Kobe Bryant

            The NBA season just started and there has been a lot of conflict surrounding Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant (36) stands to make $23,500,000 dollars this year, making him the highest paid player in the league this year. By comparison Lebron James (29) will make $20,644.000 and Dirk Nowitzki (36) will make $7,974,482.

            Beyond the salary numbers I was interested in comparing Kobe's numbers versus Jordan and Lebron (chart below). Kobe has played for 19 years versus 15 for Jordan and 11 so far for Lebron. Based on totals the categories Kobe Bryant leads in are Assists and Turnovers. In 15 years MJ scored more total points than Kobe in 19, had more rebounds, almost 700 more steals, and 250 more blocks. Based on his current averages if Lebron were to play 15 years not 19, he would have 8,299 rebounds, 7,895 assists, 1,969 steals, 920 blocks, and 3,811 turnovers. That means at the 15 year mark Lebron will have approximately 1800 more rebounds, 2800 more assists, 150 more steals, 300 more blocks, and 60 more turnovers. 

             Kobe Bryant is a phenomenal basketball player but at least statistically not MJ or Lebron, which begs the question if at age 36 the Lakers were wise to make him the highest paid player in the league. I am all for being loyal to your players, but shouldn’t they be loyal to their team. For example, Dirk is the fourth highest paid player on the Mavericks this year. He is obviously not a Kobe Bryant, but still. I included his career stats below for kicks. 

            Here is another interesting thing to note Career FGA: Kobe Bryant 24391; Michael Jordan 24537; Lebron James 16764; Dirk Nowitzki 19759. Kobe scores 1.30 pts per attempt, by comparison Jordan’s pts per attempt were 1.31, Lebron’s pts per attempt are 1.38 and Dirk’s pts per attempt are 1.35. Anyone have any thoughts. 

Name                 Yrs   FG%  3p%    2p%    Ft%    RB      Ast      Stl        Blk      TO      Ttl Pts

Kobe Bryant      19     0.453   0.335   0.483   0.838   6604    5927    1836    620      3754    31719

Michael Jordan  15      0.497   0.327   0.51     0.835   6672    5633    2514    893      2924    32292

Lebron James     11     0.497   0.341   0.535   0.747   6086    5790    1444    675      2795    23170

Dirk Nowitzki    16     0.476   0.383   0.499   0.879   9600    3141    1038    1095    2209    26804