My friends in the office, in UST, in St. Peter have been discussing this issue a lot more than they used to nowadays, the reason being is very simple. Kobe Bryant is simply unstoppable and he is the main reason the Lakers win games and sell out their arena especially ngayong finals. If we put Kobe Bryant in perspective like everyone else does then we get the same answer every time. But in my humble opinion, being one of the biggest Michael Jordan fans, syempre 80's baby eh, I must say that I can vouch for Kobe and provide true facts that he can be or possibly already is a better basketball player than Michael Jordan. Now, being fair, Michael Jordan is a 14 time NBA All Star, has 10 scoring titles, won 6 NBA Finals MVP's and he currently still has the highest scoring average in NBA Finals history at 41.0 ppg. I could go on and on about how great Michael Jordan is and how much he has accomplished, but this is about Kobe Bryant.The difference between being a great basketball player and an extremely successful player is very different in every way possible. Kobe Bryant was born in 1978, which would make him 29 years old like myself hehe! He is still extremely young and has a lot of years yet before he starts to go downhill. Currently, Kobe Bryant has 9 NBA All Star appearances, 2 NBA All Star awards which are only 3 under Jordan's, 3 NBA championships and much more. The way Kobe approaches the game of basketball is simply phenomenal, and we don't even know if this is where he peaks. Now, we can't say much more about comparing Kobe to Jordan simply because we don't know how much better Kobe can be, but if we were to compare Jordan to Kobe right now, it's possible that he could be a better at this particular point in time. Kobe Bryant has had numerous games and even streaks of 50 + points in one game. Michael Jordan might have averaged more than Kobe, but the fact that Kobe is putting up these phenomenal numbers is absolutely amazing. Remember, Kobe has to basically do it all himself, so that would mean getting the ball as much as possible, unless his team mates pass to him endlessly. Can we say that Kobe Bryant has accomplished more than Michael Jordan? Absolutely not, because he hasn't, not even close. We need to think though that Kobe is only 29 and has many years left in his career. If he continues the way he is going, there is no doubt that he will beat Jordan's numbers; it's just basic math and common sense ika nga ng Prof namin :). I am assuming that Kobe is peaking right now, I mean last year he averaged 35.4 ppg, this year he is currently around 32.0 ppg and the season isn't even over. The Lakers are basically a "lottery" team and even ESPN and other new sources agree with that. Michael Jordan had basically an All Star team, which never hurts at all, but they didn't have a dominant force like Shaq like Kobe did. Jordan had Pippen, who was simply amazing and when he had the ball, players had to double team him, which would most likely leave Jordan wide open. Of course, that helps when you are putting up 35 + ppg year after year after year, etc. Kobe simply doesn't have another dominant player anymore and even with Shaq, Kobe averaged great numbers.If the Lakers can go far in the postseason every year with the team they have, there is only one reason why they are doing that, that's Kobe. If you can score 60 points against a team like the Super Sonic and then score 50 against a team like Dallas, you must be doing something right. It's not like he is scoring 20 against a top ranked team and 55 against a crappy team. Currently, Michael Jordan has Kobe and is definitely more successful, but how will this article change 5 to 10 years down the road? We will just have to wait and see and tingnan natin when will the fat lady sing (Susan Boyle).
