Lakers To Retire Kobe Bryant's Jerseys, plus: KOBE vs LEBRON

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SteemSports Presenter/Editor: Scott Frank,@scottybuckets

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The Los Angeles Lakers today announced that they will retire both of Kobe Bryant's jersey numbers 8 and 24. This is a well deserved move by the Lakers front office to celebrate the career of Bryant. The ceremony will take place on December 18th when the Lakers host the World Champion Golden State Warriors. The Lakers last retired a jersey in 2013 when they pulled Shaquille O’Neal’s jersey to the rafters. O’Neal and Bryant won multiple championships together before personal reasons split the pair apart. Who knows how many more rings they each could have had.

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All of this Kobe talk has me thinking about how he stacks up on the All Time Greatest Players List. There is no argument that Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time. But does that mean Kobe is right behind him at #2? Let's take a look at the stats.

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Kobe Bryant played 20 seasons in the NBA for the Lakers. That is almost unheard of to not only play that many seasons, but to play for the same organization.It is incredible. He was an All-Star 18 times. Kobe won 5 championships and has a 5-2 NBA Finals record, more about that to come later. Kobe scored 33,643 points and is the league's 3rd best all time scorer. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone scored more points than Bryant. He averaged 25 points a game in his career and won 5 scoring titles. These are strong cases that Kobe is at least the #2 offensive player of all time behind Jordan.

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Kobe had a couple of the best games in the history of the NBA. In 2006, the Lakers faced the Toronto Raptors. That night he made history by scoring 81 points in a single game. Wilt Chamberlain is the only player that has ever scored more than that in one game, when he scored 100 points. Kobe scored 60+ 6 times in his career including a 65 point game in 2007 against the Portland Trailblazers. And in true Kobe fashion, he dropped 60 points against the Utah Jazz in his final game for the Lakers.

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Defensively, Kobe was also dynamite. He was on the NBA All-Defense team 12 times in his career. He averaged 1.4 steals per game and when needed, was a lockdown defender. Kobe’s intensity was never in question. He often looked to try and shut down the opposing team's leading scorer. He loved going head up on Jordan at every chance possible.

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Is there any doubt that Kobe Bryant is the second best player in the history of the NBA? Well, there are plenty of pundits that believe Lebron James is the runner up to MJ. I am not one of those pundits. The first thing to look at is winning. And there is no better barometer than the NBA Finals. Michael Jordan is 6-0 in the Finals. Kobe Bryant is 5-2 in the Finals. Lebron James is 3-5 in the Finals. Lebron is no where near the scorer that Kobe is. He doesn't have the killer instinct of Michael and Kobe. I will give Lebron credit to being a more overall talented player when it comes to rebounds and assists. But Lebron has frequently been accused of caring more about stuffing the star sheets than winning.

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Another major reason I give the edge to Kobe is that he stayed with the same organization for 20 years. Lebron has been chasing rings since he created the first ever “Big 3” in Miami. Bryant never ran away for greener pastures. Actually, he chased Shaq out of town and was still able to bounce back to win 2 more rings. Lebron has several good years left to improve his horrific NBA Finals record, but is he better than Kobe Bryant? Absolutely not, CASE CLOSED!

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Who do you think is better, Kobe or Lebron? Do you agree with all of my points? Let us know what you think. Thank you for following @steemsports and you can catch me @scottybuckets Cheers!

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