We can't believe how many players Kobe left off his top 5 players of his era
Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant was asked to name the top five players of his era at Monday's practice in Denver, and his list raised some eyebrows:
To clarify, Bryant said that it was only players he's actually played against, which eliminates players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, etc. To also be fair, Bryant said it was difficult to narrow his list down to just five players. This was purely off the cuff, and it's reasonable to assume he may have merely forgotten a few guys.
Though there is no strict definition of what constitutes an era in the NBA, logic dictates that one of two basic criteria apply: 1) either the players were drafted within a few years of each other or 2) they peaked at around the same time.
Again, those are pretty broad standards. "Best of" lists are supposed to be controversial and will always have snubs. But with that logic, some of Kobe's choices simply don't make much sense, as the players he chose aren't really from his era.
Michael Jordan and LeBron James are no-brainers. They're two of the greatest seven or eight players ever, and undeniably the two best wings Bryant has ever faced.
Some may say Jordan wasn't of Bryant's era, and that's understandable. But Jordan won back-to-back championships in Bryant's first two years in the league (completing a three-peat) and was the unquestionable King of the NBA when he retired in 1998. He's the best player Bryant's ever faced. Period. So he deserves to be included, even if Bryant's stretching his era.
James' prime began at the tail-end of Bryant's prime, but there was enough overlap to consider him part of Bryant's era.
After that, the choices become more confusing.
Kevin Durant is a legend-in-the-making who may go down as the league's all-time leading scorer. But he and Bryant were never in their respective primes at the same time -- Durant was drafted 11 years after Bryant, too -- and it's tough to make the case that he's one of the five best players from 1996 until now.
Hakeem Olajuwon is arguably a top-10 player of all-time, so including him makes sense. But Olajuwon had just ended his prime when Bryant entered the league in 1996, and only had three good seasons after that before retiring in 2002. While his inclusion is certainly not ridiculous, it's like an inverse situation of Durant -- he and Bryant were never in their respective primes at the same time.
Clyde Drexler is surely an all-time great. One of the best shooting guards ever. But he's simply not as good as Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, David Robinson or Scottie Pippen were, just to name a few players who qualify for Kobe's "era" by his lenient standards.
Heck, even guys like Paul Pierce, Dwyane Wade, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, Ray Allen, Chris Paul, Allen Iverson (a player Bryant has constantly praised) and Tracy McGrady were better than Drexler was during Bryant's two-year overlap with him.
Here is a list of the leaders in win shares since Bryant entered the league in 1996. Drexler comes in at No. 481, in between J.J. Barea and Jonas Jerebko. Now here's a list of the leaders of career win shares. Drexler comes in at a good, if not great, No. 29 overall. But he's behind Malone, Stockton, Duncan, Nowitzki, Garnett, O'Neal, Robinson, Pierce, Payton and Kidd.
Objectively, there's really no way to support the claim that he's a top-five player Bryant has ever faced, especially if it means leaving Duncan, O'Neal, Garnett or Nowitzki off the list.
Leaving Duncan and O'Neal off his list is especially illogical. Both are more a part of Bryant's "era" than any of the five players he mentioned. Perhaps Bryant doesn't consider O'Neal one of the best players he's faced because he played with him and once O'Neal left to Miami he was ending his prime (though by that logic, Olajuwon would also be eliminated).
But there is no excuse for leaving off Duncan, who many penciled in above Bryant after winning his fifth championship (tying Bryant's total) in 2014. They have eerily similar careers in some regards (two decades with one franchise, five rings, insane career longevity, etc.), but Duncan's ability to make the Spurs a contender for nearly every season he's ever played gives him a slight edge.
Duncan belongs on the list above anyone not named Jordan or James (and is probably ahead of LeBron, anyway).
Bryant has a history of this. He has deliberately left Duncan, James and O'Neal off of "best of" lists in recent years, even though those are clearly three of the best -- if not the three best -- players of his era by traditional terms. He is as self-aware of his legacy as any superstar in sports history, and by heaping praise on lesser competition (i.e. guys like Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady), that takes away the credit from Bryant's true competition.
Once again, there is obviously a subjective element to any "best of" list, and perhaps with more time to think Bryant would've picked different players. He admitted it was a difficult exercise. But with dozens of qualified candidates, it seems like he said more by who he left off than who he chose.
