Sebastian Telfair Asserts Kobe Bryant Is Top-5 All-Time Despite Crowning LeBron James the GOAT

Kobe Bryant’s name has been in the headlines a bunch over the last few weeks. The Black Mamba was recently ranked No. 11 by Bleacher Report on the Top 100 NBA players of all time. That shocked a great deal of people, including former players like Sebastian Telfair, who gave his thoughts on the Hall of Famer’s legacy during a recent interview with Vlad TV. 

The term GOAT gets thrown around a lot when discussing basketball. Telfair knows who he would classify as his personal GOAT, and that’s LeBron James. Why? Because The King is someone he never beat on the court, a list that also includes Kobe.

“We all know Kobe is a monster. Kobe is one of the GOATS. But I never beat LeBron. I beat Kobe. I beat Kobe on an NBA court. I beat KD. I don’t know, I ain’t ever beat Bron. I tell you that. Bron the GOAT to me. Bron got the 50,000 points,” stated Telfair.

It was at this point in the interview that the BR list was brought up. Again, Kobe came in at 11th behind names like Tim Duncan, Kareem, Larry Bird, Shaq, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, and even Steph Curry. “They all GOATS in they own right. It’s different eras. It’s a Hall of Fame, there’s gonna be a lot of people in there.”

Despite feeling that way, Telfair still wildly disagreed with the list, claiming there was no way Kobe deserved to be that far out. “I’m sure they did it on some type of number scale, but naw. Kobe Top 5? Hell no. There’s not five people that ever played basketball than Kobe Bryant,” he stated. “Michael Jordan and LeBron James, and then you got a couple of guys that’s in Kobe’s same boat. Outside of that, naw we got to respect Kobe,” he said.

It’s hard to agree or disagree with Telfair. On the one hand, the Black Mamba’s resume speaks for itself. He was a five-time champion and widely considered the most competitive man who ever played the game. But Shaq or Duncan were dominant in a different way than Kobe was. Can anyone really pick one over the other, especially because of the position? That’s why the GOAT argument will never be settled.

To present Kobe’s case even further, Telfair reminded Vlad TV that Bryant started in the NBA at a very young age. “This is out of high school, too, FYI. Kobe did come out of high school. I believe the youngest or the second youngest to play in the NBA. Kobe got drafted at 17. A lot of people on that list, them dudes was in college.”

Larry Bird’s name was then brought up as one of the more controversial picks to have over Kobe. “Larry Bird is big,” barked Telfair. “He’s tall, but Larry Bird did not want to see no Kobe Bryant. I promise you that.”

“Kobe is top 3-4 to me. I can’t think of 3 or 4 players I like better than Kobe,” added Telfair. This is also a true statement. Many would agree with Sebastian that any list must include the iconic Bryant. If his personal character didn’t do it for you, his statistics would. I mean, the guy dropped 60 points in his final NBA game at 37.

At the end of the day, only a crazy person would claim that Kobe isn’t an all-time great. The problem is, there are a whole lot of crazy people walking around these days.

About the author

Joseph Galizia

Joseph is a Las Vegas based actor and circus performer. For the last seven years he's had the pleasure of covering sports for multiple outlets, including the Lifestyles section of Sports Illustrated. In that time, he's conducted over 50 interviews with athletes, filmmakers, and company founders to further cement his footprint in the journalism world. He's excited to bring that skillset to the SportsRush, where he'll be covering the NBA news cycle.

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