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The 2019-20 NBA season is suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, and without live games, the easiest thing is to go back and discuss what happened in the past. Much of that conversation has focused on Michael Jordan, as everyone has tuned into “The Last Dance”.
And every time Jordan is in the conversation, it’s only natural to start talking about the greatest players of all time. So that’s exactly what we did. Early tuesday morning Here at CBS Sports we publish our ranking of the 15 best players in NBA history, starting with Jordan at n. ° 1.
As expected, there were many disagreements, including from some of those who helped put together the final list. Former NBA champion Richard Hamilton was one of the panelists, and joined CBS Sports HQ to discuss the results shortly after its release.
One of his main disputes was that Kobe Bryant, who came in at number 10, was too short. In his opinion, it was “disrespectful” to have Bryant so low on the list. Hamilton went out of his way to say that Kobe should rank much higher, having tied him with LeBron James for # 2 on his own roster, and that Bryant is the closest player we’ve seen to Michael Jordan.
According to Hamilton, Bryant was the only player he was afraid to play against. Here are his full comments:
First of all, who voted and put Kobe [at 10] he simply disrespected him. I feel like Kobe Bryant is the closest guy to Michael Jordan we’ve ever seen. When you look at his stats and you see, yeah, he was an 18-time All-Star, he was an NBA player 15 times, tied with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but when Magic Johnson comes out and says Kobe Bryant is the best Laker of all Times, that means better than him, and better than the guy Magic played with, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
I just think his body of work: You have to understand, a lot of times when you look at his numbers, he’s still in the top five in scoring, but he played with another great player at Shaquille O’Neal. If he didn’t play Shaquille O’Neal, he would probably be number 1 on the scoring list.
He’s probably the only guy, and Raja can probably vouch for this, the only guy I competed against in my 14-year NBA career who was discreetly scared when I entered the game. The reason is that Kobe was the type of player who tried to kill you when the first minute of play began, until the final bell rang.
You couldn’t let him get 10-12 points in the first quarter, because he was going to try to give you 50. He scored 81 points in one game, he was probably one of the most complete players we’ve seen in our Basketball Game.
Personally, he wouldn’t agree with how high he ranked Bryant, and while it’s true that Bryant would have scored more points if he didn’t play O’Neal, he probably wouldn’t have five rings either, which is a big part of his legacy. But we are not going to sit here and re-litigate everyone’s list, that would take forever.
Especially fascinating to hear Hamilton say he was “scared” to play Bryant. Hamilton was not a thicket; He attended three All-Star games, won a ring, and scored more than 15,000 career points. Hearing him say that it’s a pretty strong indicator of Bryant’s level of talent, and that he also remembers something Steve Nash recently said about Michael Jordan.
It’s also a reminder that while not having played in the NBA doesn’t stop you from discussing it, there are certain details and insights that you can only learn from that experience. While many analysts are analyzing the legacy through achievements, praise, stats, and skills, there are other components to the discussion, such as the impact players had on their peers and opponents, and that is why it is valuable to have the thoughts of former players. .
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