Kobe calls ESPN’s NBA Rank ‘laughable’
By Ryan Donoho
Every off-season, ESPN releases an NBA Rank that ranks 500 players in the NBA–who may or may not still be in the league. Kobe Bryant has recently changed his twitter avatar to “1225”, referring to his rank, plus ESPN’s forecast of where the Lakers will finish in the west. Well, Kobe spoke to the media today, and he had something to say about his rankings:
Kobe on his ESPN #NBArank: "Twenty-five was pretty silly. It was pretty laughable. But still in all, it’s a challenge I willingly accept"
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 24, 2013
Clearly Kobe will use all of this negativity to motivate him. He still hasn’t been ruled out for the season opener, but he will likely be back sometime in November. Whether Kobe really is the 25th best player in the NBA or not doesn’t really matter, but it’s no surprise that Kobe has taken exception to it.
As for the annual poll that NBA GM’s partake in, they voted him the second best shooting guard in the league behind James Harden. Bryant had something to say about that as well:
Kobe on GM poll ranking him 2nd best SG behind Harden: "They’re counting on me being on one leg ...They think I can’t come back from this "
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) October 24, 2013
We will see if Kobe can come back from this Achilles injury successfully. I wouldn’t bet against him, because if anyone can come back from it–Kobe can.