When Dwight Howard appeared on Gil’s Arena podcast, he ended stirring up a controversy. The 38-year-old, who was the teammate of the late, great Kobe Bryant for a season, claimed that in terms of skills, Kobe was a much better player than Michael Jordan.
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“I think Kobe is better than MJ, skill-wise. He took everything Jordan did and multiplied it, he did it better.”
This statement enraged host Gilbert Arenas who believed that the narrative was false because there were a lot of things that MJ did that Kobe couldn’t do in his career. Two other people on the panel, Rashad McCants and Nick Young agreed with Howard’s take on Kobe being better than Jordan.
McCants added his two cents to the discussion. “He took MJ’s mid-range footwork and put it on the perimeter.” However, Arenas wasn’t willing to accept it because he thinks otherwise.
“Why the f**k are you talking about Kobe enhanced MJ’s moves when you’re only talking about MJ ’95, ’96…Kobe don’t look nothing like MJ in ’84 to ’93. He don’t know who that n***a is. He learned Michael Jordan’s old comeback with a post-up and fadeaway, that’s the MJ he mimicked. He did not mimic Air Jordan.”
Dwight Howard: “I think Kobe’s better than MJ skill wise.”
The Arena turns up over Kobe Bryant vs. Michael Jordan skill debate 👀 pic.twitter.com/kSn1f0X0SJ
— Gilbert Arenas (@GilsArenaShow) August 31, 2024
He thought that Kobe enhanced several moves and qualities of Jordan after adopting them. However, Arenas had a completely different outlook on this discussion.
In his early days, ‘Black Jesus’ was a more explosive player who used to drive to the basket relentlessly and also showcased some gravity-defying dunks very frequently.
As time went by, Jordan made changes to his game according to his age and his role in the team. During the second three-peat, he relied more on footwork, his fadeaway jumpers, and post moves.
Arenas claimed that these are the moves that Kobe mic. However, the era that made MJ, ‘Air Jordan’ wasn’t tapped into by Kobe.
