There’s a lot of reasons I can go into on why Kobe is so overrated, but let’s get this out of the way first: When I say Kobe is overrated, I don’t mean he’s not an all time great player, he’s still a top 15 player all time. It’s the fact that because of a variety of factors and his extremely dedicated fanbase, he often gets elevated to top 5 all time, and that’s definitely overrating him, and I’ve written extensively on why before.
The short answer on why Kobe is so overrated is because he’s a player that was marketed very effectively (especially on the Jordan connection) by the media and he has a very dedicated and loyal fanbase that hypes up every little thing he does and will defend him to the death because he was their childhood idol.
Longer answer:
I can boil it down to 5 big reasons why I think Kobe is NOT top 5 all time:
1 – He only has 1 MVP and 2 Finals MVPs.
This is probably the most shallow but obvious argument. How can a player be top 5 all time (and even be in the GOAT convo according to some), yet only have 1 MVP and be the best player on his team for 2 out of his 5 championships? There’s players who have 3 MVPs like Moses Malone who don’t even make the top 10. His fans will say oh but he was robbed of MVPs! And yet there’s no solid argument there. Kobe in his so called prime 2005–2007, was unable to carry his team past the first round, despite having an all time great coach in Phil Jackson and a solid near all star level teammate in Lamar Odom. His fans will constantly talk down Odom and talk about Kwame and Smush, but anyone who saw Odom actually play can see that he was a very talented player.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HXeLJtgBfw&t=204s
^ Lamar Odom puts up 33/10 against the Suns here. That’s not just some ‘scrub’ that Kobe carried. In fact Odom put up 19/11/5 a game in 2006 playoffs and 19/11/3 a game in 2007 playoffs, but Kobe fans will only mention Kwame and Smush as if Odom didn’t exist.
And leading the league in scoring without having a good team record won’t win you MVP – ask Wilt, Jordan, Harden etc (and no it’s not because of his rape trial either that occurred 2 years before the season everyone thought he ‘should have’ won MVP). And Kobe was not on the MVP voting ballot in 2005, 4th place in 2006 (Lebron was actually second place btw) and 3rd place in 2007. How can you be robbed if you weren’t even in 2nd?
And no Kobe did not deserve Finals MVPs when he was with Shaq. In the 2000 Finals, Kobe averaged 15 PPG to Shaq’s 38 PPG it’s not even close.
In 2001 Finals Shaq averaged 33 PPG to Kobe’s 24 PPG. In 2002 Finals Shaq averaged 36 PPG to Kobe’s 27 PPG. That’s not even mentioning Shaq’s massive advantage in RPG.
There’s simply no argument for Kobe being the better player in those years. Kobe fanboys might cite a series here and there where he scored more points, but in the majority of games, Shaq put up better overall stats. You can’t just ignore rebounding as a stat because they played different positions lol you have to take that into account when saying who was more impactful to the team overall and it was definitely Shaq in those years.
2 – He was a very inefficient player and required a very specific team and system built around him to win.
This is a very important reason why because it’s the main reason why advanced analytics all hate Kobe, and advanced analytics do matter somewhat for all time rankings. Outside of the stat sheet, his inefficiency and his poor shot selection had very real impacts on his team results. Most Kobe fans don’t watch his full games, they just watch his highlights. The problem with this is it misses just how many games the Lakers lost because of Kobe’s shot chucking.
This is a huge difference between Kobe and Jordan. Jordan was a lot smarter about his shot selection, and in fact didn’t rely on fadeaways very much until he was older and less athletic. Kobe came with the generation that idolized Jordan, so him and Tmac and Vince Carter and others all tried to copy Jordan’s moves, but the difference is that they didn’t have Jordan’s basketball IQ, didn’t know when to use these moves properly, and were unable to create the same amount of space on their fadeaways. Also Jordan is incredibly athletic so he’s able to create lots of space on his jumpers and fadeaways, which Kobe lacked. Kobe also distrusted his teammates a lot more and would often try to shoot over defenders while being double teamed. All this results in a lower FG% which is why you see Kobe and many others of his time be more inefficient compared to today’s players. They all basically tried to copy Jordan and failed. And funnily enough, Kobe’s inefficiency is often written off by his fanboys because they say ‘he took tougher shots’ which is a free pass for Kobe to shoot as many inefficient jumpers as he wanted. I’ve never seen a player be rewarded for taking bad shots, but yeah Kobe gets praised because it gets twisted into ‘taking tough shots’ lol. Well who asked him to take those tough shots? I don’t care if it’s Kwame Brown that’s open, it’s the right basketball play to pass the ball in those situations. He’s a professional basketball player, why wouldn’t he be able to make those shots? So low basketball IQ is one problem I have with Kobe.
In the 2004 Finals and 2008 Finals, Kobe’s poor shooting is literally the reason why they lost those Finals. Kobe fans will make excuses all day long for him. In 2004 they said he had a rape trial, drama with Shaq, too ‘fatigued’, he was ‘double/triple teamed’, his teammates weren’t stepping up etc. But just watch the 2004 Finals and you can see what really happened. Pistons played Tayshaun Prince on him straight up, no double teams and the only time they would double team him is when Shaq was already in the vicinity going to the baseline so then they would go between him and Shaq. They basically forced Kobe to shoot his usual bad shots, because Shaq was clearly the best player on the court averaging 26 PPG on 60% FG%. Shaq wasn’t bothered by Ben Wallace that much at all. So the less Kobe passed to Shaq, the better. And that’s what the Pistons did, Tayshaun even said this in an interview that was their plan for Kobe. Get him to take all his bad shots instead of giving it to Shaq. And it worked. And you’ll see that as soon as Kobe tries to ‘be the man’ starting in 2003, they start losing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO620J08Mk0
^ See how Tayshuan just defends him straight up and locks Kobe down
In 2008 Finals, same thing, they put James Posey on him and he shoots them out of the series again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YHDJItsGgQ
^ same thing James Posey defends Kobe straight up and locks him down
Even in 2011 when Lakers were defending champs, Kobe averages only 22 PPG vs the Mavs with old Jason Kidd guarding him and they get swept.
Lebron never got locked down by anybody. People who say that Terry and Barea supposedly ‘limited’ Lebron can never show me the footage. Lebron shot 48% in the 2011 Finals, so I don’t know who was locking him down. The reason why Lebron did ‘bad’ that Finals is because the Mavs played great zone defense on him which forced him to pass to open teammates more, but nobody was locking him down or anything. Kawhi won Finals MVP for supposedly ‘locking down’ Lebron in the 2014 Finals but Lebron still averaged 28 PPG on 57% that series. Iggy won Finals MVP for supposedly ‘locking down’ Lebron in the 2015 Finals but Lebron still averaged 35 PPG that Finals. In 2006 and 2007, Pistons doubled Bron with Tayshaun AND Sheed and neither could stop him. Spurs had to put 3 or 4 guys on him in the 2007 Finals in order to actually limit him. So nobody could lock down Lebron, while Kobe has definitely been locked down before.
That’s why Kobe required a very specific team to win, specifically a Phil Jackson led team with a bunch of bigs around him to help compensate for his bad shot making. This is one of the main differences between Kobe and Jordan that most casual fans don’t look into. Jordan has won without another offensive star anchoring the pivot. Pippen was his second offensive star, but never had to be doubled or tripled and definitely not in the post. Kobe on the other hand, had Shaq who took most of the double and triple teams giving him a lot more freedom, and after Shaq he needed not one, not two, but THREE rebounders around him in order to win. He had Gasol, Odom and Bynum all giving him 8–12 rebounds a game! In contrast, Jordan has won with both Horace Grant as his best rebounder, as well as Dennis Rodman who is an all time rebounder. But he never needed that many bigs around him to win. He had Bill Cartwright, Stacey King, Will Perdue and Luc Longley on his championship squads which are a far cry from the Gasol/Odom/Bynum triad that Kobe had.
And that size that the Lakers had definitely was the key to them winning those 2 rings. For example, in the 2009 Finals when they faced the Magic, they had the size to deal with it. With Lebron, the reason why he lost against them is because they had to double 4 positions. Zydrunas couldn’t guard Dwight so they had to double him, Varajeo couldn’t guard Rashard Lewis so they had to double him. Mo Williams was having trouble with Rafer Alston so they had to double him. Delonte West was too short for Hedo Turkogolu so they had to double him too. With the Lakers, they just put Gasol on Dwight, Odom on Rashard, had Bynum as backup, and with Trevor Ariza you didn’t have to worry about Turkoglo or anyone else on that team.
So do not underestimate what Kobe needed to win – when his fans say they would win multiple rings with CP3 its totally delusional as they would be replacing two of their best bigs (Gasol and Odom) with a guy 6 feet tall and who needs the ball in his hands to function well, something that older Kobe has trouble doing which is deferring to other stars so it’s highly doubtful that would have led to anything.
And while I’m here, let’s also debunk the common argument that Kobe ‘carried’ his team to 2 rings.
Kobe’s teammates who averaged over 10 PPG – 2009 playoffs
Pau Gasol – 18 PPG / 11 RPG / 2 APG
Lamar Odom – 12 PPG / 9 RPG / 2 APG
Trevor Ariza – 11 PPG / 4 RPG / 2 APG
Kobe’s teammates who averaged over 10 PPG – 2010 playoffs
Pau Gasol – 20 PPG / 11 RPG / 3 APG
Metta World Peace – 11 PPG / 4 RPG / 2 APG
Derek Fisher – 10 PPG / 2 RPG / 3 APG
Lamar Odom – 10 PPG / 9 RPG / 2 APG
Lebron’s teammates who averaged over 10 PPG – 2013 playoffs
Dwayne Wade – 16 PPG / 5 RPG / 5 APG
Chris Bosh – 12 PPG / 7 RPG / 2 APG
Ray Allen – 10 PPG / 3 RPG / 1 APG
Lebron’s teammates who averaged over 10 PPG – 2014 playoffs
Dwayne Wade – 18 PPG / 4 RPG / 4 APG
Chris Bosh – 15 PPG / 5 RPG / 1 APG
See that? Kobe had about as much if not more help in 2009–2010 than Lebron had in his last 2 years in Miami! But no one would say that Lebron carried his teams in Miami, they all said Lebron had a super stacked superteam right? Cause the casual fan only looks at the names and not what actually happened on the court. And Kobe fans want to push the narrative that he carried his teams by himself, beat the Celtics superteam and all those 50 win teams by himself.
3 – All of Kobe’s best games were in the regular season, not postseason
This is the reason why Kobe fans hype up his regular season games so much. His 81 point game, his 62 in 3 quarters vs the Mavs, his 50–60 point ‘scoring explosions’, etc all regular season. Phil Jackson was giving him a green light to shoot 30–40 times a game in those seasons against a mix of good and bad defenses. Now come playoffs when the opponents get better and the teams get better, Kobe doesn’t have many of those scoring explosions anymore.
^ not hard to average 30+ PPG when you shoot this many times. This is all time leader for FGAs in a game.
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/most-career-playoff-games-by-a-player-with-40-or-more-pts
If you check out this graphic, Kobe is still a great scorer in the playoffs don’t get me wrong, but he has less 40 point games than Jordan by a mile, Lebron, West, KD and Baylor. Remember, this is a player many said was an ‘unstoppable’ scorer, you would think he’s higher than that. And he has exactly 1 career 50+ point game, which was against the Suns in 2006. Donovan Mitchell actually has more 50 point playoff games than Kobe does, which is kind of crazy.
Now think of Kobe’s best playoff games, how many can you think of? He had a 48/16 game against the Kings in 2001, 45/10 against the Spurs in 2001, he had that 50pt game against the Suns in 2006, and he had a 40/8/8 game against the Magic in the 2009 Finals. Maybe that 40+ point duel vs Melo in the 2009 series vs the Nuggets. That’s really about it. If you look back on all of Kobe’s playoff and Finals games, it’s shocking how few genuinely great all time games he’s had for a guy who’s supposed to be ‘top 5’ all time. And let’s take a look at Kobe’s Finals performances, how he did on the biggest stage:
Kobe’s best Finals (2009 Finals): 32.4 PPG / 5.6 RPG / 7.4 APG / 43% FG%
So Kobe’s best Finals was in 2009 and we can see that compared to that, ALL of Lebron’s Finals after 2011 are better than Kobe’s best:
Lebron – 2012 Finals – 28.6 PPG / 10.2 RPG / 7.4 APG / 47.2% FG%
Lebron – 2013 Finals – 25.3 PPG / 10.9 RPG / 7.0 APG / 44.7% FG%
Lebron – 2014 Finals – 28.2 PPG / 7.8 RPG / 4.0 APG / 57.1% FG%
Lebron – 2015 Finals – 35.8 PPG / 13.3 RPG / 8.8 APG / 39.8% FG%
Lebron – 2016 Finals – 29.7 PPG / 11.3 RPG / 8.9 APG / 49.4% FG%
Lebron – 2017 Finals – 33.6 PPG / 12.0 RPG / 10.0 APG / 56.4% FG%
Lebron – 2018 Finals – 34.0 PPG / 8.5 RPG / 10.0 APG / 52.7% FG%
Lebron – 2020 Finals – 29.8 PPG / 11.8 RPG / 8.5 APG / 59.1% FG%
But that’s just Lebron, let’s take a look at some other guys nobody would ever put in the GOAT convo:
Kevin Durant (2017 Finals): 35.2 PPG / 8.2 RPG / 5.4 APG / 55% FG%
Hakeem Olajuwon (1995 Finals): 32.8 PPG / 11.5 RPG / 5.5 APG / 48% FG%
Dwayne Wade (2006 Finals): 34.7 PPG / 7.8 RPG / 3.8 APG / 47% FG%
Giannis (2021 Finals): 35.2 PPG / 13.2 RPG / 5.0 APG / 62% FG%
Shaq (2000 Finals): 38.0 PPG / 16.7 RPG / 2.3 APG / 61% FG%
Dr J (1976 ABA Finals): 37.7 PPG / 14.2 RPG / 5.3 APG / 59% FG%
Jerry West (1969 Finals): 37.9 PPG / 4.7 RPG / 7.4 APG / 49% FG%
Rick Barry (1967 Finals): 40.8 PPG / 8.8 RPG / 3.3 APG / 40% FG%
All of them have better Finals than Kobe’s best too. So tell me how you can be a top 5 player all time when you only have a handful of great playoff performances and a whole list of non top 10 guys have had better Finals than you ever did?
4 – Kobe’s clutch ability is overrated
Kobe is perceived as ‘all time’ clutch and called a ‘cold blooded killer’ on the court, and yes he does have the most game winners and buzzer beaters – in the regular season. But again with the regular season, we know Kobe shoots a lot in the 4th quarter, and he has a lot of close games, which is part of the reason why he has that many game winners. once again, come playoffs time, his clutch ability decreases.
Kobe – 22.3 PPG / 5.7 RPG / 3.4 APG on 44% FG% in elimination games.
Lebron – 33.5 PPG / 10.8 RPG / 7.3 APG on 48% FG% in elimination games.
Kobe is 8-11 in elimination games while Lebron is 12-9.
Kobe was also 7-28 on shots in the last 24 seconds of games and 5-22 in the final 10 seconds. He has only 1 buzzer beater in the playoffs.
Lebron is 8-20 in the final 24 seconds of a game and 6-11 in the final 10 seconds. He also has 5 buzzer beaters in the playoffs, the most of anyone all time, and is 7-15 on go ahead shots in the last 5 seconds in the playoffs
He’s never had a playoff moment even close to Lebron scoring last 29 out of 30 pts versus Detroit in 2007 or Lebron putting up a 45/12/5 stat line on the verge of elimination versus the Celtics in 2012, or scoring 16 straight points in the 4th quarter of the 2013 Finals before that famous Ray Allen shot or that huge block on Iggy in the 2016 Finals or averaging a 30 point triple double in the Finals like Lebron did in 2017 Finals or having a 40 point game on a ridiculous 73% shooting like Lebron did in 2020 Finals. So what Kobe does have is a highlight moment in some quarter here and there like in the 2000 WCF vs the Blazers he takes over in the 4th quarter of Game 7, and when he stepped up when Shaq fouled out in the 2000 Finals Game 4, but he doesn’t have that many of these moments, and they are only for a quarter not even for an entire game or series.
You can’t be considered a top 5 player all time when your best playoff moments are for a quarter here and there. You need to have consistent legendary performances in an entire series.
^ this is his playoff performance clutch record. So when people talk about Kobe being ‘all time’ clutch, it really is just limited to the regular season, just like his scoring performances.
And in addition to him shooting his team out of the Finals and getting swept in 2011, the 2006 playoffs has to be mentioned because the Lakers were up 3–1 in that series and they end up choking that series with Kobe giving up on his team in the Game 7. Kobe fans say he carried them to 3 wins, but look at what the context is: the Suns have Nash and Marion and no Stoudemire. They have no size at all. The Lakers have a better coach in Phil Jackson, and have size – they have Odom putting up 19/11/5 a game and Marion couldn’t really contain him, and they even have Kwame and Luke Walton both putting up 12/6 a game that series. That series was definitely winnable as the Lakers had the size advantage and everywhere was a mismatch. In addition Kobe was supposedly the best player in the world. So that series was definitely a choke.
The 2010 Finals also has to be mentioned because Kobe almost shoots them out of that Finals too with a 6/24 performance in the Game 7. Artest hits a clutch 3 pointer and Gasol grabs an incredible 18 rebounds in that game to help them win it by 4. They barely get a win in that series even against an older Celtics squad with a post surgery KG (and that old Celtics team they barely beat is indeed Kobe’s toughest Finals opponent, hence why his Finals record looks pretty good). Then his fans act like Kobe beat that Celtics superteam by himself lol.
5 – Kobe’s defense is overrated
The last major point I want to talk about is his defense.
Kobe fools casuals into thinking he’s a great defender because he has 12x All-Def selections. In his early years, especially 1999–2003 he was a very solid defender but after that, he started slacking off on defense. A lot of these All-Def selections were not deserved, and based on his reputation.
In fact, Phil Jackson even says in his book The Last Season, that Kobe was an overrated defender and shouldn’t have gotten those All-Def selections. That’s his own coach!
In 2005, Shaq is no longer on the Lakers and the Lakers drop to the bottom in defensive rating with Kobe being the main star on the team. If he was a great defender why did this happen?
In his later years, Kobe was negligible on defense and literally bottom of the league in DBAPM. Lots of proof out there of Kobe’s overrated defense.
In fact, many guards have gotten their career HIGHS on Kobe – Gilbert Arenas got 60 pts on him, Jeremy Lin got 38 pts on him, Stephon Marbury got 50 pts on the Lakers, Allan Houston got 53 on the Lakers etc and you can easily find footage of everyone from old Latrell Sprewell, old Penny Hardaway, Bonzi Wells, Ray Allen, Brandon Roy to Iverson, Lebron, Steve Francis, Manu, etc everyone got their career averages or better on Kobe.
In the 2000 Finals, Jalen Rose outscored Kobe by a whopping 8 more PPG. In the 2004 Finals, Kobe couldn’t guard Rip Hamilton and Rip got his every time. Then he guards Chauncey Billups in the final Game 5 and Billups wins Finals MVP. He guards Paul Pierce in 2008 and Pierce wins Finals MVP. In 2011 2nd round, Jason Terry shoots 65% against him with a record 9 3 pointers in the Game 4.
^ old injured Penny Hardaway doing well against Kobe
^ This is Nuggets Iverson getting 51 on him.. lol
And remember some of his few great playoff games were those 40+ pt duels vs Melo right? See, an elite defender would never have those duels because they would be shutting down the opposing player. That’s why you never see any Jordan duels, they just didn’t happen because Jordan was shutting down the opposing player every time. With Kobe you see alot of duels happen and if Kobe was a 12x All-Def player how does that happen? lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1iqLjTa3gM&t=208s
Here’s Kobe basically just standing around letting guys get to the basket…
On the other hand, Lebron is an underrated defender and has literally guarded every position and played lockdown defense in his prime (he was 2nd in DPOY voting in 2013).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFvDkMxoxZk&t=164s
^ here even older 35 year old Lebron can play lockdown defense on Jamal Murray (who Paul George + Kawhi struggled with the previous round)
Of course, Lebron almost always prevails in their head to head matchups. He’s 16-6 against Kobe and outscores Kobe by 4 PPG on 4% better efficiency – see
https://stathead.com/tiny/4336t
These are just a couple points I want to make about why Kobe is not a top 5 player all time.. his fans literally hype up everything he does. Every moment gets an anniversary and a highlight reel. He makes 2 free throws on a torn achilles (which doesn’t require much movement to make FTs btw)? that’s GOAT material. He plays with a broken index finger and his fans hype it up like ONLY Kobe could do it. Let’s just pretend that Bird, McHale, Isiah, Pippen, etc many other superstars didn’t have to play through injury before. He gets a ball waved in his face by Matt Barnes and he doesn’t flinch? Legendary. He has a one great quarter in a game and his fans act like it’s the second coming of Christ. Literally every small tiny moment Kobe does is hyped up to the moon and back.
Remember when CP3 had that perfect 14/14 game a few weeks ago against the Pelicans? Totally forgotten, everyone just remembers he choked against the Mavs now. Remember that Jamal Murray vs Donovan Mitchell 50+ point duel in the 2020 playoffs? How about Ja Morant putting up a 47/8/8 line against the Warriors this playoffs? Forgotten already. Even Dwight Howard had a 40 PT 14 RBD game against Lebron’s Cavs in 2009 in the closeout game 6 and people just remember him as a washed up joke. Hakeem and David Robinson both had quadruple double games. KD had a 49 point triple double game against the Bucks in the 2021 playoffs coming off of an achilles injury no less. Giannis had a 50 pt game to close out the 2021 Finals. David Thompson had a 73 point game without a 3 pt line. Luka Doncic has put up numbers Kobe can only dream of in the playoffs so far. Jimmy Butler just had a 47/9/8/4 vs the Celtics in an elimination game. Are any of these guys top 5 all time or in GOAT convo? See, if Kobe had ANY of these games it would be hyped up like crazy. Case in point – everyone remembers Kobe’s last game right? He shot 50 times and scored 60 pts against a Jazz team that barely played any defense against him. People have anniversaries to celebrate this game. Meanwhile, Lebron scored 56 pts against a Warriors team that had Curry, Draymond and Andrew Wiggins all trying to stop him and he did it in his 19th season on 61% shooting. Everyone already forgot about it.
Not to mention, Kobe’s personality made him very hard to play with. Shaq and Dwight were two casualties of Kobe’s ego and Kobe basically got them traded, very few free agents wanted to play with Kobe later on, Kobe actively recruited KG and Dirk and got denied and Kobe himself wanted to be traded too before the Lakers got Gasol.
https://www.si.com/nba/2016/02/10/kobe-bryant-lebron-james-trade-2007-lakers-cavaliers
Lakers even wanted to trade Kobe straight up for Lebron and Cavs refused (lol).
So there’s the (much) longer answer on why Kobe is so overrated. He has a cult of personality and his fans post misleading information about him, hype up everything he does, and sometimes actively lie about what Kobe did hoping that nobody would look up the actual stats or footage. I’ve caught some Kobe fans saying that Kobe outscored Shaq in total points in the playoffs (false) or that Kobe averaged 30/7/7 in the playoffs (never happened). Some of them said Shaq + Lakers didn’t start winning until Kobe was promoted to a starter; this is false since Kobe was a starter in 1999 and they didn’t win then (it was arrival of Phil Jackson that made them winners). Some of them thought that Stoudemire was in the starting lineup in 2006 (he was out that year). Or Kobe has one good game in 2000 Finals Game 4 that they will praise him but then he has an 8 point game in Game 5 and they say he’s injured, such a convenient excuse that he’s not even consistently injured throughout a series? lol. Or they will praise Kobe for playing through pain and injuries but then use it as a convenient excuse (ie. 2005, 2008, 2011) whenever he loses. They get their facts and history mixed up and just hope that nobody fact checks them and calls them out on their lies.
Thing is Kobe fans tend to be quite casual with statements like ‘Shaq couldn’t win until he got Kobe!’ these kinds of statements are very general and simplistic but we can dig into why it’s wrong; first of all Kobe was promoted to a starter in 1999 and they didn’t win that year. The reason why the Lakers started winning was Phil Jackson who implemented the triangle offense and taught Shaq a lot of good habits and defensive techniques. prime example of this is Orlando Shaq while already a specimen didn’t have the good habit of looking at his blindspots for cutters to keep the defense honest. So Jordan’s Bulls were able to exploit that. Jordan, Pip and Harper would overplay on D Scott and Nick Anderson so they couldn’t even catch the ball to feed Shaq and isolate Penny Hardaway on an island, and if they do give it to Shaq then they try to catch him on his blind side. This was Shaq’s bad habit and they exploited it to cut off his entry points. Phil Jackson when he went to the Lakers, was able to fix this habit, so Lakers Shaq catches the ball, doesn’t move yet, peeks over his shoulder to see if there’s any help defense, read the defense to see if there’s a cutter and keep the defenses honest, and now the help defenders know Shaq will be looking first and will find a cutter – if they try to cheat and help on him, this limits doubles on him and then he can go 1v1 on the guy and destroy him. These are the things these Kobe fans don’t know cause they don’t really analyze the game, they’re all about their points and rings and highlights and don’t get into the details of the game so they just say oh well Shaq didn’t win until they got Kobe. Such a simplistic generalization of what actually happened.
What’s even more annoying is the fact that if you do fact check them on their lies and call out what makes Kobe overrated, they call you a Kobe hater with an agenda. Well, when you’re going to put a guy in the GOAT convo or say he’s top 5, and don’t give any good arguments to why, then somebody who’s going to say ‘hey, well wait a minute here…’ you call them a Kobe hater when it’s just giving him the proper scrutiny he deserves if ur going to rank him that high? Geez.
Or they’ll insult you by saying ‘you don’t know basketball’ ‘you clearly didn’t watch Kobe play’ ‘NBA players all take Kobe over Lebron!’ etc when it’s very likely that it’s them that didn’t really watch any of the games or know much basketball because they never break down or analyze any of Kobe’s games like I did in this post and just go off about his 5 rings, Finals record and how many points he scored (all very casual things to look at). And they’ll talk about an outdated quote a player made about Kobe over Lebron that happened before Lebron even won his 1st ring or take a quote out of context (for example, Larry Bird in a 2012 interview only said he would rather play with Kobe, but then goes on to say Lebron is the best player of his era but they conveniently leave that out and then twist it to make it seem that Bird said that Kobe is better than Lebron which isn’t what he said).
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