Bleacher Report‘s Top 100 NBA Players of All Time ranking has been all over the internet in recent weeks, mainly because fans feel the list is poorly made. The biggest issue most people had with it was Kobe Bryant being ranked 11th. Many have criticized BR for this, and Dwyane Wade has now made his stance clear.
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On his podcast, the Miami Heat legend said that former and current players would rank Bryant as a top-three player of all time, interchangeable with LeBron James and Michael Jordan. He added that since they competed against him, they could judge his talent better than journalists who only watched him.
Shannon Sharpe, while agreeing that Kobe was ranked lower than he should have been, disagreed with Wade’s logic. He said that if players’ experiences were the standard, then Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would be ranked even higher. BR placed Kareem at number three, but Sharpe argued that if his peers had a say, he might even be number one.
“What about the guys that played against Kareem? Where are we gonna rank Kareem?” he asked Joe Johnson, who was a guest on Nightcap. “I’m not saying Kobe should be 11. You can debate this till the cows come home, and I’ve said this, Ocho, the guy who gets undervalued the most is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.”
Iso Joe agreed with Sharpe as well, pointing out that Kareem held the NBA’s all-time scoring record for 38 years before LeBron James broke it. Sharpe supported his argument by reminding Iso Joe and Ocho that Kareem still holds the record for the most MVP awards in league history with six. He also noted that Kareem earned those MVPs during a time when players had a vote, which meant that by a peer review standard, Kareem was just as respected as Kobe.
Sharpe made it clear that he was not trying to downplay Kobe in any way. His point was simply that Kareem does not get the respect he deserves, even with Bleacher Report placing him in the top three.
While all three panelists agreed that Kobe doesn’t deserve to be ranked 11th, Iso Joe, as the only one to have played against him, was asked where he’d rank Kobe. “In front of all those guys,” he said. “I was thinking more like 2 guardish, I ain’t know we was talking about, like, the whole league.” Johnson is clear: Kobe is a top 2 SG of all time, only behind Jordan.
In the grand scheme of things, Johnson thinks Bryant is a top 10 player of all time, but agreed with Sharpe when he said that the ranking is “tougher than you think.”
