Taking Mamba too Far

I think polarizing is the right word.

Jamele Hill of ESPN.com just wrote an incredibly polarizing front-page column that starts out,

“Kobe Bryant is better than Michael Jordan.”

When I read that I bellowed like Conan. Which got me a few looks considering I was at the office, but they’re used to it. As I’ve already written in this blog’s infancy, I’m an ardent supporter of Kobe yet a die-hard fan of the Greatest of All Time. I was ready to rumble after just one sentence, considering I’m already on the fence about Hill after her so-so appearances on Cold Pizza last week.

Hill does make some good points, commenting on Kobe’s vastly underrated defense (let’s see Mr. 2-time MVP over in Phoenix guard someBODY, not a passing lane) and his killer instinct – which writers almost seem afraid to write about in the NBA’s post-brawl era. She makes a similar case I’d make about Kobe winning the MVP, like he should have last year, and the effect his image has had on people’s, and voter’s, opinions. But then she says things like this

“Kobe, like Michael, is surrounded with mediocre to below-average talent, and Phoenix, Dallas and San Antonio are all better than the Utah, Portland and the Charles Barkley-led Phoenix team that Michael met in the NBA Finals.”

Um, so she also just said Nash-Amare is better than Stockton-Malone, Duncan is better than Barkley (debatable sure) and Terry-Nowitzki is better than Porter-Drexler (blasphemy, but Portland couldn’t get respect from the Worldwide East Coast Bias if they beat the Soviets in the Olympics). And notice how she left out the Lakers – it’s funny how writers choose to ignore things that could hurt their argument rather than just mention it and find a way to overpower it…too hard I guess. She seemed to have selective memory on all the other Hall of Famers Michael dominated, or how he completely dismantled the entire Cavaliers franchise.

Since she started, Hill has seemed like she is trying too hard to be controversial, in the same way Scoop Jackson used to do occasionally. She doesn’t need to say Kobe is better than MJ just to get people to read the article, although being a woman in the sports industry might have something to do with it, which is understandable after Skip Bayless tried to dominate her on Pizza.

Kobe deserves alot more respect than he gets, and might ever get – I agree with Hill on that…perhaps the best way for him to be a good guy again is lead America to Olympic Gold. Maybe one day he’ll have a coveted spot at the top of Mount Hoopsmore among the greater than greats, but can he or should he be compared to Money yet? Nah.