When Michael Jordan retired in 1999 (his second retirement out of three), everyone in the game was asking one question: When are we going to see the next MJ?
Since then, we've been looking for any signs that a player is as talented and ruthless as Air Jordan. Most would say that LeBron has come the closest to matching Jordan, but few think that the title has already been taken.
It has. And it belongs to Kobe Bryant.
Jordan will be remembered for a lot of things (foray into baseball, anyone?), but mostly he will always be known for his ability to score from anywhere, for his ultra−competitiveness and team leadership and for his dominance and tenacity on defense. Oh, and also for the six championships, five MVPs, six finals MVPs, 14 All−Star selections, 10 scoring titles, two gold medals … I could go on.
Take a long look at Kobe. He's got all the attributes; he's ultra−competitive, he plays tenacious defense (perhaps not quite up to Jordan's level, but still within the realm of reasonable comparability) and, most importantly, he can make any shot. Any. Shot.
Get fouled in mid−air as you drive to the basket? Make a no−look shot over your head. Get hip checked out of bounds on the baseline? Make a shot over the backboard for the and−one. Getting suffocated by a double team in the final seconds of a two−point game? Make the three−pointer off the backboard for the win. Kobe's done all of those things — you're welcome to check on Youtube.com if you don't believe me — and those are just a few recent ones.
Kobe isn't the most liked guy in the NBA. Things really turned for the worse after the rape allegations (a surprise, right?) and that, combined with his messy divorce from Shaq, wounded Kobe's public image. Kobe's also been criticized for his supposedly faux leadership (just putting on a show for the cameras) and his alleged propensity to hog the ball.
I'll admit that Kobe might not have the world's greatest character. But at the same time, it's important to note that the rape charges were thrown out and that Shaq has had messy divorces from two more teams in the past few years. Plus, what's really wrong with wanting the ball? When it comes down to the final shot, you know Kobe's going to take it and that's how it should be — that's certainly the way it was with MJ. How can a guy be a leader if he's scared of the big moment?
The fact that Kobe can come off as a jerk only furthers the Jordan similarities. Did you hear MJ's Hall of Fame speech? He was not the nicest guy himself — no John Stockton, to say the least — because it's hard to be nice and have the killer instinct necessary to step on another team's throat. People seem to put Jordan up on a pedestal (what I like to call the "Space Jam" effect), but he is a flawed individual.
Kobe won't equal all of Jordan's awards and accolades, but, at 31 years old, he's still got some time left. Six MVPs will never happen (blame Steve Nash and a voting bias towards Mike D'Antoni's offensive system), but Kobe already has four rings and he's arguably playing on his most talented team ever. It's not a stretch to say that he may in fact end up with more titles than Jordan.
Is Kobe the best player in the NBA? Honestly, I think that honor goes to LeBron. But James is a different animal, a guy who will use his absurd physicality to get what he wants, an advantage that Kobe doesn't have and Jordan didn't have. And he's got a long way to go before approaching Kobe's career numbers.
Look up some old tapes of Jordan and then watch Kobe play. They are nearly the same player. Perhaps it's time we began to appreciate that.
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David Heck is a senior majoring in philosophy. He can be reached at David.Heck@tufts.edu.
