Georgiamuscle
Superstar
Nothing Chuck or Reggie said means anything
Obviously we should listen to the Dankster and his merry men of LeStanleys. They know more than Hall of Fame players and Kobe is now worse than Dirk according to them
Professor Emeritus: "Kobe was never clearly the best in any season of his career"
- Thread starter Saysumthinfunnymike
- Start date
Nothing Chuck or Reggie said means anything
Obviously we should listen to the Dankster and his merry men of LeStanleys. They know more than Hall of Fame players and Kobe is now worse than Dirk according to them
This one gonna hurt.Nothing Chuck or Reggie said means anything
Obviously we should listen to the Dankster and his merry men of LeStanleys. They know more than Hall of Fame players and Kobe is now worse than Dirk according to them
MENTAL ILLNESS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM ON THE COLI
What kinda shyt is this? Kobe was the best player in the nba from 2001-2010.
FACTS
YOU POST LIKE SOMEONE WHO WASNT
WATCHING BALL DURING THIS TIME.
AT NO POINT IN THEIR PRIMES
WAS DIRK EVER SEEN AS A BETTER PLAYER
THAN KOBE BRYANT.
THE SPURS BIG 3 WERE ALL IN THEIR PRIMES
AT THAT POINT SO DUNCAN WASN'T
CARRYING shyt ANYMORE.
ANYBODY MENTIONING 3RD YR LEBRON
DEFINITELY SHOULDN'T BE IN THIS THREAD.
YOURE ARGUING WIT A KLUTCH FINANCED BOT BRUH
Eastside Get The Money
Veteran
Bron didn’t become the best player in the league until he beat the Pistons so Kobe had his run in the year or two before as the best
@NYC Rebel TRYIN SO HARD TO PAINT ME AS RACIST UP N DOWN THIS THREAD
ALL BECAUSE HE WANTS LEBRONS BALLS ON HIS JAW LMAO
EMBARRASSING
ALL BECAUSE HE WANTS LEBRONS BALLS ON HIS JAW LMAO
EMBARRASSING
Been watching Mavs since the triple Js and then the Michael Finley days.Dudes in here openly lying or, just as likely, are unable to separate Kobe fandom from the actual work and/or are misremembering the time...
Anybody saying they don't remember Duncan being in the conversation in 2006, right after he'd won his 3rd ring and in the middle of a 3-in-5 stretch, are openly lying, or just weren't objectively paying attention. Duncan was never not in the conversation, but we also know that Kobe was always more popular than Duncan. He played on the perimeter, was flashier, talked more and was louder, had the Like Mike thing going on. The funny thing is in real time there were Kobe/Duncan conversations and people acknowledged that Duncan's greatness was understated because of his play style and his "boring" team, but years later nikkas completely omitting Duncan from the conversation...
'06 scoring run elevated Kobe within our consciousness but he was never "clearly" the best player in basketball...
The best player in basketball doesn't lose a 3-1 series lead, it doesn't happen...
'06 Dirk was in the conversation, and again while I don't think he was ever better than Kobe at this stage of his career, yall are blatantly misremembering the real time conversations or outright fabricating. Dirk for a 3-year stretch (05-07), the same stretch yall saying was straight Kobe, Dirk was a Top 3 player giving you 26 and 9 on 60-win teams, people were talking about this in real time. My personal opinion is he wasnt better than Kobe, but the OP's premise is when was Kobe "clearly" the best player alive, and the answer is never...
The 3 best players in basketball in the mid-00s were Duncan, Kobe, Dirk. After Wade's '06 Finals people put him in the conversation but he wasn't really there...
@Codeine Bryant I don't know how old you are or how long you been following ball but I remember Dirk's breakout stretch. He'd been an elite player going back to like 2000 but the middle of the decade he was steering one of the best teams in basketball with absolute dominant play and people were saying he was playing at a level of a best in the world guy. I remember the playoff runs and going into the '06 Finals nobody thought Wade was a better player than Dirk, that was supposed to be his coronation...
This the same year as Kobe's scoring blitz, the 2005-07 stretch dominating the same era Kobe was...
Duncan was still dominating...
Yall nikkas not getting away with this open lying. There was never a "clear" Kobe year...
Dirk did his thing in 05-06. He was the MVP in 06-07. But Kobe was the best player both of those years. Duncan had the better team and Dirk was a better system by himself the way Curry is with his gravity.
But Kobe Bryant was the best player. Wasting away on a sucker squad.
murksiderock
Superstar
nikkas are making phantom arguments though. I never said Dirk was better...
The question asked when was Kobe "clearly" the best player in the world. My answer has been that the years people are giving to Kobe was Duncan, and that the gap with Dirk in those years was close enough that he was in the conversation...
I don't fundamentally believe that the best player in the world will blow a 3-1 series lead, and for people saying '05 Kobe was the best player in the world, I don't think That Guy can be 26 in the middle of his prime and miss the playoffs...
Team was ass. Not sure what else you’re looking for here.
If the Celtics win this Finals, nobody is putting Tatum above Jokic or Giannis or Luka as best player in the world.
Dirk beat LeBron head to head in the 2011 Finals. Dirk outplayed LeBron head to head in the 2011 Finals. Nobody believes Dirk was the best player in 2011. Mavericks were the best team, sure. But nobody is saying Dirk was better than LeBron James or Derrick Rose in 2011.
Crucify Kobe all you want. As we all know, it’s a team game. Sometimes brehs teams just suck. Luka missed the playoffs last year. Now he’s in the Finals. I’ve always thought Luka was a top 3 player in the league since the 2020-2021 season. Of course I’m biased here, but I watch all of his games and he’s been on that Jokic and Giannis tier for a couple years for me.
Are you saying Luka was not a top 5 or top 10 player last year because he missed the playoffs but now he’s in top 3/5 discussions because he’s in the Finals?
As a Mavericks fan in those middle 00s years when we made the finals and Dirk won an MVP, Kobe was clearly the best player in the league. We beat Duncan in the playoffs, lost to Wade, Nash and Dirk won the MVPs, LeBron, Melo, and Dwight were on the rise.
Kobe was the best player in basketball and all those other guys I named should be thankful he didn’t have a squad those years. Because as soon as he got one with Odom and Pau and Bynum, and brehs were all healthy… We all saw what happened.
High quality poster
Veteran
Lebron James did not become the best player in the league in 2007
That was a weak ass pistons team
I dont know even know how you all have the energy to spend two decades going back and forth with these clowns.
Buddy, shut your bytch ass up.
Buddy, shut your bytch ass up.
murksiderock
Superstar
You're not making the same argument I'm making. If LeBron missed the playoffs in '11 at age 26, he couldn't be the best player in basketball. This isn't hard...
If LeBron at 27 was up 3-1 in a playoff series and needed 3 games to just get one more and couldn't do it, that's not the best player in basketball...
I just gave you exactly what Kobe did at age 26 and 27. And Dirk wasn't idling while Kobe was doing this, Dirk was churning out 60-win seasons with transcendent scoring in his own right...
I think the debate here hinges on an underestimation of where Dirk was at, because my argument isn't that Dirk was better than Kobe, it's that Kobe wasn't clearly ahead of two players to assume the title, and that the results mirror the fact that he wasn't ahead of two players to CLEARLY make that distinction...
It can be true that the team was ass. Your ass team still held a 3-1 series lead, they weren't that ass; ergo, the deficiency doesn't simply lie within "the team", in a sport as influenced by the star player as basketball, when you lose that 3-1 lead...
So the other part of this debate is an inability to view Kobe as not quite best player of the world status, because we were in love with his play style and flash and marketability and carrying an "ass" team----->the same team he had 3 chances to win one more game...
Kobe Bryant was not the best player in the world in 2006. The gap between he and Dirk was close. And Duncan was still the best player in the world even though popular opinion didn't favor him...
I'm not crucifying Kobe, I'm literally the only nikka on this board who has an objective standard I hold all superstar players to. Any player with the '05 and '06 seasons Kobe had, I'd say the same...
I'm on record as defending Luka for years as a Top 4-5 guy, don't do that. He can't assume best player in the world status to me this year with a championship, but I have a clear standard I hold all these guys to, not a sliding scale depending on who my favorite player is. I haven't moved off saying Luka is one of the 4 best players in basketball at any point of the last few years, this was even after him missing the playoffs last year...
I'm saying Kobe was arguably the best player in ball in the mid-00s but it's not clear because his play didn't translate to wins, which is the point of the sport. He makes the postseason in '05 and if he just outright loses to Phx in '06 because they were flat out better, it would be definitive...
But the middle of his prime he captained a 34-win team and followed that up with being unable to close a 3-1 lead...
That's not a guy who is CLEARLY the best player in basketball, regardless of the fanaticism with his play and persona of the time. But I also think I have a more objective view of players and hold clear lines of accountability, no sliding scales that change from guy to guy...
