Oklahoma City star and this season's possible MVP, Kevin Durant called Kobe Bryant the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) before the Thunder's game against the Lakers.
"He's the greatest of all time. His skill is second to none. Him and MJ are neck and neck as far as skill," Durant said. "Kobe is the top two best ever in just having skill, footwork, shooting the 3, shooting the pull-up, posting up, dunking on guys and ball handling. Kobe and Jordan are 1 and 1A." said Kevin Durant when talking about Kobe Bryant.
But is Kobe Bryant really the greatest of all time? While "greatest of all time" is very subject, some fans took it to themselves to write a comparison of the first ten seasons of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and Michael Jordan to see who did better for the first decade of their reign as one the best players in Basketball history.
Alejandro Colmenarez looked into the stats provided by the NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com and made an interesting infographic comparing the first ten seasons of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and Michael Jordan.
While the infographic noted almost all of the awards the three athletes made, they only counted the achievements made in the first ten seasons. You can see what has been counted if the trophy/icon has been colored.
Here are some interesting tidbits:
-For the first 10 years Michael Jordan scored 21,998 points compared to Lebron James' 21,081 and Kobe Bryant's 16,866
-Lebron James won more MVP trophies than Michael Jordan in his first 10 years but Jordan won more finals MVP awards compared to Lebron.
-Michael Jordan and Lebron James won rookie of the year while Kobe Bryant did not
-Jordan won 2 slam dunk contest awards while Kobe won one. Lebron James hasn't competed in the Slam Dunk contest.