Kobe Bryant appeared on the Late Late Show with James Corden on Tuesday and was asked how he’d rank himself in comparison with Michael Jordan and LeBron James. While being faced with the option of eating cow tongue or answering the question directly, Bryant offered the following.
“I’m the best, Michael’s second best, LeBron’s third best.”
This bit was definitely more for comedic effect than an actual declaration of greatness, and I’m glad Kobe didn’t have to eat the cow tongue. But regardless of what metric you’re using, it’s really difficult to rank Bryant over Jordan. From a championships standpoint, MJ has Kobe by one. Jordan also averaged 30.1 points per game which is just over five more points than the 25 per night Bryant averaged for his career. Mike also shot a better field goal percentage than the Mamba, clocking in at 49.7 percent for his career as compared to 44.7 for Kobe.
From LeBron’s perspective, he may need at least one more championship to officially go down as the greatest of all-time. The Cleveland title certainly carries some extra weight in that it snapped a championship drought that permeated the city for 50+ years. But James still only has three rings at the moment as compared to the five and six that Kobe and MJ have. He won’t be adding to that total this year, either.
The best argument you could make for LeBron would be his all around production and numbers. James averages more rebounds and assists than both MJ and Kobe while also scoring more points per game for his career than Bryant. His 34.3 percent mark from three-point range is also better than both Jordan or Bryant. But there was cow tongue on the table last night and they didn’t have time to get into all those numbers.
