17 Responses to “Kobe vs. MJ”

1. Sarah Spain, said:

   You just HAD to put a picture of my boyfriend KG with another woman, didn’t you. Sigh…

2. paulmbanks, said:

   Yes Kevin Garnett is hot.

   I remeber when the medicore and talentless Jemelle Hill of ESPN Page2 wrote that God awful “Kobe is better than M Jeff” column. well she did succeed in getting notoriety. and like 2,500 emails on it. When I attended the Poynter Institute Sports Journalism Summitt in 07. She not only was a presenter, she won a freakin award. Her columns…are not very good. And the story she told of how she got her job…..was very flukish b.s.

3. paulmbanks, said:

   Yep. that’s my style.

   But I also know you love Coldplay. And this really hot single mother in Massachusetts posted that Celtics/Coldplay video on my myspace today. quite apt.

   Of course, 90% of the people who post on the site’s myspace page are really hot single mothers. about 80% are female New England sports fans. Now if I can just get a marketing firm to target this demographic and find the perfect advertisers…..

4. David K., said:

   “Michelle, you look good…”

   greatest championship speech ever…

5. Peter Christian, said:

   Sarah you forgot this one:
   Number of hush-hush league imposed suspensions for insane gambling debts - Michael Jordan - 1
   Kobe Bryant - 0

6. paulmbanks, said:

   Michelle does look good. She looks SHORRRTY!! even.

   I agree with Pete, if you bring up Colorado in regards to Kobe then you must bring up M Jeff’s adultery and his gambling addiction.

   You can leave the off-the-court stuff out of the discussion…But if you bring it up you must mention the character shortcomings of both, for adherence to the doctrine of journalistic fairness and equity.

7. seymourpennants, said:

   Yeah, but Kobe can jump over speeding Aston Martins and snake infested swimming pools. Jordan just beat Larry Bird in horse over expressways and across continents.

   Kobe can’t even hold MJ’s jockstrap.

8. Peter Christian, said:

   He can hold the jock strap but only if it was really stinky. Do basketball players even wear jock straps?

9. Damon Vinyard, said:

   I am so tired of having this argument here in LA, I’m not from Chicago, grew up a Wilkins fan (which you either chose between him or Jordon when I was a kid because other than that you only had Bird and he was just to ugly for me to look up to), but I do feel that I know enough about sports to realize a worthless argument when I hear one. The worse part about arguing with most Laker/Kobe fans is that they are so bias toward their convenient love for their team/player they are blinded by the lack of knowledge they possess to support their argument.

10. Greg Vandeventer, said:

    Great article and KB is maybe the best in his era but MJ was the best of all time IMO KB would never have won anything without Shaq and this final embarrassing losses prove it!

11. Jason Moe, said:

    Best Ever MJ..Period…Six NBA finals, 6-0 with 6 MVP’s….

    Yes he had Scottie, Grant, Rodman, Toni K, but MJ knew how to win. That guy would never say die..Reminded me of a younger JASON MOE….

    I was playing street ball one time…LET ME TELL YOU….I WAS FLAMING ON WITH MY JR. HIGH NAME. ask Dave K….Dave and I went to the championship in High-School Lock-in game…We lost, but the other team cheated..Well maybe not, but they were really good…I did not flame on that game, but yet again I looked good…

    Moe Diddy Out!!!

12. Sarah, said:

    P.S. - Got a message from a friend who passed this on to a Kobe fan. His argument was “stats aren’t everything.”

    1) A few stats do not a better player make, but when one player beats out another in almost EVERY stat in the game–it’s hard to argue against the numbers.

    2) If it’s not all about stats, then please refer back to my statements on Jordan’s inability to lose in important games, his clutch play in finals situations, his premiere role within not only his own team but the entire league (something championship years Kobe can’t say), his success without a dominant big man and his ability to take over a game and a globe with his talent and charisma. (I highly recommend you read Walter LaFeber’s “Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism” if you want a more detailed discussion of his influence. Or I could just send you a copy of my college term paper on the subject.)

13. Ruge, said:

    I’d hate to be any of the poor SOBs who would butt heads with you - with stats like that, who could possibly make the argument for Kobe?

    The only I can think that some poor schmo would say is that in three seasons w/o a Hall of Fame cast, MJ was 1-8 in the playoffs and had no winning seasons, averaged 29 ppg and 4.5 assists during the season. Kobe, meanwhile, went 4-8 in the playoffs with two winning seasons, and averaged better than 30 ppg and 5-plus assists.

    Of course, MJ never did screw the pooch in the Finals like #8 just did, nor did he piss everyone off before petulantly seizing the “team” for his own glory until happening upon a Euro-BigMan who played out of his mind for half a season.

    Ms. Spain, you’re right.

14. paulmbanks, said:

    I agree…debating Ms. Spain is certainly no day at the beach…I better bring my A game for the Cubs-Sox exchange next week

15. r.d, said:

    I am the aforementioned friend who passed along Sarah’s article to his Kobe loving friend. My odd (also a Cowboy fan for some reason) friend’s argument was that there are other factors that need to be considered…. i.e. different eras, different teammates (I assumed he meant the level of talent), and rule changes (defensive rules specifically).

    Whether I’m right or wrong, my counter-arguments were…

    1). Different eras - Doesn’t really play because the overall talent has not changed all that drastically in 15 yrs in my opinion

    2). Teammates - Jordan’s best years (statistically) were before he had any talent surrounding him. As better teammates joined him, his numbers actually went down. He incorporated them into his game. Yet when it mattered most (in the playoffs and finals) he took over as a player of his caliber rightly should.

    3). Rules - While he insists the implementation of the zone defense creates more challenges for KB to drive to the basket, unlike MJ. My contention was that the help defense does the same thing. And that the rule changes from then to now are MUCH more offensive minded (no hand checks) and the way game are called are much more conducive to a player like KB. MJ (or anyone else) would get pummeled as they drove to the basket. Case in point - the ‘Jordan rules’ - the Pistons strategy for defending Jordan was to beat him, literally. In today’s game, you won’t see that. And I personally don’t think KB could mentally withstand such a game plan against him. Yet MJ, regardless of the ‘Jordan rules’, would still put 30+ on the pistons.

    Furthermore… while stats don’t tell the whole story, in this case I believe they do. Because the stats used were both the career numbers of each, as well as the career best single season of each. Hard to argue with that.

    That’s my 2 cents.

16. Sarah Spain, said:

    Shaq would like to weigh in on this discussion…

    http://www.tmz.com/tmz_main_video?titleid=1626146951

17. paulmbanks, said:

    I love it when comments come in that are almost as long as the original article itself. There is one guy who sometimes posts on my NBC “bloggings” comments that are 3x as long as my article.

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