A few days ago, during an appearance on the Players Choice Podcast, the former Kings point guard Jason Williams made a lot of noise by saying that for him Kobe Bryant was not one of the 5 best players in the history of the Lakers. Guest of BroBible, he came back on the subject, and explains that despite that, for him Kobe Bryant is the greatest Laker in history.
« Kobe Bryant is the greatest Laker in history, which doesn’t mean he’s the greatest basketball player in Lakers history. You know what I mean? For example, LeBron James was a better player than Dwyane Wade, but when you think of the Miami Heat, who do you think of? We think of D-Wade, he is the Miami Heat, it’s like Kobe Bryant, who is the Lakers. When we think of the Lakers we will always think of Kobe Bryant first. I think there are five best players that have played for the Lakers, but that doesn’t take away from Kobe Bryant. He’s one of the greatest basketball players in history. »
Then he lent himself to the famous game of changing eras. In particular, is the Michael Jordan of the early 90s, who dominated the NBA, would shine as much in the current NBA. The answer is rather surprising.
« He would be excellent, don’t get me wrong, but I think it would be a little bit harder for him, because the defenses have changed and there would be 3 players facing him on the same side of the court when he has the ball on the wing. Whereas back then there was only one guy. In the NBA, anyone can beat any defender in one-on-one, let alone Michael Jordan. I think he would be great, an All-Star, no doubt, but not the Michael Jordan he was back then. The game is so different. Shaq wouldn’t be as dominant as he was back then in the NBA today. Because there would be four or five players around him and he couldn’t even get the ball. It would be complicated. »
And him?
« I think I would adapt. I would struggle with scoring, because a lot of these playmakers that run these teams score 25-30 points a game, and I wasn’t that kind of guy, I didn’t have that mentality, I was looking to get my teammates to score. But don’t get me wrong, I would enjoy trying to score 30 points. »
