During his time in the NBA, Kobe Bryant was known as an elite three-level score who was deadly from midrange. Many marveled at the insane shots he would make, and there was no question that he was willing to take even the most difficult shots to try and will his team to victory.
A recent Reddit post by user AGuyWhoLikesDunks featured a clip of Kobe Bryant making a ridiculous shot over Shawn Marion in the 2006 playoffs. Shawn Marion was known as a great defender, and he played some solid enough defense on that play. However, due to Kobe Bryant’s shotmaking prowess, that simply did not matter. You can even hear the commentator say “You can’t guard that”, as Bryant is running back on defense.
Kobe Bryant led the league in scoring that year, and sometimes scorers just make difficult shots. That level of shot creation takes a lot of work, and many fans marveled at Kobe Bryant’s abilities in the comment section of the Reddit post.
There is no doubt Kobe Bryant’s scoring was transcendent. He also played in an era with a lot of great defensive teams, and a lot of the defense’s attention was geared towards him during the post-Shaquille O’Neal era. While Kobe Bryant ended up heartbreakingly losing to the Phoenix Suns team in 7 games in 2006, he did win a pair of titles with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010. There are few who could match his ferocious mentality on the court, and he was as much of a “bad dude” as his mentor, Michael Jordan.
Kobe Bryant will live on as an NBA legend forever, and he was part of the 2020 Hall of Fame class with Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan. The world will remember him for what he was able to accomplish during his basketball career, and Kobe Bryant is certainly one of the most skilled players to ever touch a basketball.
