Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant is widely recognized as one of the best basketball players to ever play the game, as he provided countless moments throughout his career that left fans speechless.
It appears not everyone is a fan of Bryant’s though, as Sports Illustrated’s Robin Lundberg recently put out a video explaining why he believes Bryant is one of the most overrated players of all-time:
'Kobe Bryant is one of the most overrated players of all time.' —@robinlundberg pic.twitter.com/iRFUPdJ1Zj
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 4, 2017
Lundberg’s video was a response to Michael Jordan recently saying that LeBron James has not yet surpassed Bryant in his eyes, and while Lundberg is certainly entitled to his opinion, he doesn’t really use facts in the video to back that opinion up, instead just stating more opinions.
The facts are that in Bryant’s 20-year career with the Lakers he won five Championship rings and was named an All-Star 18 times, which is the second most ever behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (19).
Bryant was named an MVP of the league once, an NBA Finals MVP twice, and was named to 15 All-NBA teams and 12 All-Defensive teams.
In the 2005-06 season Bryant averaged 35.4 points per game, which is the ninth highest total All-Time, and since 1967 the only person to score more in a season was Michael Jordon, averaging 37.1 points per game in 1986-87. Bryant won a second scoring title the next season, when he averaged 31.8 points.
Throughout his 20-year career Bryant accumulated 33,643 points, which is the third most all-time behind only Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.
The end of Kobe’s career obviously wasn’t ideal, but his dropoff in play only came after multiple season ending injuries that limited his ability to workout and prepare during the summer.
Bryant demonstrated time after time that he is willing to take big shots that not many players are willing to take, and while it did result in a lot of misses, it also resulted in some of the most memorable moments in NBA history. That is not something that can be quantified in a statistic.
