My Most Misquoted - Kobe Bryant edition:

As a blogger talks and writes about an athlete, particularly if that blogger talks and writes about why they believe an athlete is overrated, said blogger often gets misquoted.

Lately, I have been misquoted about things I have and haven't said about basketball star Kobe Bryant. I want to clear the air. Here are the 3 biggest things from which I am often misquoted about Kobe Bryant and what I actually said about them:

1. "Rings don’t matter."

What I actually believe: Rings do matter! And rings are a very good stat to use when measuring an athletes overall greatness or debating which athlete is better than another. 

What I actually said: Rings are a great stat, but they are not the “tell-all” stat. When measuring an athlete's greatness, their total championships are a great measure, but cannot be the only one. For example: Robert Horry is not a better basketball player than Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, and Moses Malone combine just because “he has more rings than those three combined.” In fact, Robert Horry (7 rings) is not better than either of those three guys! Thus we see you cannot say an athlete is better than another athlete just because they "have more rings.”

2. "Shaq carried those Lakers by himself to all 3 of their titles."

What I actually believe: Kobe was a huge part of that team.

What I actually said: Shaquille O'neal was a luxury that Kobe Bryant had where other great basketball players like Michael Jordan or LeBron James did not. Shaq is arguably one of the best and most dominate players of all time. Shaq was also the most valuable player on those Laker teams. Even if by the smallest of margins, Shaq was the most valuable Laker during that 3-peat. Kobe, no doubt, was very valuable to those teams as well. (Phil Jackson, Robert “Big Shot” Horry, Derrick Fisher, and others also contributed greatly.) Kobe was defiantly not Darko Milicic coming off the bench in garbage time. He played like an all-star no doubt. However, Shaq won all 3 finals MVP’s for a reason. Shaq also won the only season-MVP in those 4 years for a reason. Because he was MOST valuable player to that team (even though Kobe was very, very valuable as well).

3. "Kobe Bryant is not top 10 all time"

Ok. You caught me. I actually said that one. On the “alltime list,” I’ve got Bill, Wilt, Big O, Kareem, Bird, Magic, MJ, Dream, and Shaq well ahead of Kobe. On the outside looking in, I've got Kobe right around all-time greats like Jerry West, Moses Malone, and Tim Duncan.

Links:
My Top 25
Why Kobe is Overrated
My Perfect Mount Rushmore
LeBron: The Scorer