Would it be preposterous to put Tim Duncan ahead of Kobe Bryant on an all-time ranking of NBA players? It depends on who you ask but it absolutely should not be. Duncan may not stack up to Bryant in terms of popularity but he was absolutely on the same level as him, if not better.

The careers of Duncan and Bryant overlapped almost perfectly, each coming into their own in the late 1990s before becoming some of the best basketball players ever in the 2000s for the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers, respectively. Because they took turns winning championships and faced off in the same era, they’re prone to being put head-to-head in debates.

There’s a perfectly sound argument for Duncan, who made the All-NBA first team in each of his first eight seasons and is one of the absolute best defenders ever, to be ranked ahead of Bryant despite the latter's own strong defense and incredible scoring feats, which include back-to-back scoring titles. Bryant has 11 First Team All-NBA nods to Duncan's 10 but Duncan has more All-Defensive team selections (15 to 12, though Bryant has one more First Team selection) and received MVP votes in more seasons (16 to 13) on top of winning the award twice while Kobe won it just once.

ESPN's Zach Lowe was the latest to reignite the debate around the two superstars. In the latest episode of the Lowe Post, while discussing Duncan, Lowe mentioned that he's in the camp of Duncan being ranked ahead of Bryant.

“I’m not saying I’m definitively ranking [Duncan] over anybody. I’ve got to do the actual deep dive,” Lowe said. “But I have been pretty hard on the island of I think I’d rank him above Kobe for sure. Not for sure, let me amend that – I think I would rank him above Kobe all-time. I think he’s probably closer to the sixth, seventh, eighth [best player ever] range – I’m doing this off the top of my head – than he is the 12th, 13th, 14th range of all-time. That’s all. That’s all I'm saying.”

Zach Lowe ranking Tim Duncan over Kobe Bryant sparks heated reactions

Lowe's take elicited strong reactions from fans on both sides of the debate.

On one side, fans of Bryant took this as a slight against his career and greatness. Although Duncan outranks Bryant in regular-season MVPs and Finals MVPs and won the Rookie of the Year award that Bryant didn’t, some people see it as disrespectful to rank the Spurs legend ahead of the Lakers legend.

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However, Lowe's take was met with plenty of agreement, as well. Plenty of basketball fans said that ranking Duncan ahead of Bryant is common knowledge.

 

 

 

The basketball legacies of Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant will be debated until the end of time.