Kobe Bryant Left Outside Top Ten By ESPN’s Top 100 NBA Rank

In shocking fashion, Kobe Bryant was left out of ESPN’s top ten list for all-time NBA players.

Kobe Bryant‘s last full season in the NBA hasn’t been anything noteworthy aside from his farewells, but being dissed by ESPN’s list of top ten NBA player of all-time doesn’t help either.

When many think about Kobe Bryant, the person putting him outside of the top ten all-time is somebody you’ll find few and far between.

Championships proved to be Bryant’s forte, as he won five NBA titles throughout his two decades in the association, but that proved to be just the beginning of his impressive resume.

On top of winning three straight titles from 2000-2002 and back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010, Bryant was voted to the All-Star game 18 times, was the NBA Finals MVP twice, and the league scoring champion twice.

Nobody else in NBA history has spent the amount of time with one team that Bryant has spent with the Lakers.

In that time, he’s proven to be a fan favorite while maintaining the status of our favorite villain from time to time.

Players above Bryant that could switch places with him at No. 12 on the list include Hakeem Olajuwon and LeBron James.

Statistically speaking, James is deserving of credit to a degree, but considering how much winning clearly meant to Kobe Bryant and what he did to go out of his way to make those things a reality compared to what James has accomplished should speak for itself.

Kobe Bryant did have Shaquille O’Neal during his three-peat to start the century, while depending more on a well-balanced squad in both 2009 and 2010 title runs — but not even Michael Jordan could do the kind of winning he was a part of in Chicago without a team around him.

My reason for bringing that up is that James hasn’t been able to do much damage even with a loaded team.

Last year in the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors was the first time we really saw James step up in a championship moment with a team ready to fall apart.

And even then, the team dynamic of the eventual champion in Golden State dominated their way to the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Twitter reacted accordingly to what they saw as serious disrespect by ESPN with their placement of Bryant, including these commentaries and tweets:

It’s not like Kobe Bryant cares what other people think, but it’s almost a natural instinct to come to his defense with this situation.