Kobe Bryant says he has no rivals

[Andrew]

Kobe Bryant says no rivals in career

Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has always been lauded for his self-motivation and drive to be the best. It's a good thing he has that internal ambition, because according to Bryant, he's gone through his 16-year career without a true rival on the exterior to push him to succeed.

"I didn't have one," Bryant said after scoring 38 points in the Lakers' 115-107 win over the Sacramento Kings on Friday.

At first I was inclined to disagree but after further thought, I think it's accurate to say that. "Rivals" does not necessarily mean "peers" or "equals" and I would suggest that through most of his career there have been other shooting guards and swingmen in the league that were around the same level and in recent years, LeBron James has had just as strong a claim on being the best player in the league. If he did mean it in the context of no one's game being able to rival his, then I would disagree.

As far as the lack of a personal rivalry, I'd say it's a fair statement. When it comes down to it though, most great players could say the same thing as there really are only a couple of true player based rivalries that stand out in NBA history. There's Bill Russell vs Wilt Chamberlain, since they were stars who played the same position in a time when there were fewer teams in the league and as a result, they squared off more often than players would do in future eras. Apart from that there's really only Magic Johnson vs Larry Bird, with their careers intersecting beginning with the 1979 NCAA championship game, entering the league the same season and facing each other three times in the NBA Finals, which of course also drew on the established rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics.

[AMenace]

Well he really hasn't, in terms of those driving him to succeed. In terms of other players on the same skill level as him, maybe Lebron James, but their skill sets are so different, Lebron relies more on his athleticism, while Kobe is more of an all-around scorer. Kobe has championships, while Lebron has none. When you think of all of the top players in the NBA today, Dwayne Wade is the only player with a championship in terms of shooting guards. Players like Tracy McGrady, Kevin Durant, Lebron James, Chris Paul, etc haven't won any championships. Out of all the players in the NBA today, Kobe is really the only player with an impressive resume in terms of achievements. Lebron, who has a similar star status as Kobe, has only won 2 MVP's I think. So it is good that his self motivation is extremely high, and one thing that sets Kobe apart from everybody else in the league is that when he is having an off night shooting wise, he has so many other options to score, and still get 20-25 points on an off night. And there is the fact that Kobe is the only player that can truly 'go off' when needed and score a ton of points in a short period of time. Nobody else in the league does that consistently. Whether you hate the lakers or love them or are neutral, you have to admire the determination for Kobe to succeed. He plays constantly with injuries, had a divorce this year, and still is having an MVP like season.

[Andrew]

He has no personal rivalries or "signature matchups" to put it another way, but I still wouldn't say he's peerless. As I said, there's really only been a couple of true player based rivalries in the history of the league so he's not unique in that respect. That's not to take anything away from Kobe, but he's not the only great player who could claim he didn't have a specific rival.

[JBoom_LALALAND]

AMenace, I agree with AMenace.

There's no better swingman like Kobe in the NBA. He's a scoring machine. To me it's safe to say. His jumpshots are the most awesome of its kind. And throughout his career until now, I think he has no distinct rivals. It's not bad for a 30+ year old player to lead the NBA on scoring. And his achievements are way too many to count. Five rings, 4-time all-star mvp , league mvp title, 2-time NBA Finals MVP, All-time leader in scoring in all-star history, 5th in scoring in nba history. And right now, he's still carrying the Lakers on his shoulders. A lot of players don't play when they are injured. But the mamba, all through pain and injuries, continue to sting people. Good players have been destroyed by injuries. Let's talk about TMac and stuff. But there's nobody in the NBA right now that can play like Kobe, with the fierceness and tenacity.

It's part of his personality though, to be a braggart.
If you can remember the game against the Mavs in Dallas (where they missed 6 consecutive free throws down the clutch), he was asked post-game what happened?

The Mamba answered, " Just making the game interesting."
A heavy statement to say, but there's nothing bigger than Kobe being a ball player.

[Phil89]

[AMenace]

And based on the games of NBA i've seen, Kobe is the only player who consistently hits contested jumpshots. During the middle-end of the 3rd quarter, he always scores heaps. In a short amount of time.

[Andrew]

Again, being someone's rival is not necessarily synonymous with being someone's equal or peer in terms of talent and accomplishments. But if we are using the word in that context - ie saying one player's game rivals another - then you can still argue that at certain points of his career, Kobe has certainly not stood head and shoulders above the other star players in the league.

And throughout his career until now, I think he has no distinct rivals. It's not bad for a 30+ year old player to lead the NBA on scoring. And his achievements are way too many to count. Five rings, 4-time all-star mvp , league mvp title, 2-time NBA Finals MVP, All-time leader in scoring in all-star history, 5th in scoring in nba history. And right now, he's still carrying the Lakers on his shoulders.

All facts, all impressive, but they don't support the claim "And throughout his career until now, I think he has no distinct rivals", because he didn't have all of those things throughout his career. Through the first eight years of his career for example, nearly all of those achievements had hadn't happened yet. And during that span, there were other players in the league who were comparable in terms of their talent, production and achievements. As such, you can't say he was unrivaled throughout his career. You can say that few players can rival his career overall, but that's a distinctly different statement.

Once again, in terms of personal rivalries, I agree he lacks a distinct rival, an opponent to whom he's always linked. However, in that regard he's no different to Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley and so on. None of those players were linked with one other specific player, at least not to the extent of the Wilt/Russell and Magic/Bird rivalries.

[NovU]

Not only for Kobe but the entire league is suffering from having no rivalries these days. Back in the days, there was all kinds of rivalries and dramas where fans and players would get pumped up, like Reggie vs Knicks, MJ vs Bird, Malone vs Rodman, Big Country vs Shaq, Dickerson vs Mobley, etc.

I read a Heat article a few month ago saying that the Heat have no rivalry this season. That's very true actually in terms of team personality. That is sad. I want some feistiness between the players and teams. There were plenty back in the days.

[Andrew]

Some of the old rivalries still linger and there are certainly marquee matchups these days, especially at point guard. Rivalries between teams take time to develop and require both teams to be around the same level and squaring off in the Playoffs for a few years running. Otherwise, you just get that once-off Playoff series that got a little heated rather than a real rivalry.

[NovU]

Sorta why I wanted the Knicks to blossom as the Celtics were aging. Probably the Bulls are closer to being a rival to the Heat at the moment though than the Knicks. And the Bulls team look amazing this season as even pythagorean win % also agrees, also making it look like the Bulls as the real team to beat. The playoffs series between these two teams should generate noise and then perhaps leads to a real rivalry that we all been thirsty of.

[AMenace]

Heat VS Lakers 3:30ET.

Will be rivalry enough, as the Kobe vs Wade matchup will be good to watch.

But the Bulls vs Heat rivalry could emerge as a great rivalry. At the moment, NovU is right.

[Kenny]

Would Kobe Vs Shaq count as a rivalry? Or is it a different context we're looking at here? Because in that case, I'd call bullshit on that Kobe quote.

As for rivalry being dead, it's true to an extent, but there are a lot of great matchups out there. LeBron Vs Melo is probably my favourite of the lot. Melo most of the time seems to pick up his game against LeBron and it's cool to see that rivalry (of sorts) develop as their careers have gone on. When someone mentioned New York being a possible monkey wrench for the Heat, one of the TNT analysts threw it away saying that D-Wade and LeBron would "play lockdown on Melo"... like they did with Jason Terry right?

I really liked the whole Joakim Noah Vs the Cavs rivalry, but that one is probably dead since the Cavs aren't really relevant anymore.

EDIT: I realise he said "HAS no rivals"... since Shaq has retired, I guess that's technically true.

[benji]

There's no "rivals" today because we're in a transition period. We're moving out of the Duncan/Shaq/KG era while LeBron/Wade/etc. have barely had any shot at developing rivalries. Pierce/Carter/Iverson/McGrady (who Kobe mentions as potential rivals) were all in the first era.

The "Celtics/Lakers" rivalry revival had nothing to do with any prior history, was just an attempt to return to that long gone spirit and fell flat as the two teams hadn't even met in anything of importance for over 20 years beforehand. KG/Allen/Pierce hadn't battled with Gasol/Kobe like Bird/McHale/Parish and Kareem/Magic/Worthy did multiple times. Hell, I don't think any of those guys had even faced in the playoffs before. Then KG's injury prevented the first rematch and after the second one it's already over.

Kobe's right in that the Lakers vs. Spurs battles were more about Shaq vs. Duncan as they were the two best players on each team. And it always came down to if they were dominant and if the roster 3-12 was any good. Kobe beating up on Derek Anderson, Steve Smith and whatever the dysfunctional 2004 Spurs threw out isn't much of a rivalry or anything anyone should really care about. Then Kobe took three years off for some weird reason while Shaq and Duncan kept chasing titles.

Wade, LeBron, and Kobe have never faced one another in the playoffs. Melo and Kobe have, but not Melo and the other two. Kobe got Durant in his first trip to the playoffs.

Spurs-Suns and Spurs-Mavericks were probably the last good rivalries and nobody gave a shit about them.

Any "rivalry" where you haven't had to go through the "rival" in at least three of the last five playoffs to win and where both teams have won a series (or there's at least been some seven game series) isn't a "rivalry" worth discussing. The Wizards getting crushed by LeBron again and again for three straight years isn't a rivalry, just a pathos for Wizards fans or nuisance for Cavaliers fans.

[deihatein]

Spurs-Suns and Spurs-Mavericks were probably the last good rivalries and nobody gave a shit about them.

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[air gordon]

in the EASt i suppose you can say there was this Boston-Detroit-Cleveland thing going on during Lebronze's days in Cleveland.

Spurs-Suns and Spurs-Mavericks were probably the last good rivalries and nobody gave a shit about them.

agreed

rivalry is a marketing tool by the NBA. I believe it was David Stern who decided to put individual rivalry in the forefront instead of 2 teams facing each other. It started with Magic vs Michael, even though those 2 seldom guarded each other/there was no history between those 2.

[benji]

The irony being that the BIRD-MAGIC rivalry, was as noted stemming from two sort of "chance" situations that both their NCAA and NBA teams battled for the title multiple times. And it wasn't just those two, most of the supporting cast stuck around.

They tried to gin up Jordan v. Drexler among others but it all became one-off. And both Jordan and Shaq had nobody within parsecs of them at their positions.

You can say similar things about the old Wilt-Russell or Lakers-Celtics rivalry. The Lakers had Baylor and West and so of course they'd come out of the West nearly every year, the Celtics had all those great players so they'd be out of the East. Wilt was the cog in the machine since whoever he went to became a contender instantly so of course they'd battle the Celtics a lot. It was an eight to twelve team league ffs.

Want to note that I think the Spurs-Mavericks-Suns thing was good, I didn't mean I didn't care, I meant that basically nobody brings it up. It's like it didn't happen because those were more TEAMS and had "BORING" stars (or "didn't play the right way" for the Suns) until Dirk finally "stopped choking" this year.

For that Detroit-Boston-Cleveland thing, I'd add Orlando and make it more "jockeying" than actual "rivalry" but I would accept it. They only really only played each other a couple times but Cleveland and Orlando DID specifically try and build to beat each other and nobody else. (And then drew the team they had forgotten about.) The Suns did the same thing for the Spurs though they faced a number of times more.

Also, in a way, Kobe's argument basically underlies how irrelevant his position was during the Shaq/Duncan era. It never dictated a title, at best it dictated a Finalist. Once. Does anyone seriously believe that if you swap out Kobe for Carter or McGrady they don't still win those titles? Hell, even Iverson or Ray Allen? What if you pair up 2000 Shaq with 2012 LeBron or 2009 Wade?

[shadowgrin]

Kobe sure is trying really hard to rival and surpass this guy to the point of mimicry...

[Mandich]

What if you pair up 2000 Shaq with 2012 LeBron or 2009 Wade?

2006 Shaq won a title with Wade then, they would have won 3 titles as well in my opinion if both in primes, but pair up a prime-Shaq with any star and you have a title.

[niharjhatn]

Once again, in terms of personal rivalries, I agree he lacks a distinct rival, an opponent to whom he's always linked. However, in that regard he's no different to Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley and so on. None of those players were linked with one other specific player, at least not to the extent of the Wilt/Russell and Magic/Bird rivalries.

Yeah completely agree - Jordan had some "rivals" including to an extent Patrick Ewing, the rivalry with Jazz, and Clyde Drexler, but not to the same extent as Larry and Magic.

That was on another level.

[Kenny]

Kobe sure is trying really hard to rival and surpass this guy to the point of mimicry...

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[Dc311]

Spurs-Mavericks were probably the last good rivalries and nobody gave a shit about them.

Thank you.

[Andrew]

Would Kobe Vs Shaq count as a rivalry? Or is it a different context we're looking at here? Because in that case, I'd call bullshit on that Kobe quote.

That is an interesting twist to the tale of his career, the fact that his biggest rivalry was arguably with a teammate.

[NBALIVE2000VIDEOS]

in this day and age of media availibility overanalysis happens a lot especially with marketing being such a powerful tool and imagery playing such an important aspect in our "perception" of an individual. globalisation is still a somewhat new phenomenon we haven't fully explored yet. and journos are making a spin of it, in trend of pippens comments on Lebron being better than Jordan.

im not sure what the context was in, regards to his response or the way he worded it might be different to the text being spun again by the media as a headliner, but its a representation of what he thinks in his head.

basketball is a team sport and some individuals play to that, while others believe in distinction between themselves and team mates. I appreciate both opinions, but to be honest I think kobe bryant had rivals in the lakers-trail blazers, lakers - spurs, lakers - sacramento, and lakers -philladelphia. Iverson vs Kobe in the 2001 finals was great. Kobe vs Reggie Miller in the pacers lakers finals was another. I also remember kobe dunking on that spurs guy on christmas special, when he had that white glove on his hand and was still rocking the fro. The way thats spurs guy contested the dunk, kobe had a rival in THAT game lol.

If kobe meant he had no equal, kobe has had his share of off-nights, i guess if you are saying in terms of consistent rivalry, quality back and forth such and dominique and jordan, or clyde and jordan, bird magic isiah and jordan or the entire bad boys vs jordan lol, I dont know to be honest. the nba of that era after jordan left, after the lockout was a little devoid of stars as the old ones were retiring and the new ones were still working on their game coming up. i still remember kobes missed shots during his rookie? or 2nd year in the playoffs against the jazz.

There were equally good players, but not a consistent same position same scoring ability same need to knock each other lights out everytime we meet kind of rivalry. Kobe comes from the jordan mentality, and the new school of nba players (Lebron, bosh joining wade) superstars hooking up, etc etc, is more representative of this generations thinking of working together and not the Isiah Rider types of yesteryear lol (extreme example lol i know).

no rivals in his jordanesque definition if thats what he meant i believe.

[NovU]

IMO Kobe had plenty of rivals in terms of skill level and productivity on the court. The heck I could throw Brandon Roy in there in the mix if he had kept the god damn knee for couple more years. But I'd say Wade is definitely the closest to Kobe in that regard if not better. What bothers me the most though is people having him above other peers and putting him up there with Jordan. It's obvious only similar aspect of their game was Kobe imitating Jordan's moves.

[NBALIVE2000VIDEOS]

people always see what they want to see, when an athlete has an image problem its a problem when its just about an image and not sportsmenship ala olympic credo unity in bringing the best out each other