5 Takeaways and surprises from ESPN's top 25 NBA players of the 21st century ranking

Takeaways and surprises #1: Kobe Bryant ranking as the second-best player of the 21st century.

The decision to rank Kobe Bryant second overall on this list is a headscratcher and one that sparked quite a bit of debate on social media. No one questions Kobe's greatness but few can reasonably rank him above Tim Duncan or even Shaquille O'Neal, who was arguably the best player on the Los Angeles Lakers during their 3-peat. To Kobe's credit, he was the best player on the 2004 NBA Finals team and the best player on three other Finals teams, including the 2009 and 2010 Lakers repeat championships.

That is nothing to sneeze at, but Duncan was the best player on the Spurs' 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2014 teams (yes, better than Kawhi Leonard) and the second-best player on the San Antonio Spurs 2007 championship and their 2013 Finals run. He also never missed the playoffs, making it all sixteen seasons he played in the 2000s and winning 50+ games in each of those years, an unprecedented run.

Shaq also helped the Miami Heat win their first championship in his second season there, making the NBA Finals five times in the first seven seasons of the decade, with another team trip to the East Finals in 2005 mixed in. All of this is to say that Duncan and Shaq both had better careers post-2000s than Kobe did and thus should be ranked second and third, in either order, behind LeBron James.