Kobe Bryant: The Greatest Basketball Player That Has Ever Lived?

"Kobe Bryant will go down as the greatest basketball player that has ever lived.” ~Mark Jackson   When I first heard Mark Jackson say this on an ABC halftime show during the 2005-2006 season, I nearly fell out of my chair in shock. How could a veteran like Jackson, who had played during the great Michael Jordan’s heyday and had grew up watching guys like Magic and Bird, say that the often-criticized Kobe Bryant, would go down as the greatest player to ever live? ESPECIALLY since he had just come off of 2 sub-par seasons, and still had yet to prove he could win without Shaquille O’Neal and was still shaking off the dark cloud that was the Colorado rape case. At the time, I simply thought Jackson was nuts, and should have been fired from ABC. Now, it is 2008, over two seasons since Jackson made that comment, and slowly but surely I am starting to believe he may have been on to somethig. What has caused my change of mind?   Maybe it’s the ... [link]