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... This is not a whose the better player thread because the indisputable answer is MJ.

Rather this is a very very late assessment of phil jackson's 2014 Interview comparing the two. Obviously for the people here that have read it, its clear as day that Phil thought MJ to be the better player in almost all aspects of the game (crediting his hand size, attacking ability, the defence, strength etc.).... the only thing he edged to Kobe was his "flexibility" which is barely a compliment.

Since Kobe passed away not sure about y'all but I have been binge watching videos of him since January and thinking to myself there HAS to be something he was better than michael at. I am 25 so I never saw MJ play really so maybe I am wrong.

So my question is, is Kobe truly a poor man's MJ in EVERY sense of the game or were there aspects that he arguably passed MJ in? Maybe the 3's? but he wasnt really efficient at that. What are you thoughts?

Worse in every aspect. By a lot.

Why

celticfan42487 wrote:Worse in every aspect. By a lot.

So much hate on Kobe

OT but he better than Bird or Paul Pierce.

By a lot.

Kobe spoke more languages and was almost certainly on his way to a more diverse and impactful post career life, the biggest tragedy is that unlike Jordan who'll make plenty of money with his branding and ownership. Kobe was a really diverse and overall intelligent guy. Sure he may never have been better at a single thing than basketball, but I bet he could have done things that had a lot more impact on the world in that second chapter.

On the court Kobe shot 3's a bit better. I think his footwork in the post was a hair better as well, he just wasn't a strong so even with the footwork MJ was a better post scorer.

LBC SoCal wrote:

celticfan42487 wrote:Worse in every aspect. By a lot.

So much hate on Kobe

OT but he better than Bird or Paul Pierce.

By a lot.

Not really.

Better at long 2's I'd say. Better at 3's if he'd had better shot selection with them. I'd say close as a passer.

On the court there really wasn't anything that he did better than Jordan. Certainly not anything meaningful anyway.

If I was to say anything it would be that Kobe could get blistering hot in a way that Jordan really didn't. Kobe has some scoring feats (81 point game, 62 points in three quarters, 55 points in a half) that I'm not sure Jordan could match (even though Jordan was a much more consistent and overall better scorer).

Kobe was a student of the game and replicated a lot of MJ’s moves with a high degree of success. Personally I don’t think Kobe surpassed MJ in any facet of the game, but he was the closest thing to MJ.

I'm 37. So I got to see MJ play in his prime starting in '91 and I saw all of Kobe's career. The best analogy I can give you is that Jordan is Coke and Kobe is diet coke. Yes they have a lot of similarities but just like the coke example you can always tell the difference between Coke and Diet Coke. Coke is just sweeter and tastes better and that's how I felt about MJ's game compared to Kobe's game.

MJ was more athletic and had a quicker first step, higher hops, better fade way,stronger back to the basket post up game, and a higher basketball IQ than Kobe. Kobe would could do all the stuff MJ did but just not as well so it always felt like for older fans like me that we were getting the Diet Coke version of Jordan when it came to watching Kobe.

Kobe was the one guy who I think approached MJs competitiveness and will to win.

Only thing Kobe had on MJ is range and I honestly think that was just due to the era. Trust my youngsta, MJ was different different

Moot point. We all know Lebron is better

LBC SoCal wrote:Bird or Paul Pierce...

These are not the same thing...

Quattro wrote:Kobe was the one guy who I think approached MJs competitiveness and will to win.

Disagree. Kobe quitting on the Lakers in game 7 against the Suns back in '06 is not something MJ would have done.

Jordan had better shot selection. The next generation of scorers mimicked him but when the scoring report card came out, just facepalm.

Every one was trying to be the next Jordan. Liked to have seen Grant Hill or Penny Hardaway reach their full potential. They were not trying to be Jordan but they were good players.

LBC SoCal wrote:

celticfan42487 wrote:Worse in every aspect. By a lot.

So much hate on Kobe

OT but he better than Bird or Paul Pierce.

By a lot.

??????
Bird is top 10
Kobe is top 15
Pierce is top ... 100?

Passing ability is debatable Imo. Three point shooting also. Other than that it’s all MJ.

The only thing Kobe did better than MJ was three point shooting by a smidge and arguably long 2's. HIs footwork was also arguably better at times.

Also, Kobe was a better tough shot maker. In fact, I can't think of anyone who made more difficult crazy shots than Kobe did. Some of the shots this man made were utterly ridiculous and made no sense given his position and how well he was being defended.

I think Kobe was a bit more creative in terms of footwork. He could chain like 4 or 5 moves together that were absolutely dazzling. But I didn't grow up watching MJ so maybe there's a highlight package I'm missing.

Watching Kobe, you got the sense sometimes that everyone else was playing basketball while he was playing Devil May Cry on the hardest mode.