Thursday, January 17th, 2013 at 4:35 pm  |  263 responses

Kobe Bryant Says He’s the Greatest One-on-One Player Ever


When it comes to going mano-a-mano on a basketball court, few in NBA history have ever done it better than Kobe Bryant. And he knows it. So much so, that Bean claims he’s the greatest of all time in that department. Per a fun, lengthy Q&A with ESPN: “Who would you most like to play one-on-one, either active or retired? ‘Jordan. No question.’ What would happen? ‘I’m not sure, but he would win some and I would win some in a seven-game series. It would probably come down to the last few shots.’ You versus LeBron? Who wins? ‘Me. No question. As far as one-on-one, I’m the best to ever do it.’ Damn. That’s pretty confident. ‘LeBron is a terrific all-around, five-on-five basketball player who’s an all-time great. But I’d get him.’ Who could get you? ‘Kevin Durant is the guy that would give me the most trouble. With his length and ability to use the dribble, he’d be tough.’ I always wanted to see you play Tracy McGrady. ‘I played T-Mac. I cooked him. Roasted him. Wasn’t even close. Ask him, he’ll tell you. When I was about 20, we were in Germany doing some promotional stuff for that other sneaker company and we played basketball every day. We were in the gym all the time. We played three games of one-on-one to 11. I won all three games. One game I won 11-2. After the third game he said he had back spasms and couldn’t play anymore.’ [...] What about Kyrie Irving? ‘[Huge smile, laugh.] Kyrie’s my boy, but he knows he doesn’t have anything for me. He doesn’t want to see me. But it would be fun. I’ve beaten a lot of guys one-on-one, like Reggie Miller and Grant Hill. I used to play Caron Butler all the time in practice when he was with the Lakers. When I was a rookie I used to get Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones. They know. They’ll tell you. They used to come at me hard but I wasn’t having that. I love going one-on-one with someone. That’s what I do. I’ve never lost. It’s a whole different game, just to have them right in front of you and be able to do whatever you want.’”

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

    I love Kobe, but Jordan was much better defensively.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    That’s great and all…Jordan was just better.

  • speedy

    Kobe Bryant Says He’s the Greatest One-on-One Player Ever….. in a teamsport.
    Tells me everything I thought of him is right and shows that he already understood that he can’t be the best player ever and now tries to get some other kind of throne.

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    that sounds fair to me man. i know my opinion on this won’t be the popular one.

  • Conor

    The League, which has clout with Nike and journalists, obviously influences criteria and the ever-changing “status quo”. For Chrissake, ESPN invented a Heat Index upon the confluence of James, Wade, and Bosh.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Junior-Taylor/100003121138419 Junior Taylor

    Prime MJ was a goon at shutting down his assignment. The man won DPOY as a perimeter player for a reason.

  • Redd

    So much so that they signed with Adidas, cause Nike & NBA are that close.

    They have a “index” for a couple other sports teams to my knowledge also.

  • Redd

    lol

  • Conor

    Nike was an example.

    Do they advertise the Bucks’ Index as much as Miami’s? The Kings’? No.

  • Redd

    …it’s the Bucks & Kings…REALLY?!? Lol

  • LakeShow

    1 hour after post = 55 comments
    SLAM know’s exactly what they are doing haha

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    I’d really want to see LeBron and Kobe play each other in their primes. LeBron in his prime (now) is a better overall player than Kobe was in his prime. Just a beast on both sides of the floor and he still doesn’t have a go-to move.

  • Redd

    LOL I thought the same, we all saw it coming man.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Junior-Taylor/100003121138419 Junior Taylor

    Got a counter question for y’all. Who is the greatest one-on-one defender of all-time? My vote goes to Gary “the Glove” Payton. His mouth and tenacity alone would be enough to scare most cats into submission.

  • LakeShow

    For real, dude would be lost in a 1 on 1 game.
    That ain’t a bad thing!…

  • Conor

    I seriously hope they provide foundation to bicker with you!

    Going to see Los Angeles on Sunday, in Toronto. Tonight’s game may define their (regular) season, however.

  • Max

    Agreed.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    It wasn’t a conspiracy between the league, Nike and journalists. You’re reaching. ESPN invented that Heat Index while the rest of the country were also extremely interested in the Heat after LeBron and Bosh arrived so that wasn’t special. It was smart. Get some traffic on their website. Follow them at training camp. Ratings, etc. Much different than Nike, journalists and the league making sure that Jordan won that award.

  • Max

    Oh Dear lord.

  • Redd

    Lol always fun to talk sports so I wouldn’t mind.

    Don’t see how the Rap game defines the season though, we played’em yesterday & they’re not bad.

  • LakeShow

    The only thing true in this statement is the bigger, faster, stronger portion.

    1 on 1 IQ, and jump shot go to Bean.

  • LakeShow

    He was stronger, just not by much.

    He looked allot stronger, but has anyone seen KB take on SF’s/PF’s in the post with ease?.. I have a million times, and his strength has NEVER been an issue once in his career, so it’s a non-point.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    I’m not sure that people know how great of an athlete Iverson was. He was playing his 2nd sport. Those who knew him said he was a better football player. Never got tired. No off switch on offense. When refs started calling him for a carry with his crossover, he still found a way to get around guys easily. Other players talked about how much they feared him when he had the ball.

  • Conor

    If you don’t believe that, you haven’t seen Bryant play James over the past nigh-decade.

    I’m a fanatic, not a zealot.

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    naw, some of them are. other’s actually paid attention.

  • davidR

    where would you rank orlando magic tmac?

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    You left out the most important aspect of playing one on one?
    .
    is it because you are comparing Kobe to Jordan?
    .
    Because, prime Jordan, he LIVED at the rim. Got there way way more than Kobe. While everything you just said is true….you did leave out a pretty big aspect of one on one basketball.

  • Dagger

    No, I never said prime Lebron would beat prime Jordan. I said that “the difference in size, quickness and athleticism is just really hard to overcome.”

    That’s for Kobe. I actually think that prime Jordan matches up well with Lebron in quickness and athleticism. Ultimately I think Jordan’s greater skill and mental toughness would have given him a significant advantage over Lebron in 1 on 1. In a 7 game series, I’d expect Jordan to take 5.

    As for your comparison between Jordan and Kobe: Jordan was more efficient because he was flat-out better near the rim, in part owing to his superior athleticism. His shot selection was way better, and that matters in this context. Kobe’s got the three ball, although remember that Kobe’s lifetime % from the 3 is not much better than Jordan’s (.338 VS ..327), and in some of his prime years Jordan shot better from the 3 than Kobe ever has. This is not that close to me, although Kobe would like you to think it would be.

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    I was just thinking about him actually. I’d probably put him with Pete Maravich, Oscar Robertson, & Kevin Durant, right in that next category.
    .
    *Edit* – let’s put George Gervin, and Alex English in that category too.

  • LakeShow

    It’s hilarious to me that someone thinks LeBron would beat any of the offensive greats 1 on 1.

    We know who LeBron is right?

    He is a 5 on 5 player. He is banking on the guy being in the corner waiting to shoot the three. He is a play maker first and foremost. He happens to be a very good scorer also, but he isn’t sniffing anyone of the greats at 1 on 1…

  • bike

    MJ would win the majority of 7. And he would win if it was all on just one game. MJ has the bigger drive to win than Kobe which is saying something because Kobe is one of the most competitive athletes in the history of any sport. But MJ’s drive to win was still bigger.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Double teams didn’t really do much to him either at times. He was too fast.

  • Redd

    He’s also great at steamrolling to the basket.

  • https://twitter.com/Wayne__o BuenoWayno1

    Agree 100%

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    …Barkley said Jordan was the strongest guard he’s ever played against and he wasn’t exactly a weak player himself. Backing down someone in the post isn’t the greatest indicator of strength.

  • LakeShow

    “Lebron can just drive it everytime Kobe can’t stop him”

    My counter:

    “Kobe can just drive it everytime LeBron can’t stop him”

  • jessdogg

    he lead the league in steals, was the first guard in history with 100 blocks, while scoring 35 points a game on 53% shooting before there was illegal defense. Kobe has never shot 50%, never been close to leading the league in steals or never been close to 100 blocks. Its not even close..

  • LakeShow

    Even if we were talking 2012, pretty sure KB beats LeBron today 1 on 1, four out of five times.

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    he was UNREAL.

    - the game 1 highlight from the 2001 Finals is outrageous.

    .

    for everyone’s pleasure, i’ma watch it again.

    .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_G-TDCJdTY

  • jessedogg

    were you born in 1993?

  • bike

    You have to give Kobe one thing no matter what you think of his one on one skills–the guy has really big balls. Like Texas-size.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Kobe’s championships came from his teammates being great on their own while he was doing what he was doing as well. Not really with a lot of help from him. Shaq was always going to be Shaq regardless. Gasol, at that point in his career, was going to be Gasol. Lamar Odom’s role was a little underrated on those 2 teams too.

  • Redd

    Pretty sure people are forgetting Kareem, the greatest Laker.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Now? LeBron can stop him.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    My favorite Finals game I ever watched that didn’t include Michael Jordan.

  • LakeShow

    No, no he can’t.
    Nor can KB stop Bron, but KB is just an astronomically better 1 on 1 player so he would have the edge.

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    lol, i saw this comment from my E-mail preview on my phone, all i saw was, “my favorite finals game ever” — started to type well you need to watch the ’93 finals and then looked up and saw the rest of the comment.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    lol I wouldn’t think to say such a thing.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    LeBron would stop Kobe from getting to the basket today. Kobe doesn’t have the same first step he used to have. He would have to shoot jumpshots to win.

  • Dante

    I feel like a lot of the games people are debating the most (esp. Jordan / LeBron) would really depend on whether an NBA official is reffing these or not. Kobe does have an scoring skill advantage over Lebron, but couldn’t handle him defensively or post him imo without antics / flops.

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