Well, Kobe Bryant finally passed Michael Jordan as the third all-time scoring leader in NBA history against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.
What does it mean, exactly?
For one, it means that Kobe has cemented his legacy as one of the greatest players to ever pick up a basketball, once again.
Second, it means that Bryant’s dedication to the game and relentless work ethic has allowed him to outlast all of the superstars of his generation, as he’s performing at one of the highest — if not the highest — levels in NBA history for a player in his 19th season.
Passing Michael Jordan means that Kobe Bryant has reached a mark set by the man he learned so much from, among others.
Finally, it means that he is the ultimate student of the game and will be remembered as the player he’s always wanted to be remembered as: The player who overachieved and maximized his talent.
While Jordan needed just 15 seasons to reach 32,292 points, Bryant has been quick to point out the different career paths each player had.
Bryant famously entered the league as a cocky 17-year-old kid out of Lower Merion High School, joining the Lakers following a trade back on July 1, 1996. Being on the Lakers provided him with the backbone of a storied franchise, but also limited his play during the early stages of his career, as the Lakers were a team on the rise.
— Have You Seen These LIMITED EDITION “Try Me” T-Shirts? —
Bryant also had to play second-fiddle to Shaquille O’Neal, as The Diesel was the most dominant force in the league at the time. Bryant won three titles in a row alongside O’Neal from 2000-2002, and two more with Pau Gasol and Co. in 2009 and 2010.
Jordan, on the other hand, was the Chicago Bulls’ franchise player from the start, averaging 28.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 2.4 steals in his rookie season.
Jordan, paired with swingman Scottie Pippen, won three titles in a row from 1991-1993, retired to play baseball, then came back and won three more titles in another “threepeat” from 1996-1998, before retiring once again.
In 2001, MJ made a comeback with the Washington Wizards in an attempt to boost a team in which he had front office control in, which resulted in two sub-bar (by Jordan’s standards, anyway) seasons.
Both players won all of their titles under legendary head coach, Phil Jackson.
Despite the two seasons in Washington, Jordan finished his career with an average of 30.1 points per game — which is the highest in NBA history and is percentage points above Wilt Chamberlain’s average. Chamberlain once averaged over 50 points per game in a season, to put that in perspective.
The Black Mamba currently holds a career average of 25.5 points.
[divide]Lakers Kobe Bryant Passes Michael Jordan On NBA All-Time Scoring List
CONTINUE READING: From Student To Master, Kobe Bryant Passes Michael Jordan
The comparisons between the two are certainly interesting and fun to make, but Jordan leads Kobe in a number of categories, as illustrated in the graphic above, from 2012.
Certainly, there are areas in which Kobe differs and even has an advantage over Jordan, whether tangible or not — one being Kobe’s career-high 81 points versus Jordan’s 69.
One reason for the comparisons is the similarities Bryant shares with Jordan, down to his on-court moves and agility, mannerisms, and even the way he addresses the media.
— Have You Seen These LIMITED EDITION “Try Me” T-Shirts? —
The other reason for the comparisons is the fact that Michael Jordan is widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time, and the media sought to find the “Air Apparent” following his second retirement in 1998.
Jordan was a dominant force, an iconic player, and most of all, a winner.
Kobe Bryant encompassed (and still encompasses) all of that and although many will never place Bryant on the same level as Jordan, he is by far the closest thing we’ve seen to His Airness to date.
Jordan tends to agree, as he told author Roland Lazenby:
“MJ just told me Kobe’s the only one to have done the work, to deserve comparison.”
Speaking of the “work,” apparently that is one area in which Kobe Bryant overshadows everyone, including Michael Jordan, according to Phil Jackson:
“Kobe modeled his behavior a lot about Michael Jordan, but he went beyond Michael in his attitude towards training, and I know Mike would probably question me saying that, but he did.”
The Black Mamba had shied away from the comparisons in the past and cited His Airness as being the “Greatest of All Time” on numerous occasions, stating he just wanted to be the best player he could be (skip to the 2:04 mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsz2a3s-NMw
However, Bryant recently stated, in an interview with Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding, that he has always welcomed the comparisons, but he didn’t like the notion that everyone thought he only learned from Jordan:
“I’ve always welcomed the comparison to Michael if it’s in competitive spirit or in terms of records that I may set. I’ve always been cool with that. To be in that kind of company is…is…is…crazy, for lack of a better term. Rare air.”
“The thing that I always bristled at was the notion that I learned everything that I know from Michael. That’s just not true. Hakeem Olajuwon deserves a lot of credit; Jerry West deserves a lot of credit. Oscar Robertson deserves a lot of credit. I really was a student of the game and watched everybody.”
We could go on and on about the comparisons, but the reality of the matter is that Jordan has acted as a mentor to Bryant in a number of ways — creating a different dynamic than that of “Player vs. Player” and rather that of “Sensei and Pupil.”
Bryant went on to explain that Jordan has been like a big brother to him, and has always been available to Kobe throughout the years when seeking tutelage:
To get that kind of information, to me it’s like climbing Mount Everest and speaking to a Buddha at the top of the mountain. You want that information? You’ve got to climb that mountain yourself.
That brings us to our next topic, which is how Kobe has taken all of the information from past generations of NBA legends and put them to use.
[divide]Lakers Kobe Bryant Passes Michael Jordan On NBA All-Time Scoring List
CONTINUE READING: From Student To Master, Kobe Bryant Passes Michael Jordan
Certainly, information has been passed between greats from the generations of the 1960s (Bill Russell, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson) to the 1970s (Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Walt Frazier) to the 1980s (Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Moses Malone) to the 1990s (John Stockton, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Gary Payton) to the 2000s and now the present.
The succession has increased the level of talent and the number of elite players in the league, as each generation has learned from the prior one.
Kobe has cited greats dating back to the 1960s, as well as players he played against during his early years (such as Jordan, Gary Payton, Clyde Drexler, and John Stockton) as players he’s learned a great deal from.
— Have You Seen These LIMITED EDITION “Try Me” T-Shirts? —
When asked of what the milestone means to him, he made sure to credit all of the generations before him, as his accomplishment would not be possible if not for the elder-statesmen who came before him and set a foundation. Certainly, he learned much of what he knows now from the master that is Michael Jordan.
Kobe has proved to be a unique player in his own right, changing his game over the years, yet still being able to do some of the things he was able to in his rookie season.
He adjusted his score-first mentality to play sidekick to Shaquille O’Neal, acting as the team’s primary play-maker and outside scorer. Then, he played in a role more similar to Jordan’s following O’Neal’s departure. More recently, he’s acted as the Lakers’ primary scorer and play-maker.
Along the way, he has exhibited instances of tenacious defense a la Scottie Pippen and Michael Cooper, Larry Bird-esque shooting, Magic Johnson-esque passing, Michael Jordan-esque dunking, Hakeem Olajuwon-esque posting, and a certain flair and creativity that only the Black Mamba could trademark.
He’s mastered the art of footwork in the NBA, and hit some of the most impossible, clutch shots in NBA history.
As a result, he’s inspired plenty of young superstars currently dominating the league in a number of ways, as most of them grew up watching (and some, idolizing) Kobe Bryant — just as Kobe idolized players like Jordan and Magic.
Passing Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list means a lot to Kobe Bryant. It means that he’s paid the ultimate homage to one of his mentors by surpassing a mark set by His Airness.
In doing so, he’s also giving a nod to all of the legends who came before him as well.
A self-proclaimed basketball nerd, Kobe Bryant has solidified himself as the ultimate student of the game.
Once asked by Yahoo! Sports’ Marc Spears on how he wants to be remembered when his career is over, Bryant had this to say:
“I’ve always been comfortable as a kid growing up to think that when my career is over, I want them to think of me as an overachiever despite the talent that I have. To think of me as a person that’s overachieved, that would mean a lot to me. That means I put a lot of work in and squeezed every ounce of juice out of this orange that I could.”
He truly will be known for that when it’s all said and done.
He’s studied and absorbed everything he could from a number of generations before him, and produced his own thesis on a number of occasions.
One example of what Kobe has done that no other player in NBA history has accomplished is recover from a torn Achilles tendon and come back in his 19th season at age 36 as if nothing had happened.
Bryant attributed his current level of play to his around-the-clock treatment, therapy, and training. Essentially, he has created his own blueprint built on the foundation of a second-to-none work ethic, which has resulted in one of the most prolific 19-season careers in NBA history.
Kobe Bryant is no longer the ultimate student of the game that is basketball, he is now the teacher.
He is the Sensei; the Doctor; the Professor; the Master; the Guru.
Perhaps he doesn’t realize it yet, but Kobe Bryant is now the Buddha of basketball, as he deemed the man he just passed on the scoring list: Michael Jordan.
Now who’s going to climb Mount Everest and seek his tutelage?
[divide]Lakers Kobe Bryant Passes Michael Jordan On NBA All-Time Scoring List