HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — We all know what Michael Jordan thinks of Kobe Bryant.

He’s a top 10-guard, Jordan suggested to USA Today last week, among other interesting things he had to say.

“He is always going to be within the conversations of some of the greatest players who’ve played, by the time he is finished,” Jordan said of Bryant. “Where does he rank among those, if you are talking about positions? If you are talking about guards, I would say he has got to be in the top 10.”

That ranking among the all-time greats that seems a bit low from the balcony here at the hideout. But not necessarily to Bryant, who told my main man Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports that Jordan’s assessment is on the money:

“It’s an accurate statement,” Bryant said. “I’m definitely one of the top 10 guards. It could mean two, it could mean one, it could mean four or five. I’m definitely one of the top thousand. Look, I know how he feels about me. “There have been a lot of great guards to play the game. For me to sit here and say, ‘He should have said top five,’ that’s disrespectful to the other guards that I’ve watched.”

If Kobe won’t take up his own cause, a classy move by a player still writing the script of his own stellar career, we’ll do it for him.

Sorry Mike, but Kobe’s more than just a “top 10 guard.” And it’s disrespectful for anyone to suggest otherwise.

You don’t have to love Kobe. You don’t even have to like him. But you do owe him the respect his career and credentials deserve. And keep in mind that he’s one of the pioneers (along with Kevin Garnett in the preps-to-pros movement of the late 90s) of a trend that reshaped the history of the league.

Some people would argue that he’s the only player, past or present, that could stand toe-to-toe with Jordan (we happen to believe there are about eight to 10 players that all belong in the conversation as the best of all time with Jordan, obviously, leading the pack).

As far as we can tell here, Kobe still has time to make his case for “top five players” of all time.

What say you?

Category: Uncategorized / Tags: , Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan / 944 Comments on Is Kobe In Your All-Time Top 10? /