Quickly: I don’t believe you can compare Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. I mean, I believe you can compare them, the same way that you can compare Ruth Chris’ and Outback, but, come on people. This is MJ we’re talking about.

How-EVA, people are, invariably, going to attempt the comparison; it’s what makes sports “fun” and “debateable” and “worth of our time” or some such crap like that. In reality, people always want to see the “next Michael Jordan” (hence that stupid ESPN thing) and people like to argue so it seems natural. Also seeming natural: Scottie Pippen (via Sports Radio Interviews), the best teammate Jordan ever had, talent-wise, discussing the two.

Well I think you’re looking at two great players and it’s hard to really compare them. They played in two different eras, they have very similar styles. I don’t know if Kobe has mimicked Michael’s style or if he has his own style. But there are a lot of similarities there - the way they play, the way they approach the game, the ability to close games at the end. It’s never going to be a situation where you can compare who’s better - Kobe or Michael.

See? Pippen gets it, folks. Look, remember: I don’t live in Chicago and I wasn’t that big a fan of Jordan when he played. (I feel the same about Tiger now as I did MJ back then; I won’t ever pull against them, just because I like watching greatness unfold, but I wasn’t a Bulls fan by any stretch of the imagination. Also, he went to North Carolina, and that equates to approximately -5,000 points in my book unless you’re Rasheed Wallace.)

Whatever, the point here is that it’s very important to remember that regardless of who you think is the best player in the NBA right now: LeBron James, Mamba, Dwyane Wade, Brian Scalabrine, Julius Hodge — whomever — no one is going to be the next Michael Jordan. Just like no one will be the next Wilt Chamberlain. Just like no one will be the next Shaquille O’Neal. Just like no one will be the next Magic Johnson. Etc., Etc., multiplied times infinity.

There are TONS of players who we can compare in a mildly favorable degree to a player from the past, but there are always going to be instrinsic qualities that made up said former superstar which are not perfectly repeatable in other people. LeBron can’t be the next MJ, just because he’s built differently and plays a different game. Can he be a hybrid of Jordan and Magic? Sure. But he can’t be the next MJ. And neither can Kobe  — although, technically he does fit the profile, he simply can’t/won’t achieve what Jordan did in Chicago, and that alone should be obvious enough where we can stop worrying about trying to make this comparison.