Ruggeder
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With all due respect, Lee, I’m a lifelong (36 years old) Lakers fan who likes to lurk this forum and your assessment about Kobe being 5th of 6th best player on the Lakers and now behind LeBron is absolutely absurd.
Whether you like it or not, Kobe is a legend here in Los Angeles. Despite his past mishaps, and he’s had many, I admit, he was a young man in the early and mid 2000’s and made some dumbass mistakes. I don’t think anyone denies that.
But in terms of his pure basketball genius, you had to witness some of his greatest performances at Staples Center to understand why we here in LA will always think of Kobe as either the greatest, or second greatest Laker to ever don the purple and gold.
He was either a close second option, or first option to 5 titles, 3 consecutive on one occasion, and two on another, for this franchise.
If LeBron wants to be a part of the Laker great pantheon, he needs to win at least one championship first. Even the great Wilt Chamberlain, the man who scored 100 points in one game, was only able to lead the franchise to 1 championship.
Granted, the majority of us are absolutely ecstatic that we now have LeBron. I mean, come on, this is LeBron James we’re talking about. The best player in the league without question. The man who has redefined the game of basketball. Cleveland and Miami legend. Imagine he wins a title for the Lakers....that would be 3 franchises that he would have done that for. Unmatched.
Ultimately, how could you not be excited about having the two most dynamic, and arguably popular players in the NBA in the last 20 years playing for your team?
We are blessed as a franchise, and our fan base isn’t filled with just the band wagoners that yes, we do unfortunately have. We have some of the most hardcore diehard fans in the world. And being a part of that die hard fan base includes.
It is completely fine to like him more then any other Laker, but objectively, Lebron, Shaq, Wilt, West, Kareem, Magic, Mikan, maybe Baylor are much better. I get Lebron has only played one year, so I get the argument for him.