Former Sacramento Kings point guard Jason Williams recently made waves amid his hot take about Kobe Bryant. In a recent statement, Williams said that he does not consider Kobe to be part of his Top 5 list of greatest Lakers of all time. Unsurprisingly, Williams was on the receiving end of some harsh criticism after what many consider to be a slanderous take against the late, great Kobe Bryant.
Williams previously stated that his “Top 5 list of all-time greatest Lakers” are Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and LeBron James. Kobe did not make the cut. However, he also explained that in terms of their lasting impact on the franchise, no one holds a candle to Kobe. Williams doubled down on his rationale in a recent interview, this time even invoking LeBron into the conversation:
“I said what I said, and I mean what I meant,” Williams said. “Kobe Bryant is the greatest Laker of all time, but that doesn’t mean that he’s the greatest basketball player that ever played for the Lakers. You know what I mean? It’s kind of like if I said D-Wade was better than LeBron. LeBron is a better basketball player than Dwyane Wade, but when you think about the Miami Heat, who do you think of? … [Wade] is the Miami Heat just like Kobe Bryant is the Lakers. And Kobe Bryant will always be when you think about the Lakers. That's the first person you think of. “
The analogy actually makes sense. According to Williams, LeBron is the greatest basketball player to have ever put on a Heat jersey. However, Dwyane Wade still remains to be the most revered player in franchise history. In his mind, Williams believes that this is also the case for Kobe and the Lakers. It's just that apart from LeBron, he also has (at least) four other guys who he believes were better basketball players than Bryant. This in itself remains an undeniably contentious statement, to say the least.
Be that as it may, Williams still had a special shoutout for Lakers fans who thrashed him for his hot Kobe take. He has no ill will against all his haters. As a matter of fact, Williams said that he appreciates all the negativity because for him, it is a clear testament to just how much they adore the Black Mamba:
“I think there were five better basketball players that played for the Lakers at one time, but that’s not taking anything away from Kobe Bryant,” Williams continued. “He’s one of the greatest basketball players that’s ever walked the face of this earth. I love the comments and the heat that I'm taking because that means these Kobe Bryant fans are for real and I'm glad they are.”
To be fair, throughout this entire ordeal Williams has been very respectful of Kobe. He's always spoken highly of the Lakers icon and he has been vocal about just how much respect he has for the man. Williams had the privilege of battling Bryant on the basketball court, too, and he knows how talented the Hall of Famer truly is. Then again, it is also because of this same fact that he was able to say that talent-wise, Kobe just isn't at the same level as the Kareems and the Chamberlains.
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