With Kobe's amazing 50-point game run, the latest question posed by pundits is whether Bryant is actually better than Michael Jordan.  This is an interesting theoretical question and many people have chimed in with their opinions on the subject.  The NBA on ABC crew talked about Bryant being a better offensive player and Jemele Hill wrote an article over at ESPN.com putting forth a similar premise and noting that Kobe has gotten some unfair criticism over the past few years.  Kobe's been great but a little perspective is in order.  Putting aside Jordan's titles and MVPs and Kobe's controversies and just going by pure numbers, Kobe is not quite in Jordan's neighborhood. 

 

We looked at this issue in-depth at Christmas time this year.  Without rehashing the entire analysis of the previous article, we found that Jordan's scoring run in the 1980s and early 1990s was pretty much untouchable.  Kobe has put up great numbers over his career and even more impressive the last two years.  But while these stat years are comparable to what Jordan did, they do not nearly reach Jordan's uber-peak.  Take a look at Jordan from age 23 until his first retirement against Kobe's post-Shaq career:

 

Michael Jordan

Age	Year	PPG	FGM	FGA	FG%	3FGM	3FGA	FTM	FTA	RPG	APG	TOPG	BPG	SPG	PER
23	1986-87	37.1	13.4	27.8	0.482	0.1	0.8	10.2	11.9	5.2	4.6	3.3	1.5	2.9	29.8
24	1987-88	35.0	13.0	24.4	0.533	0.1	0.6	8.8	10.5	5.5	5.9	3.1	1.6	3.2	31.7
25	1988-89	32.5	11.9	22.2	0.536	0.3	1.2	8.3	9.8	8.0	8.0	3.6	0.8	2.9	31.1
26	1989-90	33.6	12.6	24.0	0.525	1.1	3.0	7.2	8.5	6.9	6.3	3.0	0.7	2.8	31.2
27	1990-91	31.5	12.1	22.4	0.539	0.4	1.1	7.0	8.2	6.0	5.5	2.5	1.0	2.7	31.6
28	1991-92	30.1	11.8	22.7	0.519	0.3	1.3	6.1	7.4	6.4	6.1	2.5	0.9	2.3	27.7
29	1992-93	32.6	12.7	25.7	0.495	1.0	2.9	6.1	7.3	6.7	5.5	2.7	0.8	2.8	29.7

 

Kobe Bryant

Age	Year	PPG	FGM	FGA	FG%	3FGM	3FGA	FTM	FTA	RPG	APG	TOPG	BPG	SPG	PER
26	2004-05	27.6	8.7	20.1	0.433	2.0	5.9	8.2	10.1	5.9	6.0	4.1	0.8	1.3	23.3
27	2005-06	35.4	12.2	27.2	0.450	2.3	6.5	8.7	10.2	5.3	4.5	3.1	0.4	1.8	28.0
28	2006-07	31.0	10.2	21.9	0.467	1.9	5.2	8.7	10.0	5.8	5.4	3.4	0.4	1.4	26.3

 

Kobe clearly does much more with the three-pointer than Jordan did, but MJ was a much more efficient scorer (his effective field goal percentage was never below 50% from 1987-88 through 1992-93) and he's got Kobe in pretty much every other category---including points per game.  Yes, some of Jordan's points were put up in the high-scoring 1980s but scoring was falling by 1992-93, and Jordan (then 29) was still ahead of Kobe's peak.  Kobe's last two seasons definitely are within reach of Jordan but they're not quite in MJ territory and it's unlikely that Kobe will ever get there for even a season (let alone seven of them) unless he can keep scoring 50 ppg indefinitely. 

 

A couple of other Kobe thoughts:

 

-I don't buy the criticisms that Kobe's recent scoring spree is tainted as overly selfish or that it reveals some sort of hypocrisy on the part of Phil Jackson, who preaches a balanced attacked.  The Lakers have won all these games where Kobe has gone crazy recently so any thought of an equal opportunity offense really is academic for now.

-Still, Kobe's scoring hasn't equaled wins all year.  Here's the breakdown of Lakers players who have led the team in scoring and the record in those games:

 

Player        W-L

Odom         4-1

Turiaf         1-0

Bynum        1-0

Walton        1-0

Parker        1-0

Cook           1-0 (tied for lead with Bryant in this game)

Evans          1-2 (tied for lead with Bryant twice, L.A. went 1-1 in those games)

Bryant        30-30 (includes three games where Kobe tied for team lead, team went 2-1 in those games)

 

Prior to Kobe's last five 40+ games, the Lakers were actually much worse when Kobe led the team in scoring (25-30).  For some reason, the team is much better when Kobe doesn't lead the team in scoring.  It's hard to tell why this is but the team is 8-2 when Kobe does not lead the team in scoring (or tied for the team lead).  Maybe a balanced offense does help.

-The Lakers are 3-2 in games where Kobe doesn't play.

-The Lakers are 18-13 when Kobe scores 30 or more and 11-3 when he scores 40 or more (which means they're 7-10 when he hits between 30-39 points).