Whether you believe Kobe Bryant is the single greatest basketball player of all-time or not, everyone who’s a fan of the game, even those who don’t particularly like Kobe, can agree that he’s one of the top dozen or so players to ever play, at worst.
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Kobe won three rings in a row with Shaquille O’Neal, then he proved he could do it without the Big Diesel by winning two more later in his career. Along the way, he developed the “Mamba mentality,” a sense of focus and toughness that still rings true for many pro athletes today.
Tragically, Kobe is no longer around to defend his resume. It’s a shame, because there are many who have tried to diminish his accomplishments by suggesting he rode Shaq’s coattails, or that other players could have had just as much success as he did if they had swapped spots.
Comedian Brad Williams doesn’t look like the first person you’d think of when it comes to smart basketball takes. He’s a little person, measuring just 4’4″. Muggsy Bogues would look like a giant next to him. And yet on a recent appearance on Byron Scott’s Fast Break, Williams brought the truth when it comes to those who would knock Kobe down.
“I heard Tracy McGrady say oh, if he was on the team, then he would have won so many titles,” Williams said. “Bro, I’ve seen your knees. Trust me, I’m at your level to see your knees. I’m literally eye contact with your knees.”
Williams had Byron Scott and Kid Jay rolling with that one, but he also followed it with a great point that T-Mac didn’t have the Mamba mentality that Kobe did. “You weren’t hitting free throws with a torn ACL,” he said. Williams even said that if you asked Shaq, he would tell you that T-Mac couldn’t have done what Kobe did.
In an amazing moment, a producer off-camera interrupted Williams to tell him that Shaq actually did say that he could have won those titles with T-Mac if he had replaced Kobe. “He said yes?! WHAAAT?!” Williams exclaimed.
It’s true. Shaq made that claim less than two months ago on the Off the Record podcast, saying he would have won three titles with McGrady, two with Vince Carter, and six with Steph Curry.
McGrady was an unstoppable scorer in his prime, and it’s true that he was double-teamed much more frequently than Kobe because of Shaq’s presence in the post. At some point, though, the truth has to matter. Williams is right that McGrady was much less durable than Kobe, but even assuming he stayed healthy, if he had been with the Lakers, would he have really won three straight titles like Kobe did?
Until his final season (one in which he barely played on the Spurs team that lost to the Heat in the Finals), McGrady was 0-8 in playoff series. That’s right, he never advanced to the second round of the playoffs, let alone sniffed a title. He’s argued that he didn’t have the supporting cast that Kobe did, but he was paired with Yao Ming for six seasons.
T-Mac and Yao were rarely healthy at the same time, but what’s really damning is that in 2009, the one time the Rockets actually did win a playoff series during this era, McGrady was nowhere to be found after knee surgery ended his season in February.
T-Mac was a great player, and he’s a deserving Hall-of-Famer. To put him on Kobe’s level is nuts, though. Being a great scorer and being a winner and a champion are two different things.
Shaq and Kobe famously broke up due to their differences, but reconciled later in life. Just about any time you hear Shaq talk about Kobe now, it’s in a complimentary way. This is a rare case of him forgetting just how good Kobe was, though, and he disrespected him by putting T-Mac in the same class.
Williams nailed it when he said, “T-Mac didn’t have the killer instinct, that killer instinct of not allowing yourself to lose. Lifting up your teammates whether they want it or not.” Kobe did.
