By: Martin Rand, III
Date: January 12, 2012


The past two nights in the NBA have been very pleasant to watch. While I am a New York Knicks fan, I also happen to be a Los Angeles Lakers fan as well; and, the things Kobe Bryant has been doing to his opponents is nothing short of greatness.


Kobe Bryant has been flying above the rest of the league lately, showing his legs still have lift in them.(Noah Graham/Stephen Dunn/Getty)

He is also proving why he is still the best player in the league today.

On Tuesday night, Bryant scored 48 points in a win against the Phoenix Suns(complete with enough dunks and alley-oops that would make cross-town rival Blake Griffin jealous) and last night he scored 40 points against the Utah Jazz. These are the *two highest scoring totals of any player so far this season.

"Yeah, it's not bad for the seventh best player in the league," said Bryant, taking a shot at the ESPN player rankings that was released at the beginning of the season listing the **best players in the NBA.

According to ESPN.com, Bryant,33, has 324 points through his first 11 games this season, ranking him third in scoring since 1985 among players who were at least 33 years old. Do you know the two people ahead of him? Knick legend Bernard King and "His Airness" Michael Jordan.

However, it isn't just the fact Bryant is scoring at an unbelievable pace for his age that makes him the best player. It's the fact that his overall play seems to have risen to another level as well. Over the last five games, along with him averaging 36 points, he's averaging over five rebounds and five assists and shooting above 50%. Add in the fact he is the only superstar player on his team, making every shot that more difficult to get off, and you are witnessing a player that can't stopped.

I know alot of people would not agree that Bryant is the best player in the league, but honestly whose better? LeBron James? No he isn't. Isn't it ironic that on the same night Bryant completes back-to-back 40 point scoring games, two of the top trending topics on Twitter were #MoreClutchThanLeBronJames and #LeBrickJames for James' performance in the Miami Heat's game against the Golden State Warriors.

While James does have the physical attributes over Bryant and his overall numbers are better, the fact that he continuously comes up short at the end of games almost makes his great numbers meaningless. This is something else that separates Bryant. In all my years of watching sports, I have never heard anyone say Bryant couldn't hit the clutch shot or didn't come up big in the fourth quarter, whereas with James, it has been prevalent throughout his entire career.

Bryant may be in his 16th season but thanks to his "special" off-season knee surgery and all the people who said father-time was catching-up with him, he is still playing at an elite level; and better than every other player in the league.

*Update January 14: In last night's win versus the Cleveland Cavaliers, Bryant scored 42 points, making it his third strait 40 point game. According to ESPN.com, this is the first time he has scored 40 points in three straight games since 2007, when he did it in five straight games.

**Update January 14: Ric Bucher makes a new list of the top seven players in the NBA.

Update January 15: Even though the Lakers lost in a competitive match against the Los Angeles Clippers, Bryant still scored 42 points-- making it his fourth straight game with at least 40 points.

Image source here



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