We all know who the real goat is.
But Kobe is the closest we've ever seen to him and right behind him
No doubt. I think as hard as Jordan worked though, Kobe worked more. Kobe was a perfectionist. Not that Jordan wasn’t....but Jordan liked to do other shit....drink...gamble...smoke cigars...stay up late.
To me...Kobe is the goat because of his worth ethic, and like you said he’s as close as it gets to Jordan. Also can make the case Jordan had way better teams.
Kobe won twice with Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol as his main supporting cast and their best knock down shooter in Derek fisher.
Besides Jordan’s last ring....
Kobe won with less.(minus the first 3 with shaq).
Those last two rings for Kobe should put him at 1A or 1B
I know these guys get mythologized over time to be even greater than their legendary careers were, but the Lakers '09 and '10 titles were only 10 years ago. For those particular seasons, they had an elite supporting cast and there wasn't a ton of opposition to the title at the time. Bron was trapped on Cavs still, Durant-Thunder hadn't emerged yet. Spurs had some down years before revamping their offense and getting Kawhi.
In 2009, they beat the Melo-Nuggets and Dwight-Magic to win the title. That's probably the easiest road to a title of any team since I've followed the sport.
2010, they beat the Celtics in the finals in 7 which was legit but a series they should've won as Garnett was never the same player after his '09 knee injury. In the WCF, they beat the last good Nash-Suns team but this team was getting up there, didn't have Shawn Marion anymore either.
Those last 2 rings were years where it was setup very nicely for him to win the title and he did, which is what you are supposed to do as an elite player. But there wasn't anything especially herculean about it like some other superstars in certain years.
