For years, fans have debated on who’s the greatest player of all time. From Magic Johnson to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain; everybody has had its fair share of glory throughout NBA history.
More recently, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant were at the top of younger fans’ debate, as they were the most dominant players of the past two decades, and those who grew up rooting for them believe that they’re the two best to ever do it.
And recently, former All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire – who had the chance to play against both in their primes – weighed in on the debate and said that Kobe was actually a tougher player to guard than LeBron.
Amar’e Stoudemire Says Kobe Had No Weaknesses
“Kobe has a different intellect with the game. Well, he talked whenever you talked to him, he was all business and it was, like, strategic. LeBron was probably harder to play against because he was also more explosive. Actually, I take that back, Kobe’s harder to guard because Kobe, there was no weaknesses.” Stoudemire said, as quoted by Essentially Sports.
While Stoudemire was never much of a defender, he’s got a bit of a point right there. There simply was no way of stopping prime Kobe Bryant, especially considering how obsessively he worked on his craft.
That’s not a diss to LeBron James whatsoever, who I personally believe is the most complete player of all time, but Kobe’s scoring ability is something not many players could ever match or surpass.
At the end of the day, we shouldn’t even be talking about the greatest player of all time because we’ve seen that many legends, that we can’t pick just one of them. But at least in that aspect of the game, I’d also lean towards Kobe Bean Bryant.
What do you guys think?