Kobe Bryant is undoubtedly one of the greatest Lakers of all time and some might argue he is the greatest. Bryant spent the entirety of his 20 seasons in the NBA with the Lakers, during which he won 5 titles and became their all-time leading scorer with 33,643 points.
Bryant would win 3 of those titles while playing alongside Shaquille O’Neal as the Lakers three-peated from 2000 to 2002 and he showed he could get the job done by himself as well after Shaq departed, as he led them to back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010. Despite all the success they had, Kobe’s Lakers aren’t remembered or talked about as much as some other successful iterations of the team from the past.
Quinn Cook Asked Why Kobe’s Lakers Aren’t Talked About As Much As The Showtime Lakers
Quinn Cook knows a thing or two about the Lakers, having played for them for two seasons and he also won a title with the team in 2020. He recently took to Twitter to pose what he called a “real basketball question” as he wondered why Kobe’s Lakers aren’t as publicized as the Showtime Lakers even though both won 5 championships.
Real basketball question: why aren’t Kobe’s Lakers as publicized and talked about like or as much as the Showtime Lakers in the 80s?!? They won 5 championships with Kobe just like they did with Magic and Kareem! Thoughts?
— Quinn Cook (@QCook323) September 3, 2022
There are few teams in NBA history that get talked about as much as the Showtime Lakers, and it is not all down to the championships they won. Did that have a big role in it? Of course, it did, but it was also the way they played, which changed the game and the culture. There was also that epic rivalry with the Celtics, which elevated both of those teams to an even higher pedestal.
Kobe’s Lakers can also be divided into two parts, the first one with Shaq and the other one without him. If the two had stuck together for a longer period of time and had prolonged success, then they would have been held in higher regard, but it wasn’t to be. They still get talked about a lot though for three-peating, which is something that the Showtime Lakers never did.
It is just that when it comes to comparing Showtime to Kobe’s Lakers; you are talking about two almost completely different teams when it comes to the latter, so it isn’t really a correct comparison. Even if “his Lakers” so as to say, aren’t mentioned in the same rarefied air as the Showtime Lakers, Kobe is mentioned alongside the greats of the game, with Shaq also recently stating that there is no one like Bryant in the NBA today and that he is the closest to Michael Jordan.
