"Who is the next Jordan?"

That's a common question everyone has loved to throw around ever since His Airness hung up his Nikes to do what every NBA player does when they retire - become slightly fatter and play lots of golf.

Well ok, Jordan is in the Washington Wizards office now. But, we're sure he does play lots of golf these days, and he's definitely not cut like before. His 12-pack is probably down to a mere 6.

Yeah, so anyway, Jordan was the king, and when the king is gone (to play golf and get fat), the people need a successor. Who will it be? And don't answer with "there's no next Jordan - he's the only Jordan" because even if you're right, that ruins all the fun. So shut up and play the game.

The next Jordan? Or rather, the next closest thing to Jordan? It's Kobe Bryant.

Yeah, da kid.

Kobe moves like Jordan. He fakes like Jordan. He flies, spins, pivots, and soars like Jordan. And when he creates seemingly impossible situations where defensers are everywhere and he's stuck in the air, Kobe makes like Air did and hits shots that just weren't meant to be hit.

Not at Jordan's level, of course.

But if you're talking about potential Next Jordan candidates, Bryant's your man.

Vince Carter, from UNC like Mike, was a viable candiate. And, he still is. But Kobe's defense has risen to a very impressive level (Mike was a great defender, too), while Carter's has not.

Kobe has more dimensions to his game than Carter currently does.

Right now, we at InsideHoops compare Vince Carter to Dominique Wilkins.

Wilkins, while awesome, didn't win any championships.

Vince is awesome, and still very young, so in no way are we writing him off, or implying that he will follow the Wilkins route and not win titles.

BUt lets stick to the topic. "The Next Jordan."

Of course, it's easy to seem better than you really are when you're playing next to Shaq, Glen Rice, and capable role players. Carter has McGrady, Christie, and and role players - decent, but far less than Kobe's crew. But, Kobe's no fluke. Sure, remove Shaq and suddenly Kobe draws more defensive attention. But the way his game is growing, he can handle that attention reasonably well now, and he just may demolish it in Jordan-like fashion in the future.

May. Or may not. But, he's got the best shot at doing it.

He's already taken care of Suns in Jordan-like fashion. After hitting the game-winning shot that lifted the Lakers to a 2-0 lead in the series, we're surprised Kobe didn't hold his follow-through up a few extra seconds like Jordan did when hitting almost exactly the same shot over Bryon Russell to win the championship a few years back.

It was almost the same shot.

Lets compare their ages: Kobe is in his 4th season, and he's only 22. Jordan, in his 4th season, was 25.

Both Jordan and Kobe made the All-NBA Defensive team in their 4th seasons.

And as for championships, Jordan won 6. If Kobe and Shaq remain on the Lakers for the next decade, look for them to match, or beat that.

The bandwagon just pulled into the station. Hop on board.
 

InsideHoops.com
5/22/2000
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