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Dwight Howard has his former teammate’s back when it comes to debates about the greatest NBA players of all-time.
Howard appeared on Gilbert Arenas’ podcast and said he believes Kobe Bryant was a better player than Michael Jordan.
“I think Kobe was better than MJ skill wise, yeah,” he said. “He took everything Jordan did and multiplied it. He did it better.”
Arenas didn’t exactly agree with him.
“Why the f–k are you talking about Kobe enhanced MJ’s moves when you’re only talking about MJ ’95, ’96? Kobe don’t look nothing like MJ in ’84-’93,” he said. “… He did not mimic Air Jordan.”
The debate comes after Anthony Edwards turned heads when he said Jordan was the only player “that really had skill” from previous eras of the game.
“I didn’t watch it back in the day so I can’t speak on it,” he said, per Lane Florsheim of the Wall Street Journal. “They say it was tougher back then than it is now, but I don’t think anybody had skill back then. [Michael Jordan] was the only one that really had skill, you know what I mean? So that’s why when they saw Kobe [Bryant], they were like, ‘Oh, my God.’ But now everybody has skill.”
Bryant famously idolized Jordan, and many of his moves looked quite similar. But Arenas suggested those moves were from the late-career Jordan who relied more on his footwork, fadeaway shots and mid-range game compared to the athleticism he used to soar through the air and dominate opponents earlier in his career.
While the debate for the greatest player of all-time often comes down to Jordan or LeBron James, Bryant has quite the resume as well with five championships, two NBA Finals MVPs, a league MVP, two scoring titles, 15 All-NBA selections, 12 All-Defensive selections and 18 All-Star Game nods.
He was one of the defining players in league history and bridged the gap between Jordan’s era and James’ era by playing against them both.
Bryant and Howard may not have always gotten along during their playing days, but the former clearly made an impression on the big man.
A big enough impression, in fact, to have him arguing for Bryant’s GOAT status in conversations including Jordan.