Kobe vs. Jordan

I think I must have had this conversation about five times during the past week, the same conversation I'm sure all of you have been having, the conversation about who would win in a game of one-on-one between Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.

The fervor of this argument reminds me of the hypothetical I drunkenly posed to a bunch of my friends about a year ago: who would win in a one-on-one match-up between Jordan and Jesus? After much debate, we all finally agreed that Jesus would win. Jesus would school Jordan all afternoon with his cross(†)-over dribble.

But Jesus is pretty much where I draw the line. I wasn't going to say anything, but this article from ESPN's Jemele Hill has me writhing in anger, not so much because it's ignorantly written, but because an entire generation of teenage boys reading ESPN or listening to sports radio sensationalism will grow up confused and corrupted.

I'll give Kobe some credit. I'm okay with the fact that, when he's really feeling it, he may actually be a more formidable offensive threat than Jordan was. Kobe's a better dribbler, a slightly better three-point shooter, and most importantly, he's had the benefit of studying the post-first-retirement Jordan of the mid-90s, the Jordan that was a stunning model of offensive efficiency. Watch a video of any game Jordan played between 1994 and 1998, and you'll see what resembles a martial arts grandmaster, where every move he made was precise, controlled, and minimal. More than any of the other current great scorers in the NBA like T-mac or Lebron, Kobe utilizes Jordan's techniques in setting himself up for good scoring position, and keeping defenders off-balance.

But he's still no Jordan. Notice that Kobe, for all the tricks he picked up from Jordan, has never shot better than 50% from the field. Notice that Kobe needed 5 straight 50 point games just to get his average above 30. Notice that Jordan consistently scored over 30 points per game over an entire decade.

And yes, I know the question isn't "is Kobe a better player than Jordan?" because he's absolutely not. He's arguably not even the best player in the league right now. Give me a team of ballplayers and ask me to choose one player to lead them to victory, and not only would I pick Jordan over Kobe any day, I'd pick Lebron over him any day as well.

So let's get back to the question at hand: who would win in a one on one game, Kobe or MJ?

MJ.

And I could cite many reasons why, such as Jordan's superior upper-body strength, or his unmatched will to win, or his cleverness around the hoop. But I'll instead bring up the one Jordan attribute that always gets lost in the shuffle: his defense. What never gets any mention is how gifted a defender Jordan was. He won a Defensive Player of the Year award for crying out loud, and would have been a two-time winner of that award if the NBA hadn't been so scared about giving a 37.1 ppg scorer any additional defensive accolades, in 1987. Think about all of your best wing defenders in the NBA today -- Ron Artest, Bruce Bowen, Shawn Marion -- and Jordan was peskier and harder to score off of than all of those guys.

Jordan wasn't quite as versatile a defender as Pippen was, but when he was focused on locking his opponent down, there was no one better in the NBA. I vividly remember a game where Pippen was out, so Kukoc had the assignment on Grant Hill, who burned the Bulls really bad in the first half, scoring something like 21 points. So they finally put Jordan on Hill early in the third quarter, and -- you guessed it -- Grant Hill went scoreless in the second half. That kind of shit never happens in the NBA anymore, much less it happening with Kobe defending someone.

For that reason, if Jordan and Kobe played a game of one-on-one up to 12 points, Jordan would win. 12-0. That's the end of the discussion -- because I'm right -- and I'm locking comments on this post because none of your opinions on this topic matter. JORDAN IS THE BEST. Now, let's move on.