But how often did his winning ways translate to NBA titles? Even four years after his retirement, he sits at fourth all-time in career points 33, , 8th in minutes played 48, , and 16th in career steals 1, He was also labeled a tough teammate to play with, and his infamous rivalry with Shaq—while they were teammates—may have hindered his success. The Lakers looked a lot different than the last time they won a championship.
They met their bitter rivals, the Boston Celtics, in the Finals. The Lakers ran through the West with relative ease heading into the Boston series, while the Celtics seemed almost destined to win in Game 4 of the finals is the stuff of legend.
By , the Shaq and Kobe Lakers were in year four of their experiment. Kobe was still ascending to superstardom in at the young age of He averaged Nonetheless, the Lakers took care of business and entered the Finals as favorites. While the Finals definitely belonged to Shaq, Kobe had some moments.
He missed most of Game 2 and all of Game 3 due to an ankle injury but came back with a vengeance in Game 4, scoring 22 points in the 2nd Half to lead the Lakers to victory. Bryant also notched 26 points in the clinching Game 6 to earn his first-ever NBA title at just 21 years old. The Lakers rolled through the regular season and playoffs in , losing only one playoff game. Kobe notched his second straight second-team All-NBA award and had cemented his place as one of the young talents to watch across the league.
He and Shaq both averaged 28 points per game. However, were all "Robins" the same? I went through and took the PER and WS of all four players through each postseason where they won a title, as well as the best scores that didn't belong to them. I then found the difference in each case and added the scores together to come up with a "Robin Factor" to give an estimate of how much help each player received from their superstar teammates.
First, here are the average "Robin Factor" scores for each player and their teammates:. It's pretty evident by looking at the year-by-year Robin Factors that Jordan isn't benefiting from a skewed season by anyone in any way, shape or form. His six rings account for six of the highest seven scores. Furthermore, he's the only player who you can't argue was ever the "Robin" on a championship team.
Clearly, in through , Shaquille O'Neal was the driving force. For Kareem, it was because Magic Johnson was in charge. In fact, while Jordan has six finals MVPs, the other two have only two a piece. For Russell, on his first two championship teams and his last one, it is evident that he wasn't even the second best player on the team. That's not a swipe though. He was first a very young player on a team loaded with Hall of Famers and a veteran past his prime.
There were no Finals MVPs awarded then, but it's likely he could have won six. However, there remains the earlier fact that he had by far the most Hall-of-Fame help of any of the players. In terms of help, Jordan received significantly less than any of the other three.
Statistically speaking, there can be no argument. Jordan is not only clearly ahead in terms of absolute value. He is also clearly ahead in relative value.
However, there will be those who argue that numbers don't tell the whole story. Now, first, I will say that I agree with that. It has been my observation though that generally when people make that argument, they deny the part of the story that the numbers do tell. Numbers don't tell the whole story, but they do tell a pretty good chunk of it. As to the part that the numbers don't tell, Jordan wins there as well.
He's the only one of them who never lost in a finals. He is the only one who won the finals MVP every time. He's the only one who never played a game seven. He has won two series on a game-winning assist and he's won one series with a game-winning shot. He had the flu game. He had the shrug. He had the cry. He had not one, but two point finals games.
He had eight point games. His "worst" game in the finals was "only" 22 points with four boards and four assists. When John Hollinger did his best finals performances, Jordan had four of the top 10 slots and five of the top The narrative part of the story is not lost on Michael Jordan.
No, the story is not lost there. Nor is it stuck in only the finals. His game itself is what separates him from mere mortals, or even the "demigods," such as Kobe Bryant and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The most amazing thing about Jordan is that his best help was not Scottie Pippen. It's not to take anything away from Pippen, but it's what Pippen wasn't that makes Jordan extraordinary, and that's a big man. When you look at every other great team, there's always been a ball handler and distributor on the outside, and a scorer, a big man, on the inside.
Jordan was unique in that he served as both. He was the primary ball handler and passer on the team, and he was the primary scorer in the paint.
Former Pistons guard Joe Dumars once said that 95 percent of the Bulls' plays are intended for Michael Jordan, and the other five percent end up in his hands anyway. No other player in NBA history has won multiple championships the way that Jordan did. One could argue that LeBron James has been the same kind of player, but he hasn't won championships.
Kobe could score in the paint, but he never won without a great scoring big man. Kareem had Oscar Robertson, and then Magic Johnson. Michael Jordan had Horace Grant, who had one season where he scored Kobe Bryant has won a total of 5 rings in 20 seasons in the NBA.
Kobe was in his prime dominating the league from the shooting guard position. This run is considered to be one of the most dominant championships in NBA history. In their first championship run, they won 67 games in the regular season which is tied for the 5th most in NBA history. They then steamrolled everyone in the playoffs to reach the Finals to face off against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Although Shaq was the leader of the franchise, Kobe was super clutch in Game 4 of the Finals. He scored 22 points in the second half and led the team to an OT victory after O'Neal had fouled out of the game. Bryant converted the final shot of the game to put the Los Angeles Lakers ahead by — With a — Game 6 victory, the Los Angeles Lakers won their first championship since The 2nd championship run was even more dominant as the Lakers went in the playoffs.
The only match they lost was in the Finals to the Philadelphia 76ers. Kobe Bryant played heavy minutes and recorded a stat line of Following the 2nd championship, the road to the Finals would prove much more difficult than the historic run of the previous year. The series would stretch to seven games, the first time this had happened to the Los Angeles Lakers since the Western Conference Finals.
However, Kobe Bryant and the crew were successful in beating their division rivals and confirming their spot in the third consecutive NBA Finals. When all was said and done, he finished with a quarter of his team's points from that post-season. At the age of 23, Kobe Bryant became the youngest player to win three championships. Kobe Bryant came back extremely motivated, leading his team to a regular-season record. In the Finals, Dwight Howard led Orlando Magic to stand in their way, whom they eventually beat in 5 games.
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