Michael Jordan vs Kobe Bryant stats
Like many young players who were coming into the NBA at the time where Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were at the peak of there powers, Kobe Bryant wanted to be exactly like Mike. Kobe Bryant has had an amazing career, and even though he is in the twilight of his career he does not be seen to be slowing down. So how does exactly Bryant stack up next to Jordan? Well let's look at a few things.
Championships
Championships: Now every sports journalist who covers the NBA judges a lot on how great a certain player is by how many championships he has one. They claim that when the going gets tough the tough get going, meaning that the great players take over a game when it is there to bewon and that losing is not an option. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant have 6 and 5 championships to there names respectably. Now this may seem very even at first glance and some may even believe that Bryant could still equal or even surpass Jordan in this area before his career is up. But lets look a little deeper, inevery single one of Jordan's titles he was the finals M.V.P, that is 6/6 ! Pretty big considering he had a man as great as Scottie Pippen who played alongside of him. However in Bryant's 5 titles he was finals M.V.P 2 out of the 5 times, (the other 3 being won by Shaquille O'neal) This shows that out of those 5 titles Bryant was not the best player on 3 of those occasions (though it would have been a very close 2nd). Edge Jordan.
M.V.P's
This is where Jordan really shines over Bryant, Jordan has 5 M.V.P's to Bryant's 1 including 6 finals M.V.P's to Bryant's 2. Now this statistic is actually quite surprising in many aspects because Bryant has been one of the most consistent players in history from season to season with his statistics so I feel that Kobe should have 1 or 2 more M.V.P's to his name than he already does. Though the same can be said for Jordan though not to the same extent as a couple of times the public thought he should of won the M.V.P when he didn't. But even still, Jordan has a big advantage in this area over Bryant. Edge Jordan.
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All NBA Team Selections and Career Stats
All NBA Team Selections: This is where it gets really tight between Bryant and Jordan, both Jordan and Bryant have 9 first team All-Defensive team selections however Bryant also has 3 at second team All-Defensive team. But, Jordan has the defensive player of the year crown to his name in which Bryant does not. Jordan has been selected into 10 All NBA First team and a 14 time All Star while Bryant has also been selected 10 times in the All NBA First team and also15 team All Star. Bryant has 4 All star M.V.P's to Jordan's 3. Edge Bryant.
Career Stats: Now let's finally look at the career stats for both Bryant and Jordan:
Jordan: PPG: 30.1 RPG: 6.2 APG: 5.3 FG%: 49.7 3P%: 32.7 FT% 83.5 BPG 0.8 SPG: 2.3
Bryant: PPG: 25.4 RPG: 5.3 APG: 4.7 FG%: 45.3 3P%: 33.7 FT% 83.8 BPG 0.5 SPG: 1.5
As you can see Jordan has a clear advantage over Bryant in most stats shown here, esspicially in points per game, field goal percentage and steals per game.
Who is greater? Jordan or Bryant?
Clutch play and Killer Instinct
Now anybody that has watched there fair share of basketball knows that when it came to the big moments, give the ball to Michael Jordan! Time and time again Jordan would raise his standard of play (even though we thought it was already impossible to raise it any higher) and constantly make shot after shot and just dagger after dagger into the opposing team's heart. The opposing teams knew the ball was going to Michael even though the was a hall of famer called Scottie Pippen on the team but that didn't seem to matter, the ball was given to Jordan and time and time again he would not fail. Even in his twilight of Jordan's career in the 1998 NBA Finals game 6 against the Utah Jazz he hit one of the most famous clutch jump shots in history over Byron Russell. So after saying all that can Kobe be even close to Michael. Well actually he can...
Kobe Bryant has undoubtedly the closest player to Jordan when it comes to the clutch plays and killer instinct, when the game is on the line Bryant's mentality is pretty much summed up like this "give me that ball that's it where winning" time and time again like Jordan Bryant has carried his team to victory none more evident than his famous 81 point game.
However as close as these two are to each other in this area the edge still has to go to Jordan.
Conclusion
So after all that where does that exactly put Bryant in the conversation as Michael Jordan? There stats are very similar in a lot of ways, they play the same position and in very similar fashion. However Bryant is close to were Jordan was at the height of his powers... but not close at the same time, no one ever dominated the game like Jordan. Bryant at this stage maybe the closest thing we have to Michael Jordan at this stage, but no one is ever likely to conquer "his airness".
Bryant is still an amazing player with all due respect he has most certainly earned that. He is a guaranteed hall of famer the second he retires. But he is unfortunately not Jordan as I recently said he is probably the closest player we have to Jordan at this stage (Lebron James may be in the future) but at the moment it's Bryant. The reality is that it is going to take someone unbelievable to surpass Jordan in the future, could it be Lebron? Possibly, but unfortunately as great as Kobe Bryant is he will not become greater than Michael Jordan.