“…Midway through the first season, I tried to at least have a conversation with Kobe Bryant — he is my teammate, he is a co-worker of mine, I see his face every day I go in to work — and I tried to talk with him about football. He tells me I can’t talk to him. He tells me I need more accolades under my belt before I come talk to him. He was dead serious. [...]

“We’re teammates, we talk basketball on the court. [Our talks were] about getting him the ball pretty much.”…”

Kobe and Shaq obviously both contributed to that Laker 3-peat, but Shaq was the top dog on that team. Clearly. Even if Kobe gets his 6th ring to tie Jordan, we will all know that Jordan was never “1A”, let alone 2

Fowl is right. Back when Bill Russell was playing there was no social media, no tabloid media, and not even half the fans of today watch the game back then. Russell was a HUGE CONTRIBUTOR to the game. At one small point he was a player/coach for that team. He and his fellow talented teammates who weren’t even superstars in THEIR own right won 8 rings in a row. Who DOES that??? yah, uh, NOT KOBE. I consider Russell tied for the G.O.A.T. label along with MJ in my personal opinion. Kobe is only in the top ten now but it’s only a matter of time until LeBron and KD kick him out of it.

And it doesn’t matter how many rings Kobe has. It’s common knowledge that he’s an a-hole. No amount of rings as a player should or will ever justify the fact that as a MAN he’s an A-HOLE, period.

As for the experts…people much older than me insist that Robertson or West were the greatest wing players ever…

Agree to disagree?

My personal opinion here is that Russell’s game and contribution to the game would be many times more appreciated had the fans of today personally experienced or witnessed Bill Russell’s game. During the 60′s, NBA exposure to the public was definitely nothing to the magnitude of what the NBA is today. True, there are archived clips of his games but it would be significantly different had he played in our time.

On topic: Different strokes for different folks. That’s Kobe. Deal with it. Your opinion of him wouldn’t matter to him anyway. He’d still do what he does.

Hopefully for his sake, the winning still continues till he retires.

Even still, Shaq did get one without Kobe, in 2006 vs the Heat. (But of course Kobe got 2 without him, and its also arguable that Shaq was the 2nd best player on that 2006 Heat team.)

Would Kareem and Magic get those rings too without significant support from his teammates?

The thing that one should put into consideration is: who were consistently members of those championship teams?

My argument is that Kobe is considered by many as a top 5 ever player, ultra-clutch, winner guy and its because of his rings. Rings play too heavily a factor in this argument.

For the clutch argument, I would say that the greatest and most important shots made during the Shaq-Kobe era were by Horry (game-winner vs Sacramento WCF) and Fisher (.04 sec vs San Antonio WCF). He played poorly against the Celtics in their recent rematch in Game 7, but was rescued by the stellar play of Pau Gasol, both scoring and rebounding (who ironically is considered a soft, choker). And where was all that winning/clutchness 2 years before against the Celtics?

Is Bill Russel the GOAT (10, 11 Rings?) How about the numerous Celtic HOFs of that era who played with him and collect 5, 6, 7 rings? When talking about guards, how about the Big O Oscar Robertson, the only player ever to average a triple double for a season (only 1 ring) How about another former Laker, The Logo Jerry West? His per game averages are about as good as Kobe’s, in the regular season and playoffs, but only 1 ring. But I’m guessing your argument against those two is “KISS KOBE’S RINGS!”