ISH All-time Top 25 Guards Project: #2 Kobe Bryant vs Magic Johnson.

[QUOTE=BlueandGold]Just to add in my two cents.. although Magic may have been slightly the better playoff performer he was nearly a liability on the defensive end. Kobe on the other hand has made 11 all-defensive NBA teams and although some years may have been unwarranted his whole body of work as a defensive player is much more impressive than Magic's body of work as a defensive player.[/QUOTE]
:rolleyes:

[QUOTE=BlueandGold]Just to add in my two cents.. although Magic may have been slightly the better playoff performer he was nearly a liability on the defensive end. Kobe on the other hand has made 11 all-defensive NBA teams and although some years may have been unwarranted his whole body of work as a defensive player is much more impressive than Magic's body of work as a defensive player.[/QUOTE]

Magic was bad at guarding PG's due to his size. That doesn't mean he couldn't guard other positions decently.

Magic Johnson was a really good help defender. Calling him a liability would be like calling Larry Bird a liability.

[QUOTE=WillC]Remember when Shaq left LA and Kobe struggled to keep the Lakers in the playoff rankings? I just can't imagine Magic being in that situation - he was too good.

Magic guaranteed championships. Just surround him with good finishers and defenders, and he'll do the rest.

This is an easy decision for me: [b]Magic Johnson[/b] gets my vote.[/QUOTE]

Reason #1 why Magic is also better then Michael Jordan...Jordan had 5 Losing seasons.....

[QUOTE=RobertdeMeijer]Magic's story in short:

Beats Bird in college, brings L.A. a championship, becomes a dick in his second season, redeems himself in his third with another championship, loses to Bird, then beats Bird, then beats Bird a third time to set matters straight, then wins a second in a row with a subpar Kareem(five by now), leads team to Finals without Kareem, wins an All Star MVP after retirement, plays in the Dream Team.

I won't go into details how "great" Kobe's story was, but it's not as magnificient as [B]Magic Johnson[/B]'s[/QUOTE]


Enters the NBA at 17 years old....wins the Dunk contest at 18, is a NBA Allstar at 19 years old, NBA Champion at 21 years old....at 22 is widely viewed as the NBA best allaround player (already a 1rst team all defensive team and a [B][SIZE="5"]29PPG 6REB 6AST playoff run under his belt[/SIZE][/B])...at 23 years old caps a 3 Peat on only the 3rd team in NBA History to do so....

By 24 years old puts up a scoring spree for the ages dropping 40 Point games not seen since Wilt Chamberlain....

at 26 years old he puts up what many consider the greatest scoring exhibition in NBA History...and probably the most iconic moment of his generation....to go along with one of the greatest offensive season's ever.

at 28 years old is finally named MVP after many years of deserving so.

at 29 years old wins his 4th NBA Championship....puts together one of the greatest Postseason runs ever.

at 30 is named the greatest player of his generation by a landslide....wins his 5th NBA Title in 7 NBA Finals in a 10 year span....for a decade average of 28PPG 6REB 5AST ...5X Champion in 7 NBA Finals...to go along with too many memorable moments to name....Kobe Bryant is according to most...

the greatest Laker of alltime.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal and Wilt Chamberlain all played on the Lakers too the last time I checked...

[QUOTE=RRR3]Magic was bad at guarding PG's due to his size. That doesn't mean he couldn't guard other positions decently.[/QUOTE]

Kobe was still a better defender.

[QUOTE=Heavincent]Kobe was still a better defender.[/QUOTE]
No shit. I know that. But people are acting like Magic was ****ing Steve Nash on D.

[QUOTE=Heavincent]Kobe was still a better defender.[/QUOTE]
He is but not to the extent the Kobe fans are saying in this thread. If they were Laker fans they would know Magic wasn't that bad defensively.

[QUOTE=RRR3]Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal and Wilt Chamberlain all played on the Lakers too the last time I checked...[/QUOTE]


yeah...and?....... Kobe is still by acclamation better ....

and Magic replaced Kareem with Vlade Divac and barely skipped a beat and nearly beat prime Jordan and Pippen...



Kobe skillwise is much better then any of those players...



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[QUOTE=AlphaWolf24]yeah...and?....... Kobe is still by acclamation better ....



and skillwise much better...



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Any sane basketball fan has those three over Kobe on the GOAT list. GTFO

Kobe at 32 averaged 22.8 PPG 3.4 RPG 3.3 APG (while shockingly getting swept by Dallas after three consecutive finals appearances) and Magic at 31 averaged 21.8 PPG 8.1 RPG 12.6 APG in playoffs. People on this forum love to discuss the great years of a player and disregard the failures that he had, especially when it's your favourite player (they always bring up the bad aspects of players who are compared to their fav player as well).

Why do you think people give less credit to Kobe's first three championships compared to other greats who won as leaders? No finals MVPs for those years. I still can't believe he had more FGA than Shaq from '00-'01~'02-'03 both in regular seasons and playoffs. In one year, Kobe-led Lakers didn't even make the playoffs while he was in his best years of his career. Kobe was consistently called the best player in NBA, yet he has only one MVP award... Magic not only has more MVP and finals MVP awards (he won all his rings and finals MVPs with Kareem) but he also was in top 3 of MVP voting's from '82-'83~'90-'91...for 9 straight seasons. I mean... Kobe's tied with Derick Rose already with one MVP award after 15 years, years that made the media say that he is the next MJ, and he is better than MJ? I don't think he deserves comparisons with Magic Johnson at all.

[QUOTE=RRR3]Most crazy basketball illiterate self proclaimed "basketball elitists" basketball fan has those three over Kobe on the GOAT list....for whatever their stupid reasons . ......they need to GTFO[/QUOTE]



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[QUOTE=AlphaWolf24]HURRR DURRR! KOBEEEEEE! MY GAY LOVE! SLURP DROOL! PANT! HURR[/QUOTE]

ewwwwwww.....:wtf:
Keep it to yourself, OmegaMutt

[QUOTE=SFMF]Kobe at 32 averaged 22.8 PPG 3.4 RPG 3.3 APG (while shockingly getting swept by Dallas after three consecutive finals appearances) and Magic at 31 averaged 21.8 PPG 8.1 RPG 12.6 APG in playoffs. People on this forum love to discuss the great years of a player and disregard the failures that he had, especially when it's your favourite player (they always bring up the bad aspects of players who are compared to their fav player as well).
[B][SIZE="5"]
Why do you think people give less credit to Kobe's first three championships compared to other greats who won as leaders?[/SIZE][/B] No finals MVPs for those years. I still can't believe he had more FGA than Shaq from '00-'01~'02-'03 both in regular seasons and playoffs. In one year, Kobe-led Lakers didn't even make the playoffs while he was in his best years of his career. Kobe was consistently called the best player in NBA, yet he has only one MVP award... Magic not only has more MVP and finals MVP awards (he won all his rings and finals MVPs with Kareem) but he also was in top 3 of MVP voting's from '82-'83~'90-'91...for 9 straight seasons. I mean... Kobe's tied with Derick Rose already with one MVP award after 15 years, years that made the media say that he is the next MJ, and he is better than MJ? I don't think he deserves comparisons with Magic Johnson at all.[/QUOTE]

:roll: who?..Online Basketball elitists...every fan I meet in the real world recognizes how great Kobe was then.....01' 29PPG 6REB 6AST in the playoff's with a 33PPG 7REB &AST series vs the Spurs....

but your here saying Magic was the "man" and carried Kareem sidekick azz becuase he won Finals MVP in 1980???:lol ....is that the logic?

again....hardly anyone in the real world agrees with the B.S. we type here...we are a very small % of the fanbase


Kobe was Voted Best Player of the 00's by far....by the majority of fans...

save the elitists BS....No one cares outside of here...5X Champion and Best player of his generation.....and it aint even close.

[IMG]http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/1600/kobepotd.jpg[/IMG]

so who are these mysterious "people" that believe Kobe was just lucky to have Shaq???....in fact going by numbers....it looks like most fans Know basketball when they see it...they Know "skill" and what player's capture thier imagination and have "it"...they can look past flawed stats and biased media awards....they know game when it's in their face.

you crazy thinking a 7'er with NO GAME beyond 5' from the hoop with Lack of skill to close out a game is a better player then Kobe...

hardly anyone agrees with you




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