Kobe Bryant is considered by most to be the greatest player in Los Angeles Lakers history. However, even though countless current and former colleagues believe he’s one of the best to ever do it, his name is rarely mentioned in the NBA GOAT debate.
That conversation is reserved for Michael Jordan and LeBron James almost exclusively. That’s odd, considering Kobe’s game was eerily similar to Jordan’s and he won more championships than James.
With that in mind, Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green sat down with Shaquille O’Neal to discuss Kobe’s situation, and he had an interesting take on his potential GOAT status.
Draymond Green Talks About Kobe’s GOAT Case
“Here’s why I think he’s not [in the conversation],” Green said on Shaq’s podcast. “Because, number one, he played with you and people hold that against him. Number two, I think Kobe kind of fell in a weird time. And what I mean by that is Mike [Jordan] left the league. When Mike left the league, y’all were dominating. And then you left the Lakers. When you left the Lakers, they had a few rough years, it wasn’t great.”
He believes that the state of the Lakers, plus the fact that LeBron James entered the league shortly after, eventually backfired and prevented Kobe from getting all the love and attention he deserved:
“They didn’t have a great roster. Rudy Tomjanovich, that was that was an epic fail like it just wasn’t great. And while it wasn’t going great, there was a young guy in Cleveland starting to make his hay. And so, in the years where Kobe could have been dominating, which he was from a number’s standpoint, they weren’t winning. So in those years, LeBron [James] was making his hay and starting to make his name as the best player. And I think the amount of time that it was a consensus that Kobe was the number one in the league, like the top guy, I don’t think it was long enough for everybody to say to put him in that conversation, because Bron then came and put his name in the conversation,” Green added.
Per Green, as great a player as Kobe was, he just didn’t get to dominate for as long as both Jordan and LeBron did, which is why his GOAT case gets overlooked so often.
“And so I don’t think he accumulated enough people saying that he dominated the way Mike dominated in the length of the time that Mike dominated, Bron the length of time that he’s dominated. I don’t think Kobe dominated himself for that length of time. And I think that’s why people don’t put him in the conversation,” he concluded.
That might be a valid point. Perhaps Kobe was just a victim of the time he played in. Whatever the case, being the second-greatest shooting guard in a league that’s been around for almost 80 years isn’t too bad either.
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