Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships from 2000-2002, and their loss in the 2004 NBA finals led to O'Neal's departure from the team, in the following the 2003-2004 season. Bryant had to rebuild his image while becoming the cornerstone of the Lakers. He led the NBA in scoring during the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons, setting numerous scoring records in the process. In 2006, Bryant scored a career-high gaining eighty-one points against the Toronto Raptors, the second highest points scored in a single game in NBA history; because of this achievement he was given the Most Valuable Player Award. After losing in the 2008 NBA Finals, Bryant led the Lakers to two consecutive championships in 2009 and 2010 and was named NBA Finals MVP on both
Spoiled: The Best Two Basketball Players of All Time The sport of basketball was created over a hundred years ago in the year 1891 by Dr. James Naismith at a YMCA where they used peach baskets and soccer balls. Over the past century, basketball has evolved into one of the most popular sports in the world and it has given us some of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen. We have seen plenty of great players over the years, like Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Wilt Chamberlain, but in my opinion the two best basketball players ever to play the game are Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Watching them play basketball is like watching poetry in motion! I just can not get enough!
Phil also played baseball for his highschool team. Phil Jackson is considerd one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. He led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles, and the L.A Lakers had five. Phil Jackson holds the record for most championships in NBA as a player and head coach. Phil won the 1996 NBA coach of the year award.
In 1991, the Fab Five of Michigan University men’s basketball team impacted America’s traditions and morals. These five young, outspoken, rash African Americans not only stormed the court, but the media too. Making Americans question all that they knew, the Fab Five’s “us against the world” attitude and controversial decisions revolutionized basketball, for better or for worse, all while leaving behind a legacy of family and love. Coming off a championship season in 1989, the Michigan Wolverines acquired what is coined to be the best recruiting class in college history. In 1991, Michigan signed five of the nation’s top fifty high school recruits, and thus began the Fab Five era.
It’s a pretty high bar that has been set, and if you ask me, LeBron is nowhere near it. Towering at 6’8 just two inches taller than Kobe, he was eight time NBA All-Star and was the first Cavalier in franchise history to win the NBA’s most valuable player award. Do you think the Black Mamba is concerned? Nope. The Black Mamba 6’6, a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers since 1996, a span in which the team has won five NBA Championships.
Tracy Lamar McGrady, Jr.(T-Mac) (born May 24, 1979) was an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the Qingdao Eagles of the Chinese Basketball Association(CBA). Entering the NBA after graduating from high school, McGrady eventually became a seven-time All-Star. He led the league in scoring in 2003 and 2004. McGrady was ranked on SLAM Magazine's "Top 75 Players of All-Time" in 2003. McGrady was drafted ninth overall in the first round of the 1997 NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors.
Dwayne Wade is my definition of a hero. You may know him from when he drives to the basket or pulls up a last second buzzer beater, but he’s a lot more than a basketball star. He’s a role model. Growing up, Dwayne had to deal with divorced parents. He lived with his mother until he was eight and then moved in with his dad.
(born January 17, 1982) nicknamed Flash or D-Wade, is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat. Awarded 2006 Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated, Wade has established himself as one of the most well-known and popular players in the league. He had the top selling jersey in the NBA for nearly two years, as he led the NBA in jersey sales from the 2005 NBA playoffs, until the mid-point of the 2006–07 season. [1] After entering the league as the fifth pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, Wade was named to the All-Rookie team and the All-Star team the following eight seasons. In his third season, Wade helped lead the Miami Heat to their first NBA Championship in franchise history.
Early in the NBA’s existence, the NBA and the NBA Players Association (NBAPA) followed a rule that prevented an athlete from being drafted until four years after he had graduated from high school. It wasn’t until 1971 that the rule was challenged in federal court by a 19-year old named Spencer Haywood. Haywood was raised in extreme poverty roughly an hour outside of Jackson, Mississippi. A talented basketball player, as a teenager, he helped the 1968 United States Olympic basketball team win a gold medal. Then in 1970, just three years out of high school, Haywood signed a six-year contract with the Seattle Supersonics worth $15 million.
One of the hottest debates with these two men is the amount of championship rings they have. Kobe Bryant has appeared in seven NBA Finals and has won five championships. LeBron James on the other hand has appeared in two NBA Finals and has won one championship. This is one of the major debates between both players on comparing who is better. With LeBron James being [Doctoral rule (but good advice for any academic writer)--If not a noun (as in "human being"), the word "Being" is hard to imagine; it means "existing."