Why Kobe should try to be like (Wizards) Mike

Throughout his career, Kobe Bryant has been compared to Michael Jordan more than any other player in NBA history.  There is no doubt that in terms of style of play, no other player has been more similar to Michael Jordan. However, after battling injuries over the past couple of seasons, the comparisons to Jordan seem to be becoming less frequent.

Recently, Kobe brought this comparison back into the spotlight when he was quoted as saying “My 37 (years old) isn’t MJ’s 37, you know what I mean? Nor is it the same team or the same system that he was playing in. It’s much, much different. There’s really no barometer, no (precedent) for training physically, for recovery. It’s unchartered territory.”

Although Jordan never actually played in the NBA as a 37 year old, Kobe’s comments seem to show that he does not want to be compared to Jordan’s years with the Wizards.
But Kobe should draw inspiration from Jordan’s last season in the NBA. 

Why?

Firstly, Jordan played all 82 games in 2002-2003; a remarkable achievement for a 40 year old coming of a season ending injury.  Jordan’s 2001-2002 season was cut short by a knee injury which required surgery and entering the 2002-2003 season, it was unclear whether he would be able to make it through the rigorous NBA season.

Similarly, over the past 2 seasons combined, Kobe has only been able to play in 41 of the possible 164 games due to injuries.  He has not been able to play in all 82 games since the 2010-2011 season. It would truly be a great accomplishment if Kobe could play in all 82 games this season.

Secondly, Jordan shot .445 from the field in the 2002-2003 season.  You may be thinking that statistic initially does not seem very impressive. In fact, it is way below Jordan’s career field goal percentage, which was .5003 before the 2002-2003 season.  So why should Kobe strive to be like Wizards Mike in field goal percentage?

Well, Kobe’s career field goal percentage is only .451 and last season, Kobe only shot .373 from the field.  If Kobe can match Jordan’s .445 from the field this season, that would be a huge improvement for him and he should aim to do so.

Thirdly, in 2002-2003, Jordan’s averaged 20.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.5 blocks per game.  Although these statistics are nowhere near as impressive as his career numbers (30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.8 blocks per game), they are still very impressive.  Kobe should use Jordan’s 2002-2003 statistics as a barometer to measure himself against. 

Finally, and probably most importantly, Jordan made the 2002-2003 into a playoff contender. Although they did not make the playoffs, the Wizards finished 9^th in the East and missed out on the playoffs by 5 games.  The Wizards were in the hunt for the playoffs until the last month of the season when they suffered two losses to the Atlanta Hawks at the buzzer.  They also lost to the Knicks by 1 point in March (a game where Jordan scored 39 points). In total, the 2002-2003 Wizards suffered 13 losses by 5 points or less. Had the Wizards been able to win half of those games, they would have made the playoffs, and possibly finished as high as 6^th in the East.

On the other hand, the Lakers have not been a playoff contender since 2012-2013.  They have finished 14^th in the West for the past two seasons with a 21-61 record last year and a 27-54 record in 2013-2014.  It would be an incredible achievement if Kobe can bring the Lakers back to the playoffs and must be his main goal for this season.

Although Kobe may not want the comparison to Wizards Jordan, I hope that he can perform as well as Jordan did in the 2002-2003 season.  I truly hope that he can stay healthy so that he can finish his career the way he deserves to.