Kobe Bryant, Greatest Laker Ever? Or Not Even Close?

Kobe Bryant seats alone atop the Lakers scoring plateau, and this has led to a tsunami of chatter on the Internet, near the water coolers, and by the ever-reinventive mass media about his place in Lakers’ history books.

It was a monumental achievement in an organization in which greatness is an expectation and there are more championship rings than fingers. It was a third-quarter fast-break dunk that provided first an exclamation point, then a question.

Does this make Bryant the greatest Laker ever?

This is a very subjective question—and one that’s even tougher to answer with an active player.

In my article Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James: Is Bryant Better Overall? I wrote: "I believe in comparing athletes on finished products. A good example of finished-product comparison would be Jordan vs. Magic, Hakeem vs. David Robinson, or even Wilt Chamberlin vs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Bryant still has a couple of years—maybe four or five—on those legs of his before he calls it a career.

He might never win another championship; he might win three more. Until then, it's going to be hard to tell where exactly his career is going to rank among the Lakers greats.

But for the sake of argument, how does one decide what makes a player greatest of all time of a franchise—or even in the game?

I would think this would be a combination of individual performances, championships, leadership, clutch play, toughness, resiliency, and many other variables.

However, the question is, how much weight do you give to each variable? This is where subjectivity and allegiances take over. And that’s not even factoring in the challenge that comparing across eras presents.

Let’s be sincere here: Bryant is without question the best basketball player in the world today when considering all factors. (If anyone knows of someone better in Europe or...

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