Why Kobe Bryant Falls Way Short of Michael Jordan After 15 Seasons

Now that Kobe Bryant has finished his 15th NBA season, it is a perfect time expose how short he falls of being as good as his childhood idol, Michael Jordan.

Jordan also played in 15 individual seasons (over a 19-year span), and, well, if you think about it, the way Kobe played against Dallas kinda says it all.

But the stats don't lie either. 

The most precise way to measure a player's productivity is per minute. In his 15 seasons, Jordan played 41,010 minutes. Kobe has now played 40,145.

What I did was divide each career total for the main statistics by the minutes each player played.

For instance Kobe grabbed 5,829 rebounds in 40,145 minutes, which equals .145 rebounds per minute for his career. Jordan grabbed 6,672 rebounds in 41,010 minutes, which equals .163 rebounds per minute. 

Next I divided the smaller per-minute stat—for example .145 divided by .163 equals a percentage of .8896.

Then I subtracted the percentage from 1, and that gives you how much of a percentage better per minute for their entire careers one was over the other. 

Yeah, Kobe tried to act and play like MJ, but when you really break it down over that many seasons and minutes, it is the difference between the greatest player ever and the 16th-best NBA player ever.

In this slideshow I go from the two categories Bryant was slightly better at and then work my way up to the biggest differences of all.   

Begin Slideshow

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