Brandon Jennings Says Kobe Bryant Is NBA’s GOAT … Sort Of
By Phil Watson
Brandon Jennings of the Detroit Pistons took on the Greatest Of All Time debate on his Twitter account Tuesday to debate the case that Kobe Bryant—not Michael Jordan—is the NBA’s GOAT.
Then he seemed to be backing off the GOAT declaration just a tad.
It’s close to impossible to argue that any currently playing had a greater career than Jordan, but the strongest case would belong to Bryant.
But Kobe trails in MVP trophies, 6-1. He trails in titles, 6-5, although Jennings stated the case that Jordan had more help (four words, Brandon … Luc Longley, Bill Cartwright).
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Throw in that Bryant won two scoring titles to the 10 that Jordan put up and it becomes harder to make the argument swing in Bryant’s direction.
In 18 seasons, Bryant is still almost 600 points shy of the point total Jordan put up in 15 seasons, with Bryant missing most of 2013-14 because of his Achilles and knee issues, while Jordan missed most of 1985-86 because of a broken foot and most of 1994-95 with a baseball itch.
It will be interesting to see how Bryant comes back this year, at age 36, after missing all but six games last season and averaging 13.8 points per game in the six games he did play.
After all, Jordan averaged 22.9 points per game for the Washington Wizards in 2001-02 after sitting out three seasons and averaged 20 a night in 2002-03 … and he turned 40 in February of that season.
Then again, Jennings turns 25 next month, so he never saw the early Jordan play and he would have been 8 years old when Jordan won his last title.
So for him, Kobe would unquestionably be the man.
But like so many kids today, Jennings could do well to take a broader view.
Even if, you know, he wasn’t saying Bryant is greater than M.J.