For the most part these days, the GOAT debate comes down to Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James. But there remains a contingency of people who put Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant atop their list as the greatest to ever play the game.
For a lot of people, the GOAT argument also encompasses who they were able to grow up watching. Obviously there are videos everyone can go back and watch and stats are readily available, but those moments in real-time are hard to replicate and that is certainly the case for NBA Insider Shams Charania.
Shams made an appearance on The OGs Podcast with Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller and when asked who was his GOAT, he named Bryant and explained why:
“So for me growing up, when MJ won his sixth championship I was four years old. So it’s hard for me to you know, people are like watch the YouTube videos, watch the games over, like it’s an experience. I feel like the greatest of all-time is an experience, right? For me growing up, Kobe was someone that I watched very closely and like, you know the Mamba Mentality, killer instinct. I feel like some of those attributes, I felt like as a young minority, parents from Pakistani background, I felt like I could apply some of that in my daily life. You know the killer mentality and like, just go get it-ness every single day. So for me, that was something that I gravitated towards.”
Kobe’s impact has always stretched beyond just basketball. That Mamba Mentality is something that anyone in any walk of life can apply to themselves on a daily basis and that really resonated with Shams. The fact that he was so young when Jordan was dominant, but got to experience all of Kobe’s success with the Lakers also makes him stand out even more.
Ultimately, this debate is extremely subjective and everyone has their own criteria and reasoning for who is at the top of their list. For Shams, the impact of the Lakers legend both on and off the court simply puts him at another level.
Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell discusses relationship with Kobe Bryant
Los Angeles Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell was fortunate enough to spend his rookie season with Kobe Bryant, which was his final NBA season. And Russell admitted that Kobe attempted to be a big brother to him, but he was too young to take everything in.
The Lakers guard noted that he was just 18 years old and naive to Bryant’s legacy. Russell said that things Kobe said to him didn’t really resonate until years later, but at the time everything just went over his head.
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