Transcription
Piderman piece, so I've mentioned in previous videos pertaining to Mr. Kobe Bryant. That is very clear to me that he's trying to inject his name into the "conversation" because he sees what this conversation really is about. This is about legacy, and it's also about credibility. It's also going to directly correlate with how marketable your overall brand is going to be for the next 30 to 40 years.
That's why Michael Jordan is coming out with this 10-part documentary special on Netflix and ESPN because Michael Jordan also understands the power of media, the power of persuasion, and its direct correlation with your ability to monetize your own name. That's why all this is going on because, once again, we're really gonna talk about who the "GOATs" are. Who the "GOAT" is. We'd have to include names like Kareem, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, etc. Now, Kobe Bryant's name is not in that "GOAT" conversation, but he keeps bringing himself up. And now certain fans have started to strike back at Kobe, which has forced him to respond in kind by speaking some truths. There's no doubt that Kobe Bryant is an extremely intelligent and sharp-minded person.
So, anyway, they're gonna talk about it. I'm gonna chime in. Context. Everything will be responded by saying, "We had to face the Spurs, every, pretty much every super team in Boston." But hey, what do I know? And that's a great point by Kobe Bryant. And I've been the first one to state that his finals competition had been very weak. As a matter of fact, when we go through the annals of multiple championship winners, the LA Lakers of the early 2000s probably had the weakest competition in the finals of any repeat champion in the history of the NBA. But they did have very dogged competition leading up to the finals. They had to play the Sacramento Kings, they had to play the San Antonio Spurs. So they do deserve a lot of credit for that. There's no doubt about that.
Oh, this is so. First of all, hey, what do you think about the favorite? Kobe's going to have people on Twitter over this. Kobe starting to come out of his shell. He's starting to put away the fake humble routine that he's been pretty much rolling out over the last two years or so. He understands that if he does not take a stand now, people uniformly are going to accept that LeBron James is greater than him. I already have LeBron James above him on my all-time NBA greatest hierarchy, and I've already listed the reasons for that. I just believe that LeBron James brings more to the table than Kobe does. I think that Kobe, in regards to what he can do, is greatest as a weapon when he has a great coach like a Phil Jackson. What LeBron James does is more translatable from team to team because, pretty much, when you bring LeBron onto your team, you have to run the LeBron James system. He almost does not even need a coach. He's like an object that is already assembled right out of the box. Kobe can do a multitude of things, but the way that his brain functions, he only likes to do one thing, that being shoot the basketball. He can't do other things, but he just prefers, due to how his brain is configured, to be super aggressive that he just prefers to shoot and dominate the basketball. LeBron is going to come on to your basketball team, and he basically is going to be the floor general. He's gonna run the entire offense. He's gonna pass, dribble, shoot, rebound. So it's going to come down to whether or not there's another team in the league at the time that has a high-level basketball IQ. Because if there isn't, LeBron is most likely going to win the championship. If there is, then he won't.
In regards to Kobe Bryant, his basketball team normally had a very high basketball IQ because of Phil Jackson and Tex Winter. They would the brain trust on that team. Kobe Bryant was not. As I've stated, I don't believe that Kobe started to mature as a basketball player until the '07-'08 season, which also happens to be the year that he won his one and only MVP award. So from 2007 to 2010, the LA Lakers, under Kobe Bryant's stewardship, were at their peak in regards to their understanding of the game because Kobe Bryant was at his peak in regards to his understanding of the game. They fell off the next year when there was a team that had a higher basketball IQ than them, that being the Dallas Mavericks of 2011, and the Lakers got swept, much like LeBron James got swept, and they got frustrated in Game 4 in Dallas, just like LeBron James got frustrated. That's why I've stayed there's not that big a difference between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James mentally. Mentally, there's not that big a difference. Now, with LeBron, a bigger quitter than Kobe Bryant? Yes, he is, but not by much, because you can get Kobe to quit as well. You can get him to become frustrated with his teammates as well. So when we have the discussion about Kobe or LeBron, we also have to talk about who the coach is going to be. Because if Kobe has the right coach and the right system, then he may be able to overcome what LeBron brings to the table. Unfortunately, we never got to see the meet on the big stage. I think that it would have been different on the big stage. When we evaluate their matchups in the regular season, LeBron was 16 and 6 against Kobe, and how did him in every stat. That's just the bottom line of it.
I agree. I think that Kobe Bryant, his board, he's sitting at home trying to act as if he's going to train his daughters to become great basketball players. Now he's trying to immerse himself into the social media world so that he can build back up his brand or keep his brand hot while he can. He just wants to ask her earlier this year. Now he's trying to delve back into the basketball world with a detailed series, as well as him trying to critique other players. And now he's aiming his sights at LeBron James because he knows that he must establish that the most important metric in evaluating all-time great players is how often he was able to get his team to the promised land. And the promised land is victory. It's not getting to the top of the mountain and then getting knocked off. It's getting to the top of the mountain and planting your flag. That's what it's about. So a lot of the LeBron James superfans, they want you to give LeBron James half a point for getting to the finals. It doesn't work that way. Because once again, if we create that paradigm or we adjust the current paradigm or standards for evaluating all-time greats in the NBA, and we shift the paradigm over to giving players credit just for getting there, now all of a sudden, Jerry West goes from being maybe the 20th or 22nd greatest player in NBA history, now he's up there in the top five because he got to nine finals. So I don't know if people truly understand what they're saying when they say certain things. But once again, it would have been great to see Kobe Bryant and LeBron James match up in the finals, say in 2008 or 2009 or 2010. But LeBron James's teams always came up short. I think that the Lakers would have beaten him in the finals because they would have gotten an opportunity to game plan for him. On high-level, LeBron James's system is better equipped for the regular season in regards to highlighting everything that he can do. When he gets to the playoffs, he can beat certain playoff teams, but he cannot beat elite playoff teams. He cannot beat playoff teams that have a high basketball IQ. He can't do it.
Started obviously with the fact that Kobe talked to Bleacher Report about, you know, what LeBron needs to do and where his legacy stands, and he basically threw out the ring. That's right. Like every other person, there was a bunch of other NBA luminaries quoted in that article. Every other person said, "Oh, what he's done is so impressive." And I'm final to eight times straight. He hasn't had the teams. He hasn't been favored in seven of his nine finals. So that's another argument that many of the LeBron James superfans are trying to use. Well, LeBron is three and six in the finals, but he was the underdog going into seven of those nine finals. Well, let's truly evaluate that sentiment. LeBron James is allegedly the best player in the NBA. He's the best player in the NBA. I think that for the most part, people agree with that sentiment that he's the best player in the NBA. But in seven out of the nine finals that he's reached, his team for the underdog. What should that tell you? That should tell you that LeBron James's team drastically underperform or underwhelmed in the regular season. That's why they're rendered underdogs when they get to the finals. So there's an issue with the LeBron James system in regards to overall productivity during the season, and it shows in regards to how his teams are evaluated when they get to the big show. He has never allowed himself to understand how to improve his overall understanding of the game by divesting power to others. Even when he passes the ball, it's for himself to get the assist. It's not for the hockey pass. That's why his assist numbers were lower than when one may have thought they would have been while he was in Miami because a lot of his assists are hockey assists because they played a real system in Miami. And the last two seasons in Cleveland has been all about LeBron stat padding. So we've seen his highest assist numbers the last couple of years in Cleveland was just getting back to the point. You'll notice once again, LeBron James, the superfriends will tell you about how his teams are the underdogs in the finals, and then they'll say, "Well, Jordan's teams were always the overwhelming favorite." Why is that? Because Michael Jordan always played every regular-season game as hard as he could. I'm not going to say he played like it was a playoff game because I think that there has to be a distinction made between the intensity of the regular season and the intensity of the playoffs. But in the regular season, he always played hard. He never took off to the point where he was going to cost his team games or wins, things of that nature, from possession to possession. And that's why he had multiple teams at 160 plus games, had a team that won 72 games, another team that should have won 70 games. Three different times, Michael Jordan's teams won at least 67 games in a regular season. I don't believe that any of LeBron James's teams ever won 67 games. Now, I know he had a Cleveland team that won 66, and he had a Miami team that won 66, and another Cleveland team that won 61. But I think that for the most part, as successful as he's been in the regular season, and that also is due to the fact that once again, his teams are playing in the LeBron James system. There are a lot of reasons why certain teams are underdogs and certain teams are the favorites. It's not just about how much talent you have on your team. It's about how well your team is coached, which is going to bring out the latent talent, the latent ability that is on your squad. That's not just about going through your roster and saying, "Oh, he can jump real high, he could run real fast, he can make jump shots." It's about taking certain role players and making sure that you're maximizing, you're optimizing what they bring to the table. Steve Kerr could be a great contributor on the Chicago Bulls, but on other teams, he was at the very end of the bench. The very end of the bench. Steve Kerr was done about three or four different teams before he got to Chicago. Played for Cleveland, I believe, played for Orlando, he played for Phoenix, then he got to Chicago, and all of a sudden, you have people 25 years later calling him the greatest shooter of all time. All this nonsense. Steve Kerr was a spot-up shooter. He did his job. That was it. Well, because of that system and the way in which Pippen and Jordan were able to optimize what he could do, he still remembers to this day. Do whatever you can to be competitive. He's basically singing, "Hey, dig a little deeper to them. The more you know em, tell your you P bullets, you know."
Well, what Kobe is also saying is that, look, I'm not just going to let them hand you the crown as being possibly the greatest ever when I won more championships than you on paper, even though we know in three of those championships, the best player on the team was Shaq. That's a fact. But still, Kobe's going to take credit for those chips, and to a degree, he has a right to take half credit. And he's going to look at that, evaluate that, and say to himself, "Look, I'm not going to let this dude LeBron James jump over me on the hierarchy when, in my mind, I'm right behind Michael. And in the minds of my little fanboys, I'm right behind Michael Jordan." No, I have to run my mouth now because if I don't start running my mouth right now, the media is going to take this narrative, the storyline, and run away with it. Because if and when LeBron James signs a contract to play for a team with other stars on it next year and he wins one or two more chips, Kobe will never be able to stop that train. He has to stop that train right now. So what he's doing is very strategic.
Well, in the article, to write that he's basically trying to reset the discussion. And we've seen him do this a couple of times this spring when the whole MJ and LeBron debate was sort of whipped up into the most frenzied. I don't know when LeBron was during the boss mysterion's and doing all those crazy things with the Raptors series. Kobe comes out with the IG right being like, "Hey, don't worry, LeBron. Michael Jordan. Milo, put like how many rings each guy got in six, five, three." And he's like, "It's all we're all winners." Which is sort of that's not what anyone was debating.
Damn, Rachel Nicholson shots at Kobe. I tell you, Kobe fans, this all the time. You Kobe fanboys, especially you guys out there at Kobe headquarters in LA, you guys are the only ones who think that Kobe Bryant is in the conversation for GOAT, man. Y'all are the only ones who think that. You see this Broadus Sena shots his way. Thank you, sir. I've made that statement myself on this channel numerous times. The real debate for LeBron James is to players in regards to his peers. It's Kobe Bryant. And in regards to legacy at his position, it's Larry Bird. The conversation is not LeBron James versus Michael Jordan. And let me say this, if LeBron James is not careful, in five years, the conversation will be him and Kevin Durant. But those of you brothers who remember when Michael Jordan turned 50 years old, Ahmad Rashad has sit-down interview with him, and he asked him, "Who was better?" When I say he asked him, I'm talking about Ahmad Rashad asked Michael Jordan, "Who do you think is a better ballplayer right now? Kobe Bryant or LeBron James?" Michael Jordan stated, "Two championships, Kobe Bryant. But in regards to dominating the league right now, LeBron James." And then Michael Jordan stated, "Kevin Durant might be better than both of them when all is said and done." This was back in 2013. You know how big they reckon?
I don't think the comparison with Michael and LeBron is unfair because you talk about a guy who had college experience and a championship. He, he was able to get to the finals numerous amount of time with myself. So it wasn't like he was restock like LeBron. LeBron has had to restart. Well, that's not quite true. Scottie Pippen. Michael Jordan had to restart on the second three-peat team when he came back to basketball and saved you because the Chicago Bulls for an office was tighter. You asked. And it's so interesting. People love to bring up how the Bulls only won two less games that year after Jordan retired. But they failed to mention that that year after that, the '94-'95 season, the Bulls were a 500 team. They were a 500 team basically before Michael Jordan came back and went 13 and 4 down the stretch of the season. The last 17 games of the season, and 13 and 4 with a Michael Jordan fresh off the baseball field. And then the next season, they win 72 games. But nobody mentions that because the sentiment that the Bulls only won two less games after Jordan retired the first time is better for their argument than the fact that, well, they actually won 25 more games the year that Jordan came back and was able to play a full season, then they had won the previous season. When they trying to push the LeBron James everywhere he goes, they win. And then when he leaves the team, the franchise are in shambles. That's why I call his ass Galactus because Galactus goes from planet to planet sucking out the life energy, the life force of that planet, and then leaving it in ruins. Had to restart with different groups going to the final. So yes, I agree. Kobe has had to restart, and that's what he truly made it legacy because Kobe Bryant understood that if he was never able to win another championship without Shaq, he would have been viewed in perpetuity as just an exalted sidekick. That's all he ever would have been viewed as. That's what his legacy would have been. And he also understood that beating Orlando and onine wasn't enough. By far, the most important championship of Kobe's career was when he was able to defeat the Boston Celtics in 2010. He knows that. I promise you that. He views that one championship as being of more importance than the previous four championships all rolled into one. I promise you that. But yes, Michael Jordan also had to restart. The Bulls had a completely different team, the second three-peat team, then they had the first VP team, other than Scottie and the coaching staff. It's hard to compare Michael and LeBron because basketball just so different then. At least with those two guys, they played in the same manner.
I do think it's interesting though that we are saying, I think your point is exactly right. We are seeing competitiveness from Kobe this spring. About absolutely. He's competing for his legacy. He understands this is a pivotal moment in regards to how he's viewed and how he'll be viewed for perpetuity. He has to nip this in the bud and reestablish what the parameters have always been in evaluating all-time great players, that being championships, especially in the post-free agency era. Once again, that's what sets Jordan apart from everyone else in the modern era, and especially the post-free agency era, is that he was so dominant in an era where you had player movement, so it was easier for other teams to improve. Once again, when you look at the Bill Russell era of the '60s, he won 11 championships in 13 years, but you had no free agency. So if you had the best front office and they were able to evaluate talent on a higher level, and they brought in the best talent, if you had the best team in 1963, you were gonna have the best team in '64, '65, '66. That's why for the purposes of evaluating Bill Russell's championships in comparison to player championships who played in the modern era and then the free agency era, I kind of have to give each one of his championships only credit as a half championship just for the sake of evaluation. So I look at both Russell's 11, that's 5 and a half.
This is gonna be interesting this summer because guess who is one of the major teams willing LeBron James? The Lakers. It's Kobe's old agent leading the charge. If Bron comes to the Lakers, I don't know how that affects how Kobe feels about LeBron on his team. I tell you, the NBA is so messy, it's like a damn soap opera. This isn't a Kobe thing. Every retired player, they all, you guys can't turn it off. You all have that. It is a Kobe thing. It's not like we didn't know Kobe's competitive. No, I'm just saying like the whole night, "Don't forget about me." "Don't worry about me" comment.
Well, the main thing that Kobe is trying to establish is that you're not going to leapfrog me, LeBron James, not with your propaganda. Kobe sees through a lot of that. Now, in my evaluation, again, I have LeBron over Kobe, but it is a great debate. You could debate LeBron and Kobe because they both have outstanding flaws. When you start talking about players like Bill Russell and Kareem and Michael Jordan, their flaws are there, but they're of a lesser degree, and their impact is even higher in regards to how their style of play resulted in championships. That's the difference. When you start getting into the top 5, you're talking about players that were able to transform their teams, their franchises, that were almost unstoppable in their era. That to me is what makes a top five all-time player. And I can't put Kobe in those ranks of top five or top 10 because I believe that his flaws were just too pronounced, too pronounced in regards to his proficiency, his decision-making, just too pronounced.
Well, anyway, peace.