I was looking back at an NBA poster made in 2004 and I noticed a certain player missing; Mr. Kobe Bean Byant.
This poster had Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, and Paul Peirce. But no Kobe.
Soon after, I found another old poster: It was the '04 Lakers. Shaquille O’Neal was in the front of a “V formation.” Behind him was Kobe Bryant and Karl Malone. Derek Fisher and Gary Payton were behind them. Devean George and Rick Fox in the back.
Then I remembered: Shaq was always the best player on the Lakers. Kobe was great no doubt. But Shaq was the "Batman." And if you're not the best player on your own team, you're surely not the best player in the NBA.
So I started to do some more remembering. "When... if ever... was Kobe the best player in the league?"
1996-2004
Up until 2004 Kobe was not the best player on
his own team. During his seasons playing with
Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe never once came close to winning an MVP award. Shaq won
the only MVP between them during these years and received plenty of votes for other MVP awards. Shaq also won all three finals
MVPs during their three championships.
And besides Shaq, there were also other players on other teams better than Kobe. Just looking at the people who won MVP’s between 2000-2004; Shaq, Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan (twice), and Kevin Garnett. Also a look at who won
the scoring title those years: Shaq, Iverson (twice), and Tracy McGrady (twice).
Kobe surely was not the best player in the NBA during these years.
2005
This was Kobe’s first year without Shaquille O’Neal, and he
missed the playoffs completely. I’m not saying you have to win the finals with a bad team if
you’re the best player in the league… but can’t you at least carry a team to a
7th or 8th seed playoff berth if you're the best? Meanwhile in 2005, Shaq
was tearing it up in Miami, Iverson won his 4th scoring title, and
Tim Duncan was winning another championships and another finals MVP.
Kobe had
still not taken over as the “best player in the NBA” in this year.
2006-2007
These are the two years Kobe won his two scoring titles. These are also the two years Kobe’s Lakers got knocked out of the first round by Mike
D’Antoni’s Phoenix Suns.
Shaq, still in Miami, won himself another championship in 2006. The young phenom LeBron James (drafted in 2003) was getting better every year. Steve Nash won the MVP. In 2007, young LeBron James carried a bad Cavs team all
the way to the NBA finals. Also in 2007, Tim Duncan won another
championship. Dirk Nowitzki won the MVP.
These two years could go either way as to who was the best player in the NBA. Had Kobe past players like Shaq and Duncan? Had LeBron
already passed Kobe?
2008
Kobe wins his first and only MVP award. LeBron wins the
scoring title. The Lakers trade for Pau Gasol and make their first playoff run
since trading Shaq to Miami.
Unfortunately for both Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined Paul
Pierce's Celtics to form "The Big 3" in Boston. The Celtics beat LeBron James’ Cavs in the playoffs in an
epic 7 game series. LeBron James, in the game 7 losing effort, had 45 points, 5
rebounds and 6 assists. Then Boston went on to beat Kobe’s Lakers in the finals
and it only took them 6 games. Kobe, in the game 6 losing effort, had 22
points, 3 rebounds, and 1 assist.
It's starting to look like LeBron James has become the best basketball player in the NBA.
2009-2010
Kobe goes on to win his 2 “Shaq-less” rings and both Final's MVP awards. But LeBron wins both (his first two of four) of the season MVP awards while having some very impressive stats, including averaging 29.1 PPG, 7.5 RPG, and 8.1 APG over those two years.
Again, it could go either way to who was the best player in the NBA. Was it Kobe? Or was it LeBron and was Kobe simply the best player on the best team ?
2011-retirement
Steadily declining and with injuries from time to time, Kobe never made it
back to the finals. In fact, he never made it back to the Western
Conference finals. Never won another scoring title or another MVP. He retired 2016.
LeBron got better and better, won two more MVPs, did some incredible things and broke a lot of records. He played all 6 finals since and won two (maybe three on Sunday) championships.
Conclusion
Kobe Bryant was, at very best, the best basketball player in the NBA from 2006-2010. And at worse, he was never the best player in the NBA for even a season. Players like Shaq and Duncan were quite possibly the best players in the NBA until about 2006/2007 and then LeBron became the best basketball playing in the NBA at that time.
And perhaps, and usually is the case, its somewhere in between the best and worse case scenario. Either way, most of us remember Kobe Bryant being a lot better than he
really was. Why? Who knows? Perhaps it’s because he played for the LA Lakers (the "Yankees of
the NBA") his entire career. Perhaps it’s because some of his moves reminded
us of our favorite player Michael Jordan.
Whatever it is, as we look back, we can see not only was Kobe not the best player of all time, but he was perhaps never the best player in the NBA for any particular season.
*Edit: My sports friend Andy (who is quite knowledgeable about sports himself) made a few comments when I first started digging into this. I feel his comments bring a lot to the table so here they are:
*Update*
3 days after I wrote this blog, The Herd came out with this video (LINK)
Colin Cowherd: "You could make an argument that Kobe was never the best player in the league."
Nick Wright: (paraphrase) Shaq was the best player in the leauge until at least '04. LeBron has been the best player in the league since '07. So, at best, Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant split 05 and 06 as best players in the league.
(click the link for the exact quotes. 1 min 19 sec video)
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