Transcription
RMPs, so future NBA Hall of Famer and current basketball legend Kobe Bean Bryant made an appearance on the James Corden show to promote his Luciferian book, Wise Nard, so that he can continue the indoctrination of the children of America into the concept of witchcraft.
And while he was there, he was placed in a very precarious situation. He was confronted with the option of either eating some rotten spoke out tongue, or he must rank three NBA greats in a particular order: that being himself, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James.
And he acted as if the cow tongue was too nasty to eat. And he finally put forth to the masses what he's always thought, and what we've already known. Kobe has thought for a long time that being that he's the greatest player in the history of the NBA. Because for him to put himself above Michael Jordan, that's basically him saying, "I'm the greatest player ever in the history of the league."
And I have no problem with Kobe saying that because I believe that he thinks that. I just know that he knows that he's not. And what Max Kellerman is going to do is basically reiterate or state in a different way what I've always said about Kobe. That being that he knows that he cannot prove his greatness over Jordan, because there's no stat that he's better than Jordan in, including winning championships.
So, of course, they're going to talk about it. No more. I'm in for a moment. And what you think of his ranking? Does this prove to you that Kobe Bryant really cares? Of course, he cares. He's always, everybody knows that he cares. That's why I did a video about it called "Kobe Bryant Still Lying to His Fans" talking about, "I don't care about the GOAT debate." I mean, give me a break. That's all you've cared about.
And I have no problem with that because Kobe was great enough to be concerned about his name being included in the "quote unquote" GOAT debate. He just loses out because there was very little difference or disparity between how he played and how Michael Jordan played. And Jordan, which is naturally greater in every way. He was a more proficient shooter. He was more efficient on offense. He was a better defender. He was better at steals, better at shot blocking, better in the clutch, better in a big moment. He does well.
I want to be specific about the way in which he does. Kobe's belief in himself, of course, he's put himself first. That's what made him so great. He believes that he was the best ever. And that means any court he ever stepped on, he believed he is the best player. Good for him. And he was almost right. Top all-time. I know, top 15 all-time. Um, but he cares about it. But has to say, and may even believe that it doesn't care about it anymore because it's not convinced himself to believe that he doesn't care. Not objective anymore. There's no scoreboard, really. It's just subjective.
But the fact is, it's not subjective. You can come up with a pretty objective measure. But no objective measures, Kobe Bryant, the best player ever. Thank you, sir. And you gallantly tried to be by being Jordan 2.0. But in fact, he was Jordan 0.9. Like he was all agree, almost Jordan, but not quite.
And because his game was so similar, and they played more or less in the same era before it really changed with the three-point shot. Oh, kind of, sort of, but not quite. Michael Jordan played in the 80s and 90s. Of course, he had a little swan song in the early 2000s. Kobe Bryant actually played in a far more defensive league than Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan actually initiated the league that Kobe Bryant played in, that being the hero ball era. Michael initiated that in the 90s as well.
You have so many players who got drafted in the mid to late 90s, the Kobe Bryants, the Allen Iversons, the Paul Pierces, the Vince Carters, the Tracy McGrady's. All those guys tried to play like Jordan. And all the teams in the NBA tried to build up those players as being their Michael Jordan. And they all played in the same way. Give that player the ball at the top of the key or on the elbow, let them go one on one. And that hurt the league for a while because none of those players were able to play in that style as well as Jordan.
Every respect from, if you talk to some of our teammates, to the actual numbers they put up, to the numbers in the context of their leagues, to the championships, to the performances in Game Sevens, at the close, close of games, to defensive measures. Every single way, Jordan's a little better than Kobe. I wouldn't, I just say a little better. He's discernibly better. So he loses a direct comparison. The objective record he left behind.
But you can't change any more clothes. The point he doesn't want to be proven. And so since he doesn't believe it, which is why he's so great, he can't like it's just best to stay away from it for him. I agree. Because then, then that would take him to his own where he starts making excuses about the style of play. And that's the reason why I did not average as many points as Jordan, or the league was more defensive, that's why my shooting percentages were so low, and so on and so forth. He knows that he would look very bad if he were to start eliciting excuse upon excuse up on excuse, which is what he would have to do in order to make up the gap between himself and Jordan.
And that's why I think, in fact, he does care. But he can't tell himself that he does. Well, he definitely cares. But he's a pragmatist, which both of you can appreciate to some degree. He's not gonna spend a lot of time arguing about something he can't definitively convince somebody. People are entitled to their own opinions. Kobe is not gonna waste energy trying to convince you of what he believed.
But I will tell y'all an inside story. Years ago, Kobe Bryant goes off to me personally about how he felt he was better than Michael Jordan and how he felt that he will bust Michael Jordan's, you know what. And I'm laughing because it's Michael Jordan. Kobe, leave me there. My face sick. I'm serious. That's what truly endeared Kobe Bryant to Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan loves Kobe Bryant because of that. That's why he always had so much respect for him, even when Kobe was on the come-up in the late 90s, because he saw within Kobe a kindred spirit, someone who was not intimidated or fearful.
Now, Michael knows that he's better than Kobe Bryant. But he loves the verb and the pizzazz that Kobe had within himself to take on all challenges. Call them check. MJ. It's the least on the laughing. Yeah, you told me. He says it all. But I'm David, like, yeah, he told me that with his [ __ ] ass. But that's okay. Little brother always wants to be a big brother. But, uh, he dead serious.
So what we need to understand is that you can point to ratings, metrics, we can point to the eye test, we can point to different eras. Well, the eye test is always a refrain of people who know that they cannot prove what they're trying to assert. Kobe Bryant's fans are eye test masters. Kobe Bryant, of all the points that he scored, 2,086 assists that would give it to him. Only two of our point guards. The other four leaders in assists to him were from forwards or centers. You got winners in here. I got a list here. Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, Shaquille O'Neal, Pau Gasol, Rick Fox, Smush Parker. Those were the individuals that are accountable for the assists to some of Kobe's points in his career, okay? Only two of them were guards. The others were forwards.
So Kobe's thinking about what he had to do in order to, you know, look up his ordinal numbers along those because they both played in the triangle for the same coach with similar type of point guard. And to Max Kellerman's point, playing in the triangle, you cannot look up assist numbers to him or even from him because the triangle is not a system that is predicated on making sure that one player piles up assists. That was one of the early offensive systems that started to nullify the, the me-first point guard, meaning the point guard who was just compiling assists because he had the basketball in his hands all the time.
So, I mean, unless you're going to look up Michael Jordan's stats according to those same metrics, as Max Kellerman has already stated, let him bring that up. And this notion, "Oh, Kobe Bryant was me, I had to play with certain players and that's the reason why my stats are lower." Knock it off. But not simpler type of supporting cast in terms of Scottie Pippen with the other guys. Well, Michael Jordan competed with Shaq and other guys. It's just different. I'm not saying I understand. I'm just saying. But you know, for the most part, he was down. He got four more, right?
But why bring it up? Why bring it up? Everybody knows that Kobe Bryant played the same role in the Lakers' offensive game playing as Michael Jordan did. It's not about, it's not about who got the assist on the pass to Kobe. Knock it off. My only point is bringing that up is to say, you talk to Kobe. The important thing to understand for us all, he's not playing. No, he believes. For him to believe it. But every shred of evidence points to Jordan, which is why it's him. It's Jordan, and LeBron, according to him.
Let me quickly say, Kobe's all. I agree with that Max Kellerman. That's a great observation for Kobe. But he says, "Me, then Jordan, then LeBron." That's really him saying, "It's Jordan, then me, then LeBron." But he had to say himself first. He's also told me, you know what? If Jordan came in the league with Wilt Chamberlain, right? Yes. That was a refrain by Kobe. That was a way for him to try to allege that the reason why I was never able to compile a lot of the phenomenal offensive statistical seasons that Michael Jordan was, is because I was hampered by the presence of Shaq.
When in all reality, your career arc was escalated by Shaquille O'Neal because Kobe was not a good enough player to be proficient on offense and defense and also be able to lead his team to championships at that young of an age. As I've stated in other videos, Kobe did not truly become an all-around great player until the 2007-2008 season, which, ironically enough, is the one and only season that he won an MVP award in the regular season. Prior to that, Kobe was viewed as the greatest attraction in the NBA. In the aftermath of him running off Shaq, Kobe fans loved to point to the 2005-2006 season and the 2006-2007 season when Kobe averaged well over 30 points per game. But during that time period, once again, Kobe was viewed as a player who was never going to win a championship. He was viewed as a gunner. That's how he was viewed. And he knows it. So that time period did not really augment the time period of winning championships with Shaq. Really, Shaq looked like an even greater player for being able to win alongside Kobe. Kobe was viewed as a sidekick. That's why it was so pivotal for Kobe to be able to lead a team to multiple championships in the late 2000s. That truly redeemed his role on the first three-peat team. That's when people started to look at those early championships as his championships as well, not just Shaq's. Because Shaq left the Lakers, went to Miami, and really should have won back-to-back titles. They should have won in '05, but D. Wade got hurt in the '05 Conference Finals. And then, of course, in '06, D. Wade gets all the referee calls in the finals, and they win those finals.
But, you know, it's just, you have to, you have to really understand how things transpired in certain eras to be able to make correct assessments. But as Max Kellerman is saying, I already knew that Kobe was going to try to make the "Shaq will slow me down early in my career" argument because he always does that. He blames Shaq for why he didn't have eight or nine straight 30-point per game seasons shooting 50% from the field like Michael did. Please keep in mind, Kobe Bryant never in any season shot as high from the field as Michael Jordan shot in his worst season in Chicago. I mean, a lot of people don't understand that. And Michael Jordan's worst healthy season, full season in Chicago, Kobe Bryant never shot from the field in the season that Michael Jordan's last year with the Bulls. I believe Jordan shot something like 46.8% from the field. I don't think they call B. Bryant had a season in LA when he shot 47%, right? Because that's what happened with Shaq and him. You know, points that out to say, like, it's difficult for me to prove my case. I was playing next to the modern-day Wilt Chamberlain. My response to that is, if Phil Jackson had Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain on the same team, they would win the championship every year. Jordan won the chip in seven games. He'd win it another four games. Michael Jordan played. But Wilt Chamberlain, they definitely would have won championships because Michael Jordan actually knew how to play with other great players because he went to North Carolina, and he was prepped on how to play in a role system. That's why I always state that Kobe Bryant and LeBron James actually hampered their potential as NBA players by going straight from high school to the pros. As a high school basketball offensive system, it's totally based on highlighting your best player, especially if you have an ethereal level talent. They're not told. Kobe and LeBron were not told, "Make sure that we run these sets." We're not running any real sets. It was, "Get the ball to Kobe, get the ball to LeBron." So had the both of them went to Kansas or Duke or North Carolina or wherever, they would have learned to understand the game at a far higher level. And it probably would have stopped a lot of the clashes that Kobe had with Shaq. Because at the end of the day, he could blame Shaq all he wants. He had a season, I think in '01, where he averaged almost 30 a game. He had another season in '03 where he averaged 30 a game. So Shaq was not slowing him down to the degree that he tries to act like Shaq was. And on top of that, Kobe really had no idea how to play with others. It was just, he was an incredible talent.
Hold on. I want you guys to go somewhere. Whitney's first answer this question for me. Let's set aside Kobe for one second. Do you think Michael Jordan cares about this debate? This, of course, he does. But Michael Jordan already knows that for all intents and purposes, he's the king. And it's very difficult to knock him off that throne because he has a mystique. See, it's not really even about what you did. It's about the mystique. People consider Muhammad Ali the greatest boxer of all time, and he was not undefeated. He did not have the most knockouts. What Ali has is the mystique. Same thing with Jim Brown in football. Jim Brown is not the all-time leader in rushing in the NFL. He's got the all-time leader in touchdowns, but he has the mystique. So many people still consider him the greatest NFL player of all time. Michael has the mystique. In baseball, you have Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth is not the all-time leader in home runs, but he has a mystique. Kobe and LeBron, they have no mystique compared to Jordan. So they're never going to be considered greater than him, other than by their individual fans.
He cares about winning the GOAT debate? No, not directly. And what I mean by that is, is that I've explained this to Max on several occasions, and others. It's not that they care about the individual comparisons. They care about the criteria. When LeBron retires, it's not gonna be, and you have somebody else want to come up that we're saying is better than LeBron. It's not that. He's gonna look at the individual play and say, "Oh, that guy's better than me." No, he's not better than me. He's going to look at the criteria. He's going to look at the style of play. He's going to look at the times that we're living in. He's going to look at the rules that favor particular offensive play or a system, rather. Like today's game is much softer than the games record back in the day. You understand that?
Steph Curry wouldn't have been what he is because they had hurt him. They put something on him. Whatever, dude. You know, I get so tired of this Steph Curry stuff. Steph Curry is the only player in today's game where people go out of their way to say, "If he played back in the 80s, he would not be the player that he was." No one says it's about Dame Lillard or Chris Paul or Russell Westbrook or whoever. It's just assumed that they would still be the same player if they played back in the 1980s. No matter what era Steph Curry would have played in, he would have been a highly impactful player. Now, of course, right now in this era, they don't hand check, per se. But the things that Steph Curry would have been able to do to adapt would have still allowed him to be highly effective.
Steven A. Smith and many of these people, they get on TV, they try to act like the NBA was football back in the 80s, and it wasn't. It just was not. As a matter of fact, in the 80s, it was very free-flowing, and the offensive metrics were very high. The NBA right now is just starting to get back to the offensive output and the offensive metrics that they reached back in the 80s. It was the 90s that was a very defensive era. But Steph Curry would have had to have done what many of the other players did back in the 90s, which is getting away from him and hit them weights really hard. Right now, it's not as important to have so much muscle mass because the game is so free-flowing. But this notion that Steph Curry would not have been a great player back in the 80s is nonsense. Isiah Thomas, about six feet and a half, maybe six-one, probably weighed about 180. You got a player named Michael Adams who was on the Bullets who was about 5-8, 160 pounds. I mean, give me a break. Rules allowed you to get physical. So they pay attention to those kind of things. In other words, the Jordan Rules that were implemented by the Bad Boy Pistons. Mr. Jordan thinks about having to go through that to ascend to the point that he ascended to. And he's asking, "Who else had to go through that?" So they look at those things. And if we're not consistent with the criteria we utilize to judge those guys, that's when guys get their back up and they're offended. If you're judging everybody by the same accord, and you can believe what you want, they might debate or argue with you, but it's no big deal. But when they get their back up and they're very, very serious about it, it's when we change the standing up to a two or less rigid fashion. Yeah, like you done with LeBron James, making excuses for his poor performances in many pivotal moments with this nonsense about how he's played greater competition than Michael Jordan. When has that ever been a part of the criteria where players are evaluated in that way? Well, yeah, Jordan 6, you know, when LeBron is 3 and 6. But it's not just about championships. LeBron also played a type of competition in Jordan. What are you talking about? LeBron James played on the only super team in the NBA all the way from 2010 to 2016. So he actually underperformed in the finals in that time period. It's his fault. It's not, it's not anybody else's fault. Oh, well, you know, he wouldn't give two Spurs. And the Spurs had, you know, three Hall of Famers. Okay, so did the Heat. You lost. Oh, well, Golden State's a super team. Golden State did not become a super team until the 2016-2017 season when they signed Durant. And even then, LeBron James has to outplay Kevin Durant. And you still have Kyrie against Steph. And you know, those two teams were supposed to be evenly matched after Golden State signed KD. It's still unbelievable what Golden State was able to do that regular season in 2016 with the dearth of talent that they had. That team was not that talented. They had Steph Curry, they had Klay Thompson, and really, who else? Harrison Barnes, a nice role player. People overrated that team so much. It really is a wonder what they were able to accomplish in that regular season because they were not that naturally talented. They were just playing in a system and a style that was very difficult for most of the teams in the league to guard because of the way with which Curry could stretch the floor. But the Cavs were supposed to win that series. They were the favorites to win a championship coming into that season. Their predecessor, their successes. That's what they have a problem with.
Jordan cares about it. But I want to relate a story that Steven A. told me once about Michael Jordan. Sure. And this is my version of like, sports pornography, practically. It's my favorite sports story of all time. Michael, that's a hell of a metaphor. Michael Jordan used to whup infuriate his opponents before big games. He would do things off the court to infuriate them. And when Steven A. told me, they said that, of course, this is what Muhammad Ali used to do. You want to get under their skin, throw them off his game. Steven A. said, "No, Jordan used to tell me, 'I wanted them to hate me so they were the best version. So when I beat them, they knew I beat their best.'" Michael Jordan spends his time now watching LeBron James thinking, "How would I defend him?" He is psychotically competitive. We already know how Michael Jordan would defend LeBron James. He let that cat out of the bag about seven years ago. That's one of the main reasons why LeBron James improved his left-hand finishes at the basket so much, is because Michael Jordan basically let it be known that when LeBron James drives left, he does not finish with the left hand, or he did not even look to finish, he looks to pass. And after that, LeBron James started to, of course, improve himself in that area.
The reason I bring up brain Kobe back here now, I think there are people to pay attention to this. I think it does feel some. I think they're peeled by anger and a burning desire. Then there are those who know what they can control. As you point out, Max, we know I can't control the debate. I controlled it when I was on the floor. I can't control what Stephen A. or Max thinks. They're all, well, to Max Kellerman's point, I'm not quite sure Everest about control. I think that Kobe knows that there's not enough empirical data for him to say those things. Believe me, if Kobe Bryant finished his career averaging more points per game than Michael Jordan and won six titles, or seven titles, he would say, "It's not even a comparison. It's me." But because he knows none of the numbers corroborate what he feels or what he believed, he says, "I'm just going to stay out of the conversation." Which is smart because he knows that in order for him to prove his case, he's gonna have to start to downgrade Michael Jordan's career, ala LeBron James. He's gonna have to start trying to pull down on Jordan because that's the only way that he would be able to rise up to Jordan's level.
I can't tell you how many times, whether it's Jordan, Isiah, or anybody else, any of those stars, any of the guys that used to play that are Hall of Famers, I can't tell you how many arguments I've had with them over plays that had nothing to do with them. Of course, because they came up for their era, they would argue. I mean, Jordan will argue on behalf of Bird, right? Of course, he would because he knows how great Larry Bird was. Which a lot of people don't understand. That's why I state Larry Bird is the greatest small forward of all time, above LeBron James. LeBron basically accomplished in half the time the same things that LeBron James has accomplished. Larry won three titles. LeBron James had three titles. LeBron has four MVPs. Larry Bird has three, but he won his consecutively. We don't even mention. Think about the Junior Bridgeman, Sidney Moncrief. So the world of people like that. Sidney Moncrief was a bad boy. The last person I heard major Sidney Moncrief was Kevin Durant. I've been Roberts a little not just wrong, it was crazy. I believe he's locked up right now. So this is what I mean when I talk about them protecting the coaching. It is really quite because they're gonna hold you accountable for the standard that you have that you helped them to. They want you to hold it till a pramana. Nothing's real quick. Jordan went for six championships because imagine at five, that was the modern era record. Jordan wants to be the greatest ever, and he knows he can prove it. This is why Kobe doesn't want to debate it. What? No, Jordan does not want to be the greatest ever. He knows that he can let his numbers and his accomplishments speak for themselves, which is going to have him be considered the greatest ever. And then on top of that, he also has the mystique, which Kobe does not have. I mean, you can't wear the black hat over the course of your career and then campaign to be considered the greatest ever. It just does not work that way. Kobe, that often. More often than not, the debate is MJ. Of course, because Kobe thinks that he's better than LeBron. So be glad Regatta is an intellectual. He doesn't have much patience for what he considers to be idiocy. He definitely values those that pave the way, that played in a different time, of a different system. Though old-school guys that value in because Kobe is a guy that believes that they value him more than they value somebody like LeBron. Like locker. Well, Kobe definitely has a "quote unquote" old-school aura about him. There's no doubt that that's one of the reasons why his style of play and his mentality and dared him to Michael Jordan, as well as to other players from the eighties. Watch interview John. As Giannis the other day, Giannis talked about, "I'm not trying to be friends with anybody. I'm going up against the right number one." He said, "Well, guess what? Kobe wasn't that kind of guy." Right? John, this is not that kind of guy. Right? Who is that kind of guy? Who befriends everybody, hugging everybody, singing Kumbaya, we all boys, let's hang out? LeBron James, for sure. One of the brightest athletes I've ever dealt with, no question. Like, well, he's certainly very bright. That's why the powers that be tapped him to be the person to teach witchcraft to the youth. But I want to promote it to the youth. But anyway, that's basically hit on that. Very good conversation. But once again, Kobe knows that you really can't prove [ __ ] so you smile, have to stay out of it. So peace.