I knew as soon as I wrote the headline at the top of this page, that some sports fans would recoil in horror, and would be asking themselves: “ What ? Is this guy comparing Kobe Bryant to Michael Jordan ? What exactly is his point ? He’s not the only “clutch” athlete who comes up big for his team in the final moments of a game. That is a fair comment, because Kobe Bryant isn’t the only professional athlete who frequently makes game changing plays for his team in the most highly pressured situations that one can imagine. While he’s not the only one, and while no one is likely to ever eclipse Michael Jordan as the greatest basketball player ever, it seems that the more you see of Kobe Bryant, the more you’re convinced that if anyone else ever has a chance of at least getting close to M.J. in the same conversation, it has to be the Lakers superstar.
His buzzer beater at the Staples Center Tuesday night, which crushed the Toronto Raptors, was a repetition of what we’ve all come to expect from the Philadelphia native. The 2009 NBA Finals MVP, stole a victory from Toronto, with a 17 foot jump shot with 1.9 seconds remaining in the game, after Chris Bosh hit a 3 point shot with 9.5 seconds remaining to tie the game at 107. Bryant scored 14 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter, which is just another reminder of his ice for blood in his veins, God given skills, for being able to change the outcome of a game through sheer will. Now a member of 4 NBA championship teams, ( 2000, 2001,2002, 2009) and the back to back scoring champion in 2006 and 2007, the alumnus of Lower Marion High School in Pennsylvania, has to be regarded as being as this generations most dangerous player when a game is on the line, and certainly the most feared by opposing defenders of any player since Michael Jordan. The other element that historians and basketball fanatics will demand of twelve time NBA All-Star, will probably be a few more championships to go along with the four that are already on his resume. Many NBA observers feel that his first three championships were due in large part, pardon the play on words, to the presence of center Shaquille O’Neal, and obviously he was very important in those tittles. The championship in 2009, certainly opened up the possibility of seeing Kobe Bryant in a different light, with him being the backbone of last years Lakers team.
As for the Raptors, Bryant has owned them. He almost victimized them with another buzzer beater, in a recent game at the Air Canada Centre, but the shot failed to drop into the basket, and bounced away from the rim. Of course, he destroyed Toronto single handedly in 2006, with an 81 point performance, which was the second highest number of points scored in a single game in NBA history, second only to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point blockbuster.
Several names come to mind, in the discussion of the all time greatest clutch athletes in all professional sports. Aside from Jordan and Bryant, John Elway has earned a place in that group, along with Tom Brady. Peyton Manning, in spite of his recent Super Bowl late game mistake, through an interception, will likely get an honorable mention, with the likelihood that he will still play for several more seasons in the NFL, and perhaps redeem himself in a future Super Bowl. Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr, along with Patrick Roy, would likely be at the top of the hockey list. Kobe Bryant,in this era of professional sports, is as deserving of a title , like the King of Clutch, as much as anyone in professional sports that I can think of.