The Last Caul
by MARK CAUL
Ok. Let’s get something straight. The debate is over. It’s done. Through. Finished.
With another NBA Championship in the bag, to go along with his second Finals MVP trophy, there can’t possibly be a doubt about Kobe Bryant.
He’s No. 2.
Everyone knows Michael Jordan is the indisputable No. 1 NBA player of all time. But while scanning the pages of various sports magazines and listening to the talk show hosts make their rounds on the television circuit, I saw that there was a fair amount of debate among retired NBA players as to where Bryant should rank among the all-time greats.
He’s undoubtedly a better long-range shooter than Jordan, and also a little more skilled all-around offensively. As big a fan as I am of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Julius Erving and the other greats from the past, they just aren’t in his class.
Bird won three NBA titles but wasn’t the all-around player that Bryant is. Magic was a charismatic entertainer and a wonderfully creative offensive player, but he didn’t play top-notch defense or carry his team single-mindedly the way Bryant does. And Russell isn’t in the same conversation as Bryant offensively.
Funny, isn’t it? We spent the entire NBA season watching Bryant and LeBron James compete and asking the question “Who’s better?”
Well, James has no titles, and has no business in that discussion until he gets one.
Bryant got some separation from those guys in this year’s playoff run.
With his team facing elimination, Bryant scored 26 and collected 11 rebounds, and led the Lakers to a Game 6 blowout of Boston that set up a one-game winner-take-all contest.
The stage is never bigger than Bryant. Too often we find professional athletes over-hyped, and prematurely revered, and anointed as legends before they’ve done anything resembling magic.
In this year’s Finals, against the unit that plays the league’s best team defense in the Boston Celtics, Bryant averaged 28.6 points per game. That’s a basket above his season scoring average.
Yet, most of the people I encountered at a sports bar last week were rooting for the Celtics to pull it out, and their reasons had much more to do with Bryant losing rather than Boston winning.
The amount of resentment directed at Bryant was immeasurable, and the mood at the sports bar after the Los Angeles Lakers prevailed over the Celtics in game seven was predictable.
Most people seemed less concerned about the fact that the Lakers had just clinched their 16th championship, and first in a seven game series against the Celtics, and more eager to defend Jordan’s legacy.
The final game was sloppy on the offensive end, but from a defensive point of view, it was a basketball purist’s dream.
However, few people wanted to discuss the dramatic fashion in which the Lakers overcame a 13-point deficit in a game which became an instant classic on ESPN.
In fact, the only word to describe the sentiment towards Bryant was hatred, and as is often the case with that particular emotion, the anger is usually ill-conceived and baseless.
The fans who are so quick to rush to Jordan’s defense have failed to realize that Bryant doesn’t need a comparison to Jordan to validate his career, because his accomplishments stand on their own.
Bryant became the youngest player to eclipse the 25,000 point mark, the leading scorer in Lakers’ history, regular season and postseason, and he managed to capture his fifth NBA championship.
His thumb ring gives him the most of any active player, and to go along with his 28.6-points per game, Kobe also averaged eight rebounds, four assists and two steals per game average during the course of the Finals to help him earn his second consecutive NBA Finals’ MVP award.
Furthermore, Game Seven was a testament to Bryant’s toughness, because even though he suffered through an off shooting night due to the Celtics’ tight defense, he still impacted the game significantly.
He scored 23 points on 6-24 shooting but he did grab 15 rebounds, while displaying the natural instinct to exploit a Celtic weakness caused by Kendrick Perkins’ knee injury.
His deferral to Paul Gasol and Ron Artest at the end of a tight fourth quarter was likely the reason Los Angeles won the game, and it shows an ability to realize the importance of the moment.
Bryant desperately wants to be recognized as one of the greatest talents to ever play the game, and despite the endless comparisons to Jordan, he is well on his way to realizing that goal.
Just because Bryant isn’t Jordan doesn’t mean that he can’t be dually recognized as a great player in his own right, and the best overall talent since “His Airness” roamed the hardwood.
The argument over who the greater player is will never be settled, but it’s silly to deny Bryant his place in history because one feels he doesn’t live up to Jordan’s standards.
Bryant’s impressive career has given him the chance to craft his own legacy and it will live on, despite any comparison to Jordan, and it looks like he could add a few more chapters before he finally calls it quits.
But he’s still No. 2.
And there isn’t any shame in that.
