Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan are two players that have been compared a lot. Kobe Bryant was stylistically similar to Michael Jordan, and both were amazing at scoring from the midrange area. Many people have debated about which of the two are better. Obviously, Michael Jordan is most people’s GOAT, but some definitely view Kobe Bryant in an equal light.
Rex Chapman has recently talked about the Bryant-Jordan comparison. Chapman suggested that everyone has a different way of looking at who is the greatest of all time. There are candidates for that GOAT position from every era of basketball, and Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan are both deserving of the status. Here is what Rex Chapman had to say about the GOAT debate.
I think we all come at it from our own little window of perspective. I think Michael is the best too, of course. However, LeBron is creeping into that conversation for me. He’s amazing, and he’s never made a misstep. Forget about ‘The Decision’ and all that stuff. I’m a huge, huge fan, and especially of everything that he does off the court. That’s a huge plus.
Isiah Thomas, he doesn’t revere Michael. He’s not denigrating Michael, he’s just saying he didn’t become Michael Jordan, and he didn’t until Isiah and them were kind of gone. Michael didn’t ascend, he had to go through them. It’s like when people ask me about Kobe, and I played against Michael and Kobe. I saw what Kobe became, unbelievably good. But I could never put him with Michael, and that’s just because I’m older.
Everyone has a different opinion on who is the GOAT. While most people would end up picking Michael Jordan, he also has plenty of detractors. Chapman mentions Isiah Thomas, who doesn’t “revere” Michael Jordan, and Chapman mentions that Jordan didn’t ascend to his status as a winner before the Pistons were gone. At the end of the day, that debate is subjective, and both Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan are both cemented in the pantheon of players who are considered for the title.
