, from any sport, on here, and that was before he passed. But there's this odd complex here to push that a guy so beloved in this community is "hated"...
Most people understand sports debates are circular and most conversations are "what ifs", especially when comparing across eras. Most people also realize everybody ain't gotta have the same favorites, and we're okay with that. The rationale on here is fukked up, specifically regarding this one athlete...
Kobe is unanimously regarded as an All-Timer. His biggest fans say he's Top 2. The people who don't think as highly of him still tend to have him no lower than 12. Most of us have him inside that Top 10 somewhere. The thread on here that asked guys to post their own Top 10, most guys had him in that 4-6 range. Most of these entities that publish these rankings yearly have him 8-10...
There's only a certain segment on here that acts up if you don't have him in your Top 2, cats gotta chill...
