Michael

by Bruce Bostwick

Created on: August 15, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Who is better: Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan? That is a really simple question and isn't even a contest. Michael Jordan hands down wins this and also the fact everyone knows who he is. Seriously, you could ask any non-basketball fan and they'd sooner tell you who Michael Jordan is than Kobe Bryant. It's not that Kobe is a bad player and believe me he isn't at all. It's just right now the super standard of basketball has to go with none other than Jordan. When he played, you couldn't get away from him. He was in commercials and he still is to this day. Jordan even was a star in a movie that did get mixed reaction in Space Jam. Here's a top trivia for you, he even had his own game albeit a strange one being Michael Jordan and the Windy City Chaos.

Is this going to be an anti-Kobe piece, well not really. I will acknowledge that he has had success and has done pretty well for himself. He's got with him perhaps one of the greatest coaches in basketball history with Phil Jackson, the same one with Jordan. However, Kobe has something right now with a stigma of not being able to get it done without Shaq. You see, he still has that stigma.

Well Kobe is currently playing at this moment but I think Jordan has a standard that is so high it is near impossible to even come close to matching it. To be fair, Jordan's last two years were not that good compared to his standards but respectable considering how old he was playing and personally probably shouldn't have come back to play for the Wizards. When you think of Michael Jordan, he's a Chicago Bull at heart. No other team would be the right fit.

Sure, Kobe Bryant has played since leaving High School and has had some great success. Nobody can deny that in the first place. However, as far as impact on the game itself, it probably will never get to that height. The media does hype up him up as the next Michael Jordan. Ever notice that trend, the next Jordan? There is just no way he can make it there and he may be better than him and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I guess for me it comes down to who I remember in my childhood and consider the best. While I was not an avid follower of basketball, I knew who Michael Jordan was and had seen some of his games and he blew everyone out of the water. There is no doubt Kobe will become a great player in his own right but at this moment he's going to have something to prove to all of his critics. He has to win a championship without Shaq where as Shaq has won one without him. Michael Jordan got six rings and proved to be a leader. Until Kobe can do that much more than Michael Jordan, the jury is for Michael Jordan end of story on that.

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