Main reason Kobe Bryant should still be considered, “The best basketball player on earth today.”
Unfortunately, every once in awhile, someone in the on-line hoops community will attempt to assert that the best basketball player on the planet earth today is someone other than Kobe Bean Bryant, based on some type of logical, or statistical-based, evidence.
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When “counting the rings” goes wrong
At this point in time, there is no clear-cut way to determine if Player X is better than Player Y. Some may rely on PER, others will rely on the eye test, and the vast majority will count the rings.
As with any argument, though, there is a golden rule that should be followed to a tee: if you’re going to use it in debate, at least be consistent.
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Main reason average basketball observers cannot properly evaluate who the best players actually are, at a given point in time, however, is because they are incapable of making an accurate assessment of the array of inter-related basketball skills [i.e. both, "hard" and "soft"] that actually need to be considered when making a judgment about the quality of a specific player in relation to the abilities of his/her peers.
What you see below is a brief sample of the myriad “basketball skills” which SHOULD be used to develop an accurate appraisal of a specific player’s actual ability, relative to his peers:
| BASKETBALL PLAYER, PHASE SPECIFIC SKILL-SET EVALUATION, BY POSITION | ||||||
| No. | OFFENSIVE | 1-5 | DEFENSIVE | 1-5 | REBOUNDING | 1-5 |
| 01 | Fills transition lane quickly | Gets back in transition | Boxes out check | |||
| 02 | Transition drives, R | Denies check ball | Goes to get ball | |||
| 03 | Transition drives, L | Defends vs cutter | Reads ball coming off rim | |||
| 04 | Half-court drives, R | Defends vs ball w/out a pick | Energy & will to retrieve misses | |||
| 05 | Half-court drives, L | Hedges vs Pick | Consistent awareness and effort | |||
| 06 | Perimeter catch & shoots | Switches vs Pick | SUB-TOTAL | |||
| 07 | Perimeter shot fake & drives, R | Traps vs Pick | ||||
| 08 | Perimeter shot fake & drives L | Vs post-ups | ||||
| 09 | Mid-range catch & shoots | Rotates to help | ||||
| 10 | Mid-range shot fake & drives, R | Rotates to help-the-helper | ||||
| 11 | Mid-range shot fake & drives, L | Rotates to block a shot | ||||
| 12 | Pull-up jump-shot, right | Rotates to draw a charge | ||||
| 13 | Pull-up jump-shot, left | Blocks shots from off ball | ||||
| 14 | Consistent finish at the rim | Blocks shot, on ball | ||||
| 15 | Draws fouls | Vs ball in switch mismatches | ||||
| 16 | Free throw scorer | Deflections | ||||
| 17 | Post-up scorer | Steals | ||||
| 18 | Perimeter passer | Recovers loose balls | ||||
| 19 | Interior passer | Checks 1.5 positions off ball | ||||
| 20 | Lay-off passer | Physically tough | ||||
| 21 | Drive and kick passer | Mentally tough | ||||
| 22 | Passer out of post | Emotionally tough | ||||
| 23 | Creates shot for teammate | SUB-TOTAL | ||||
| 24 | Drives off pick, right | |||||
| 25 | Drives off pick, left | |||||
| 26 | Screener | |||||
| 27 | Picker | |||||
| 28 | Cutter | |||||
| 29 | Uses screen[s] to get open | |||||
| 30 | Gets open without screen[s] | |||||
| SUB-TOTAL | ||||||
| SUMMARY | ||||||
| OFFENSIVE SUB-TOTAL | Out of 150 | X .33 | ||||
| DEFENSIVE SUB-TOTAL | Out of 110 | X .33 | ||||
| REBOUNDING SUB-TOTAL | Out of 25 | X .33 | ||||
| TOTAL | ||||||
If you complete this simple evaluation form for any current player in the NBA … using whatever specific measuring tools you prefer for each individual category … according to the position he plays, and then compare his overall score to the same evaluation form you also complete for Mr. Bryant, you should be able to see for yourself that the LA Lakers’ No. 24 is still, actually, “The best basketball player on this planet.”
Tags: Jovan Buha, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James
October 27th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Of course Kobe is the BEST. Is there any doubt?