Quote from some guy named Rashidi: "Kobe always gets compared to MJ, but let's be fair. MJ cheated on his wife while they were married, but he was never dumb enough to get caught. This is the prevailing reason why Kobe, no matter what he does in the rest of his career, will always be one level below MJ. Kobe got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and got his reputation stained. MJ never did. Kobe was the youngest player to ever play in
an all-star game, he set the NBA record for threes in a game with 12 (later tied by Donyell Marshall), and became the youngest player in NBA
history to reach 10,000 points (off course, the main reason he's the youngest is he didn't go to college, LeBron is also on pace to break that record). Kobe learned last season that life without Shaq or Phil
was quite a bit harder. He should consider himself fortunate that one of the two came back. With the return of Phil Jackson, Kobe has been
able to get easier shots within the offense, and is jacking up more shots than ever before. He is averaging around 26 field goals attempted per game. Kobe recently went off for "62 points in three
quarters". The basketball community has gone wild over this "feat" but
I don't think it more impressive than past 60-point games from NBA
players. For one, Kobe had zero assists in this game, whereas other
60-point gamers have had around 5 assists in the game. For two, Kobe
had 31 FGA in 33 minutes. Three quarters doesn't really matter,
because Kobe got as many touches in those three quarters as he does in
most four-quarter games where he explodes (a pretty good indicator that
Dallas' defense of him was absolutely horrendous). Kobe was also the
beneficiary of a slew of technical fouls that got him some extra points
in his record third quarter. There have been many basketball "experts"
who say that had the game been competitive, Kobe would have stayed in,
he would have had a 70 or 80-point game. To this I say, had the game
been competitive (meaning, had Dallas actually played defense), Kobe
wouldn't have had 62 points anyway, and if anything he would have
finished the game with that same 62 points.