ESPN’s respected writer/analyst Zach Lowe rekindled an old, controversial debate - who was better: Kobe Bryant or Tim Duncan?
It started with referencing ESPN’s new list of the top 100 athletes of the 21st century. Duncan, drafted in 1997 and retired in 2016, was placed 16th behind LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Bryant among NBA players, but put one spot in front of Shaquille O’Neal.
“I’m not ready to do the Tim Duncan thing just yet, but I think [Duncan] and [O’Neal] are becoming the most chronically underrated players in all of these top whatever discussions…”
Hear, hear.
Duncan’s accomplishments were listed, and then minutes later, Lowe said, “I have been pretty hard on the island of ranking him above Kobe [Bryant] all time. I think he’s probably closer to the 6-8 range than the 12-14 range.”
So, who was better?
It’s hard to go wrong with picking an order for these three. They each produced at the top level and got it done as the guy. The Diesel’s peak was greater than all, but his powers abandoned him first. The Black Mamba was as skilled as any player who lived but was difficult to be around. And TD became a made man before the rest and was elite on both ends until he retired, but he wasn’t on the same level as scorer scorer.
With all the current debate going on about this topic, I thought I would rank them myself, with the scale set by impact and leadership (often overlooked qualities beyond stats and sheet athleticism). Let’s review.
The Black Mamba didn’t show up as a rookie lighting the world up despite his insistence that he could. At age 18, he was skinny, emotionally unready and played selfishly. That’s why the Los Angeles Lakers brought back Byron Scott to mentor Bryant.
But he was arguably a superstar in year four. That year’s Playoff moments that proved it were breaking down Jason Kidd, hitting a double-clutched, game-winning jumper on the left side in Game 2 in round two, and taking over in overtime of Game 4 of the Finals at Indiana. In the latter, Bryant scored six of his eight points when O’Neal fouled out to lead the Lakers to a W and 3-1 series lead.
He recorded plenty of other heroic moments and finished with five championships, including back-to-back wins in 2009 and 2010, notably without O’Neal and as the primary option on the team.
Offensively, Bryant had a tight handle, an explosive first step and deep range but his best physical asset was his footwork. His pivoting skills were as sharp as any player in history, allowing him to age gracefully before tearing his Achilles tendon in April of 2013. He could turn over either shoulder for a long jumper, back down smaller players for closer shots or swivel past them.
Additionally, he was a high-level athlete, which made him an above-the-rim threat and he was a useful playmaker.
On defense, Bryant could blow up actions on the perimeter and had good helping instincts.
His ability to compartmentalize was abnormal. While charged with sexual assault in 2003, he was facing life in prison, flying to court hearings on game days, getting booed in every area but Staples Center, and was still playing after the Lakers had privately discussed offering him a leave of absence. Charges against Bryant were dropped because Jane Doe didn’t want to testify. On the civil side, he settled with her for an unknown amount and bought her a home.
He was also a workhouse, finishing in the top five in minutes registered on six occasions.
His weakness on offense was his tunnel vision, which led to poor shot selection. As a result, many teammates resented his ego and decision-making. On defense, it was covering the post, as stronger and longer players could beat him by going to the body. And he could bite on fakes, much to coach Phil Jackson’s displeasure.
Another flaw was his inability to connect with teammates early. Jeff Pearlman reported in his book Three Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty that “None of the Lakers had ever visited his house, and most had never even shared more than one or two meals.”
At other moments, Bryant’s actions were venomous towards his teammates. His coach also explained that many practice sessions turned into “one-on-one battles over manhood instead of exercises in polishing team concepts.” He threw O’Neal under the bus with investigators and ran Jackson out of town, too. Then comically, when Rudy Tomjanovich was coaching the club at the 2004 Christmas Day game, Bryant tried to run the “What the f-” play, a set commonly used by Jackson and, before him, Red Holzman and the 1970s New York Knicks. Jackson later returned after Tomjanovich’s resignation, and his relationship with Bryant improved.
As he matured, he developed into an on-court leader and was coach Mike Krzyzewski’s first choice for the 2008 Team USA basketball roster, known as the Redeem Team, which successfully went on the hunt for Gold after a bronze-winning debacle in 2004. Bryant is one of the greatest players in NBA history because his peak made him the best in the world for a time, and he was producing at a top-five rate until he popped his Achilles in his 17th season.
O’Neal was a 7-foot-1, 300-plus-pound giant who often refers to himself as the MDE (most dominant ever) since no one could stop him without help at close range, and he often beat multiple defenders. Wilt Chamberlain’s ghost might be the only one complaining as far as offense is concerned.
In the post, O’Neal had a dependable drop-step hook and he muscled past men for dunks and layups. Still, when he touched the rock, on many occasions, defenses were sending help, requiring him to pass. He would look to score on the return feed, after swinging the ball moved the defense.
During a three-year span (2000-2002), he was the league’s premier player because his size, speed, and power overmatched anything in his path. He attempted 21.2 attempts per game and logged 55 percent of effective field goals, with 14.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks during the Lakers’ three-peat in the Playoffs. His last great season was his first with the Miami Heat. He was second in MVP voting in 2004-05 as a 13-year player, but still had three more All-Star campaigns.
Since he devoured up close protections, he had little need to extend his range from the field. Yet, he was one of the most poorly officiated players in the league, taking more hits than usual and was constantly at the line. His free throw percentage was abysmal, but he did try to improve at it often, changing routines and even working with shooting coach Ed Palubinskas. His percentages were raised training with Palubinskas, but the Lakers, cheaply, didn’t want to pay the instructor a salary or give him a ring if they won. O’Neal couldn’t maintain his success. Whenever a brief hot streak began at the charity line, Jackson was convinced it was luck.
However, he didn’t care too much about stopping the ball despite being a game-changing presence when he wanted to be. He admitted himself, “I’ve always been an offensive player. I’ve never been a defensive player.”
His screen roll coverage was so inadequate that the Utah Jazz exploited him in multiple series before Jackson arrived, and later, going at O’Neal this way was a strategy used by the San Antonio Spurs and Sacramento Kings.
Furthermore, on screen roll defense, Jackson wrote in his book, The Last Season: A Team in Search of its Soul, that the reason the club picked up Karl Malone and Gary Payton for the 2003-04 season was to deal with the Spurs’ screen roll attack. The Silver and Black’s PNRs decimated the Lakers’ previous season partly because O’Neal sat behind the screen. He also revealed he once told him, “You’ve been here for eight years and you still haven’t figured it out…”
It’s unclear how many hours of sleep Jackson and the late Tex Winter lost over him getting targeted, but another issue was laziness. Jackson blamed him to a degree for the Lakers not winning a championship because he opted to have toe surgery in September before the 2002-03 season. As if he worked in the oil fields, O’Neal said “I got hurt on company time, so I’ll recover on company time.”
Since he didn’t take care of himself well, he stopped being the Diesel before it was his time and ended his career as a journeyman.
Nevertheless, his spot in the Pantheon of NBA legends is secure. The greatest compliment Jackson gave him was in his book. “I took this job for the opportunity to coach him, and he made it an experience I will cherish forever. In an environment that often becomes too serious, Shaq always made me laugh.” He made plenty of teammates cackle, too, and was like a big brother to many.
The greatest Spur of all time won five championships in three separate decades and retired as a more impactful player than Bryant and O’Neal, and had a higher emotional intelligence from day one. Duncan was the cornerstone for 19 years, too, as a low post and shot-blocking presence.
He was so dominant as a sophomore that broadcaster Doug Collins called him the “most complete player in the game” during Game 2 of the 1999 Finals. It can’t be forgotten that the Spurs squad also swept the Lakers in the second round and, notably, Duncan outplayed O’Neal. The Lakers later swept the Spurs in 2000-01, eliminated them in five in 2001-02 and beat them in six in 2003-04.
He entered the league as a polished combo big after four tours at Wake Forest and earned a First Team All-NBA selection in year one on top of the Rookie of the Year crown .
On the attack, Duncan pivoted through and around defenders for baskets and dissected double teams with the pass. He could also hit the open mid-range jumper and, famously once, connected on a game-winning trifecta against the Phoenix Suns in round one of the 2008 Playoffs, his only three of the season.
One match that sums up best how he could destroy opponents was Game 6 of the second round in 2003. He whooped Robert Horry and O’Neal so badly like they stole something, pulverizing them at close range and maneuvering past the two as if they were stuck in quicksand. The Spurs, led by TD and Tony Parker, shut the door on the Lakers’ dynasty at Staples Center, leaving some of the Purple and Mold weeping on the sidelines. If anyone is interested, this gem is available on the league pass’ Classic Games section.
The pick-and-roll sets with Duncan and Parker were as lethal as any two-man action in NBA history.
As he aged, Duncan never averaged over 20 points per game past his 10th season, but he supplied the goods in other areas and was still the main scheme catcher. He kept the ball moving, opened up avenues with screens and slowed down the other team’s offense. At the second line of defense, TD was the terminator, causing pass outs and deflecting shots at a high rate. His mobility, wingspan (7-foot-5), and IQ made him a productive pick-and-roll disrupter because he could bother two at once from the back.
The Spurs’ first championship came in 1999, but the next four were between 2007 and 2014. Despite the Spurs never winning back-to-back titles, the group won as many championships as the Golden State Warriors between 2015 and 2022, all with TD as the centerpiece.
Duncan is seventh and sixth all-time in rebounds and blocks for the regular season, plus third and first in these categories for the Playoffs. Somehow, he never won Defensive Player of the Year.
Yet, he wasn’t perfect. He wasn’t great at the line, making 69.6 percent of freebies in the regular season and 68.9 percent in the Playoffs. Does anyone remember the stress he put Spurs fans under while bricking five free throws in a nine-point loss in Game 6 of the 2005 Finals?
And he was such a whiner that Jackson cursed him once during a game. He said, “Tim, why don’t you just play basketball and quit b******* all the time? If you wanna be a referee, get a f****** whistle and come out and be a referee.”
After 19 years, Duncan finished his career as part of a second-round collapse to the third-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, who had won 12 less games. It was the finest regular season in Spurs history (2015-16), winning 67 outings. After the Game 6 loss, Duncan spoke on his future and was quoted in the San Antonio Express-News. “I’ll get to that after I get out of here and figure life out.”
Recognizing the end is difficult for any player, much more an iconic figure like Duncan, but he left behind an unassailable legacy. He is superior to O’Neal and Bryant, plus he is the best big man ever behind Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
2024-07-26T17:54:11Z dg43tfdfdgfd