Magic became the Lakers PG at age 19 and took them to 5 championships and 9 finals appearances. Boy did he make everyone around him a much better player. When Kareem got hurt in the finals, he moved to C and scored 42 points with 15 boards. The guy didn't just put up good stats on a lot of losing teams. Jerry West was the Michael Jordan of his day. Compare the season stats of the two and it's quite obvious how good West was. Wilt is considered the greatest of all time or 2nd greatest of all time when people discuss these things. How could he be that good, but not the greatest Laker, except that his career wasn't entirely as a Laker? What can anyone say about Kareem? He played big minutes most of his career, was a perennial all-star and DPOY candidate while being the primary scorer the whole time. I saw Elgin Baylor play and he was ridiculously good. He had a lot of Jordan in him, with an array of flashy moves, especially around the basket. A tremendous scorer, and especially great rebounder for his height. I saw Goodrich play as well. I think he was overly hyped as "the answer" that would take them over the top. He was small, a prolific scorer, but a sieve on defense. He was one of the first shoot-first PGs. The Lakers of the 60s and early 70s were considered contenders, if not favorites, to win the championship every year. They were stacked. Boston was just a hair better.
His career averages drop in the playoffs?? that's a big strike against him in any arguement. Great players are supposed to rise to the occasion. Magic will remain ahead of Kobe because Magic unquestionably lead the Lakers to 5 titles. Kobe has lead the Lakers to one and was the Kareem to Shaq's 'Magic' for the other 3. That and it didn't take him 12 seasons to figure out how to become a leader and make team mates better.
It didn't take Kobe 12 seasons to figure out how to make teammates better, either. And please, you can't compare Magic's teammates to the ones Kobe had after Shaq left. That is just fuckin' stupid.
when did I compare Magic's team mates to Kobe's? If you honestly think Kobe was a good leader at that time, you're plain nuts. He was selfish and out to show how great he was.
