Greatest Laker – Magic or Kobe?

Last night, like many of you, I was watching the Kobe jersey retirement ceremony. Following the video, Magic began his introduction. I typed the following into Twitter and pressed the “tweet” button:  “‘We’re here to celebrate the greatest who has ever worn the purple and gold.’ -Magic Johnson introducing Kobe Bryant”. Only the tweet wouldn’t send. I don’t know if I was having connectivity issues or if Twitter was malfunctioning, but the tweet wouldn’t go through. For me, it was the Twitter version of Denzel Washington pulling the trigger to kill himself in Man on Fire only to have the gun jam and give him a second chance at life. Twitter wouldn’t even let me type something I don’t believe, namely, that Kobe is the greatest Laker ever. Some bullets aren’t meant to fire. I guess some tweets aren’t either.


Make no mistake, Kobe is one of the greatest players to play the game, let alone don the purple and gold. However, despite being a huge Lakers fan, Kobe never won me over as much as he did the Kobestans that populate my hometown of L.A. (for the over 40 crowd, adding “stan” to an athlete is meant to infer obsessive fandom of that athlete). Did I root for Kobe? Of course. If you’re a Lakers fan, how can you not? But did Kobe inspire me in the same way that Magic did? No.

Allow me to digress. One cannot doubt Kobe’s toughness, his drive, his competitiveness, his skill, or his will to win. But one can argue that Kobe made it tough to root for him at different points in his career. First, there was the breakup with Shaq. Sure, the Big Fella has his share of blame in the breakup as well. But Kobe ratted Shaq out to the police in an effort to divert attention from his rape charge. That makes D’Angelo Russell’s social media mishap vis-a-vis Nick Young’s cheating on Iggy Azalea pale in comparison. And let’s not forget that Kobe demanded to be traded by the Lakers in 2007. Yes, you’d probably do the same if Luke Walton, Smush Parker, and Kwame Brown were your 3rd, 4th, and 5th leading scorers respectively. Yet, the fact remains, someone that demanded a trade from the Lakers can’t be the greatest Laker of all time, right?

And then there’s Magic Johnson. The smile that hid a competitiveness only rivaled by those like Kobe, Bird, Jordan, and the like. Ask anyone in Los Angeles about Magic and I guarantee that you’ll hear a story from a glowing person, whether it’s about a memory at the Great Western Forum, his defeating the Celtics, or a chance encounter in the city.

I remember over a decade ago, my then ten-year old sister was shopping with my eighty or so year old grandmother. They spotted Magic and of course, my sister was awestruck. My grandmother told her that she had to go over and shake Mr. Johnson’s hand. So the two sauntered over and my grandmother said, “Mr. Johnson, I’m sorry to bother you, but I just have to shake your hand.” Magic, smiling, said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t shake your hand. Because I just have to hug you!” And with that, Magic bent over at the waist to hug my five-foot grandmother and ten-year old sister. Good luck finding anyone in Los Angeles who doesn’t love Magic.

But then you think about it and, didn’t Magic demand to be traded in ’81, which led to the firing of head coach, Paul Westhead one day later? And didn’t Magic’s career end prematurely due to his contracting the HIV virus in an extra-marital affair? Maybe Magic wasn’t perfect after all. But we loved him and we continue to love him. Magic always made it clear that the team’s and our city’s successes were more important than anything else. It may have been a personal need to win that made them so, but he still put winning before all else, kind of like another Laker we were just talking about.

All of that and I just realized that we haven’t even begun talking about the basketball players that were Magic and Kobe. There’s a reason for that though. Magic and Kobe are and were more than basketball players for Los Angelenos. From a Lakers fan’s perspective, I don’t know how you can choose between the two. Why? Because if you’re choosing one of them, you’re going against the other. There is not a Lakers fan on Earth who would have gone against Magic or Kobe in their primes. Sure, part of that may be because their primes bookended Michael Jordan’s prime, but still. As a Lakers fan, you felt supremely confident when you had #32 – Magic Johnson, #8 – Kobe Bryant, or #24 – Kobe Bryant. As Lakers fans, we were cognizant in the moment that we were lucky to have had them both in the purple and gold. And we still realize, looking back, that we as sports fans have been blessed to have cheered for both Magic and Kobe.

As a person, eventually Kobe grew up, and incredibly so. Everybody goes through ups and downs. Kobe just did it like many other star athletes, with the spotlight on his every step. However, Kobe is one of the smartest people you’ll ever come to meet. What he realized was that he needed to stop trying to do everything like Michael Jordan, both on and off the court, because you can’t win over people who just want to compare players to Mike. Kobe came to understand something simple: Why not say and do all of the right things, thus allowing your adoring fans to, well, adore you? He started following in Magic’s footsteps in that regard. And that’s where Kobe is now. He’s forever in the hearts of the people of Los Angeles. Will Kobe ever be Magic in terms of what he does for Los Angeles, or society at large? I don’t know. But here’s one thing I do know. Kobe’s 8 + 24 = Magic’s 32. Coincidence? Maybe. But maybe not.

P.S. If you’re one of those annoying people who argues that Kareem is the best Laker ever, your opinion is not welcome here. There’s an argument that Kareem is the best player to ever play for the Lakers, but Kareem played the first 30% of his career with the Bucks, winning with them, before joining the Lakers. The second that a rookie Magic Johnson went 42-15-7 to clinch the NBA Finals in Game Six with an injured Kareem back home, it was Magic’s team.

2 thoughts on “Greatest Laker – Magic or Kobe?

  1. Magic is my favorite too, but if “Greatest Laker” means ‘biggest contribution to the success of the Lakers’, then the answer is simple . . . JERRY WEST (and just like Kobe, you have to retire two numbers, one for Jerry, the player and one for Mr. West, the executive).

    • That’s a great point. Someone brought up West, the player, and the argument is obviously the lack of championships. However, you bring up a great argument because Kobe’s championships are attributable to Jerry West, the GM. Hmm . . .

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