Kobe Bryant: The Appetite For Michael Jordan’s Scoring Mark

In a household with two brothers, there’s always the loveable (but competitive) battle to out-do your sibling.  Everyone can recall getting angry, causing havoc, and getting bent out of shape once their sibling or friend is better than them at something.

While it doesn’t fit the genetic sense of the two, it certainly fits the situation of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.

Having such a renowned and authoritative career that lasted from 1984 to 2003, Jordan took the title of “Greatest basketball player to walk the Earth” from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, or whoever owned the subjective label at the time.  There was no question, after his two 3-peat runs and adversity he fought through to just reach his first championship, that he was the most gifted and respected athlete across America.

The world turned into a Michael Jordan swarm.  Either people loved him for everything he did to globalize the NBA to a greater extent, or they hated him because he was giving their hometown team a slap in the face each game.

In the winter and spring of 1996 — while Jordan was still chasing his fourth title — there was a storm brewing in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.  Nobody figured this storm would transform into the biggest hurricane to Jordan’s place atop the history books.

The scoring onslaught was closing at Lower Merion High School, and would transport to the NBA in the 1996 draft.  That storm was the presumptuous Kobe Bryant, and his desire to be greater than any player in the league … before he even signed a contract.

Typically, especially in today’s world, high school or college athletes are blessing the opportunity that they have, and trying not to jump the gun.  You never hear guys have a strong level of cockiness when they’re entering the draft.  It’s always about being humble, and expressing that you just want to get out there and start the learning process.

That wasn’t Kobe, and it will never be Kobe.

Like Marshawn Lynch, he’s been all about that action.  But, even more so, he loved to let people know he was coming.  He lived for the days where he could trash talk the most prominent superstars the NBA has ever seen.  It’s not to claim there wasn’t ever sprinkles of humbleness in Bryant’s personality, but the amount of competition and hunger he played with didn’t allow you to see his modest side.

There should be no condemning that particular style of play, or way of living.  An important notion about how people should live, in sports or just everyday life, is the freedom of whatever helps you succeed the most.  Which ever approach you take to your occupation, it better be the one that helps you maximize your skills.  It better be the one that drives you to reach the top of the mountain in your line of work.

If that style includes the utmost tenacity, with a touch of stubbornness and arrogance, then so be it.  Not everyone can have the same personality when it comes to being successful and winning.

Imagine that you could hold, in one hand, the tangibles that Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant have combined for.  In the palm of your hand, you’d have 64,293 points and 11 championship rings.  In the other hand, which would include all of the intangibles put together, you’d have the most undaunted player in NBA history.

Neither Jordan or Bryant was set back by failure.  Neither of them cared about how difficult a task was to complete, or how many times they fell on their face trying to pass it.  While Jordan has an unblemished record in the NBA Finals, he fell numerous times before he even reached the Finals in June 1991.  Losing to the Bucks once, getting swept in the first round by Boston twice, and then falling to the Pistons three times, Jordan had his own struggles through the Eastern Conference before he climbed on top.

Bryant doesn’t have an faultless record in the Finals.  He’s 5-2, with two losses coming in 2004 (vs. Detroit) and 2008 (vs. Boston).  In one of those years, however, he showed resiliency to return to the Finals the very next year, and close out the Orlando Magic in five games for the 2009 title.  Some would argue the Lakers would’ve returned to the Finals in 2005 too, had Shaquille O’Neal not been traded.

People somewhat believe it’s unfair and ludicrous to believe Jordan’s legacy as the “GOAT” will forever stand.  They think that it’s unfair that society will refuse to look through a different lens and possibly think someone else could be the greatest to ever play.  However, when you examine everything that Jordan has exemplified throughout his 15-year career, it would literally take a robot created by mad scientists to replicate his destruction.

Bryant has tried to reproduce the quality of play we saw from the legendary No. 23, but even he has fallen a tad bit short.  When you think about the fact that he’s widely considered the closest creature we’ve had to Jordan, you begin to understand how hard it’s going to be to dethrone Mike on the board of greatness.

The All-Time Scoring Achievement

Walking into his 11th game of the season, Kobe Bryant probably wasn’t aware of how close he was to 32,000 career points.  However, the Kobe we all know and sometimes rip, was likely aware of how many points he needed to pass Michael Jordan.

That’s just how he is, and the nature that goes into his game at this stage of his career.

Deep down, he doesn’t want to realize a certain part of reality.  The part that says he’s not going to be able to win his sixth championship, tying Jordan, in the current situation he’s in with the Lakers?  Yeah, he doesn’t want to hear that.  He’ll shrug you off.

But, since the factor of winning in the Western Conference is not a reality in today’s game, there has to be something  he’s going for.  There has to be something  to motivate him, even when losses keep piling up.  Los Angeles plays in the toughest group of talent in any professional sport.  The disparity between the conferences is worse in the NBA than anything in the NFL, MLB, or NHL.  Thus far, the Lakers are 0-9 when facing West teams, but 2-0 against the East.

What could Bryant possibly be aiming for, even in the difficult team struggles?

The chipping away at Jordan’s place at third all-time on the NBA’s career scoring list.  To Bryant, that has to resonate the deepest in his soul.

After scoring 28 points in the win over Atlanta, Bryant climbed over the 32,000 point mark for his career, and now has 32,001 on his resume.  That stands 291 points away from tying Michael Jordan’s 32,292 career points.  With 292 more, Kobe will leap Jordan for third all-time, and put him right behind Karl Malone (36,928) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387).

Well, I don’t know if “right behind” would be the best way to say it, since there’s no logical way Bryant reaches the top of the list.  In order to reach Malone’s second place mark, Kobe would have to score 4,927 more points in his career.  Disregarding last season (where he only played six games), Bryant has averaged roughly 1,859 points per season.  At that pace, he would need 2.6 more seasons of playing and scoring at a high level.

With his contract ending at the end of the 2015-16 season, it will be solely up to him if he feels comfortable playing longer.

Needless to say, the passing of Michael Jordan is right around the corner for Bryant.  292 points comes and goes in a flash, and he’ll be there rather quickly unless a tragic injury hinders him.

At his current rate of averaging 27.3 points per game (leading the NBA), he would need 10.7 more games to reach Jordan’s total.  In that case, you have to round it to the 11th game, since 10 wouldn’t be enough.  That will place him against the Sacramento Kings (at Staples Center), on Dec. 9.  Of course, he would have to keep at this insane pace of scoring over 27 per game, and not slow down.

There’s two scenarios that would mean everything to Bryant.  Either breaking Michael Jordan’s total at home, in front of the crowd that’s watched him grow up from a 17-year-old youngster, or doing it in the United Center.  Either of those situations would have butterflies running through Kobe’s stomach, and you would actually see a smile on his face.

However, only one of those is actually realistic now, because of his early rampage he’s put on.

If he wanted to pass Jordan in “The house that Jordan built,” on Christmas in Chicago, that would take 18 more games from this point.  It would mean he could only average 16.2 points for the next 18 games, and we surely know that’s not happening.  As much as his flock of fans would love to gloat at the Chicago crowd if it happened, Kobe isn’t willing to dip that far down for just a scoring achievement.

Bryant even said himself, back in 2012, that he wouldn’t allow his game to stoop that low.

“You think I’d hang around and average 18 points, 19 points… hell no,” he said.

But, if he wants to pass the scoring mark in front of his Staples Center family, the pace literally has to stay where it’s at now.  For the Lakers, they’ll be on a three-game road trip from Dec. 2-5, taking on Detroit, Washington, and Boston.  If he explodes for a few 40+ point nights in the next week or so, he’ll pass Jordan on the road.

Then, the Lakers travel back home for a two-game home stand against the Pelicans and Kings (Dec. 7-9).  That’s his only opportunity, since the team will then have another three-game road trip from Dec. 12-15.  Two home games are packed in-between six road games.  It should be a load of fun seeing where he passes his hypothetical big brother.

While Bryant is setting up for the huge accomplishment, it’s important not to get lost in the hype.  You also have to keep in mind that passing Jordan on the all-time scoring list is not going to mean a thing for all-time legacies.

The manner in which Jordan achieved his 32,292 points will forever be more impressive than how Bryant reached his 32,293.

If Bryant breaks Jordan’s total on Dec. 9 as projected, it will have taken him 1,267 career regular season games to get there.  In Jordan’s case, he hung up his career after playing just 1,072 regular season games.  It will mean Bryant’s career scoring average will be 25.5 in order to reach that amount of points.  For Jordan, he managed to average a remarkable 30.1 points per game, 4.6 more than Bryant in their careers.

Additionally, if you ever went by the idea of “It took Bryant 19 seasons to reach that many points, but Jordan only did it in 15,” then you clearly need to re-evaluate.  That isn’t the full truth.  Using that logic makes it look as if Jordan used four less seasons than Kobe to get to 32,292 points.

When, in actuality, you need to evaluate how many “seasons” they actually played, based on their games played.

In a typical NBA season (with no lockout), there are 82 games played.  Jordan’s 1,072 career games indicate that he’s played 13.1 seasons as a professional.  Of course, that’s in terms of how many games he actually played.  For Kobe, his 1,267 games to reach the record would mean he’s played roughly 15.4 seasons.

There’s your true difference in the two, as Bryant will have played approximately 2.3 more seasons than Jordan in his career once he breaks the scoring mark.  It’s still advantage Jordan, and will always be advantage Jordan.

But, we know that’s not going to matter to the Black Mamba.

He’s been hell-bent every single day of his NBA career to keep his body in shape and ready to perform.  Because of his meticulous approach toward his training, the tactics he’s used to employ such hard work into his physical health, Bryant has something Jordan didn’t. 

Longevity.  Being the old bull that’s stuck around for 19 career years, and finalizing his basketball life with a decade in the NBA.  With one team.

At the end of the day, perhaps that is what stands the tallest in Kobe’s heart.  Because, with his unruffled personality, he knows he did something Jordan could not do.

I told you, it’s the ideal story of two competitive siblings.