With 2015 coming to a close, we've nearly begun the last calendar year in which the great Kobe Bryant will be an active NBA player. Examining Bryant's career is going to take the remaining five months of the season, and then some. He'll be debated and poured over and applauded and criticized, often all at the same time, for many, many years to come.
Within this debate, an interesting question has already arisen.
Which jersey should the Lakers retire? No. 8 or No. 24?
Bryant wore the No. 8 jersey from his rookie season in 1996-1997 until the 2005-2006 season. From that point on, he wore No. 24. That's exactly 10 seasons in each. The Lakers are reportedly undecided on which jersey they want to retire for Bryant.
You could argue that both numbers should be retired. He's been a Hall of Fame player in both, no question. But if you really get down to the details of it, which number reflects the better part of Kobe's career? First, let's take a look at the respective stats and accolades.
If you look at this as a broad overview, without really getting down to the context and nuance of the discussion, you could argue that Kobe has enjoyed more individual success during the latter half of his career -- his No. 24 years -- with his lone league MVP and two Finals MVPs, while he enjoyed more team success, three NBA titles vs. two, in a No. 8 jersey.
But there are a lot of details that need to be explained in there.
For starters, Kobe, while wearing No. 8, won the league scoring title in 2006, the year in which he also scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors -- so obviously he had, you know, just a tiny bit of individual success in that uniform as well. That said, there was always the criticism of him being selfish. Not trusting teammates. Playing an inefficient brand of basketball. Much of this criticism started, and continues to be rooted, in those latter No. 8 years.
From a team success standpoint, Kobe's time in a No. 8 jersey, while rightfully defined by the three consecutive NBA titles L.A. won from 2000-2002, wasn't entirely without blemish either. In 2004 the Lakers were humiliated by the Detroit Pistons in the Finals, and in 2005 Kobe and crew missed the playoffs altogether.
Of course, getting to the Finals and losing, even if you get swept as L.A. did, isn't exactly a failure, and as for that 2004-2005 season in which L.A. missed the playoffs with a dismal 33-49 record, well, that wasn't exactly Kobe's fault. The guy averaged just south of 28 ppg that year while being joined in the starting lineup by the likes of Chucky Atkins and Chris Mihm. Also, the Lakers' 111.4 defensive rating was the worst in the league under Rudy Tomjanovich. By contrast, for all the talk of Kobe's selfish play, that 2005 team -- which, again, started Chucky Atkins and Chris Mihm -- was actually ranked 7th league-wide offensively.
Again. It's all about context.
Having said all this, really, the best way to break down Kobe's career is by putting it into two categories: With Shaq, and After Shaq. With Shaq, when Kobe of course wore No. 8, the Lakers were a true dynasty with that aforementioend 3-Peat from 2000-2002 during which they lost a combined three Finals games. You can argue about which one was the better player, but you're best served to cut out the cynicism and simply remember just how great they were together. Who could forget perhaps the most famous alley-oop in NBA history?
Of course, their collective dominance was ultimately overshadowed by their struggles to coexist both on the court and in the locker room, and the time came when they had to split. With the benefit of hindsight, both have expressed regret over this, probably because both have come to realize just how special they could have been had they stayed together longer. It's not a stretch to suggest that, had they stayed together, we'd be talking about them today as perhaps the NBA's greatest all-time duo.
But it didn't happen.
Shaq moved on. Kobe stayed. And No. 8, eventually, became No. 24.
Again, Bryant has been individually brilliant throughout his No. 24 tenure. He was named league MVP in 2008 and easily could have won it again in 2009, when he averaged 26.8 points on a shade under 50-percent shooting while leading the Lakers to 65 wins.
The was the Bryant-Pau Gasol era, of course, and it was nearly as successful as the Kobe-Shaq era. Alongside Gasol, Kobe narrowly missed a second-career 3-Peat when he followed up a 2008 Finals loss to the Big 3 Boston Celtics with back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010.
And let's not forget that 2012-13 season. We remember it for the doomed "superteam" with Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, but Bryant was quietly incredible that year in averaging 27.3 points and six assists on 51-percent shooting. The Lakers were entirely dysfunctional and had almost no team success during this time, but Bryant played really well under Mike D'Antoni, actually.
This is actually the overlying problem with looking at the No. 24 Kobe years: our recent memories are, shall we say, not great. Once his body started breaking down and the Lakers started being awful, No. 24 Kobe has become, both in perception and reality, a shell of his once-unstoppable self. And of course he and the Lakers have been a train wreck this year.
But don't let that fool you. No. 24 Kobe is a Hall of Famer. As is No. 8 Kobe.
Which is why I'm saying the Lakers have to retire both numbers.
To me, there's just no other way. You can't fully appreciate the legacy of Kobe Bryant without those early seasons with Shaq, when he was that brash kid who would've taken on the world all by himself, but you'd also be remiss to at all downplay the latter half of his career, when he became the wiser, more refined player that learned how to better involve teammates and carried the Lakers as the undisputed No. 1 player. Both sides of that coin matter, and they both have to be recognized. Losing two jersey numbers is a bummer, and it will, admittedly, look weird with two jerseys for the same player hanging in the rafters. But it has to be that way.
Of course, the Lakers may very well decide to honor just one number, and if they do, I guess, if you really squeeze me, I'll say it should be No. 24. That's the Kobe that captured the imagination of China. That's the Kobe that won two gold medals. That's the Kobe that inspired so many players in today's league. That's the Kobe who beat better competition --seriously, those Nets and Sixers teams in the early 00's were trash.
Go with No. 24.
