Lakers win

Kobe got his fourth ring today and Phillip got his tenth. Major milestones for both of them. They have both been looking for this legacy defining championship. Kobe had to have one without Shaq and Phil has been looking for his 10-Th to one-up Red Auerbach and his 9. Both happened today. This establishes Kobe as a great champion though he is not overtaking MJ in terms of legendary status anytime soon. But the intriguing question is, what if he wins 2 more rings? What if he wins 3 more and surpasses MJ? Then where would he stand with respect to MJ? The conventional wisdom says Kobe's window is shrinking and he may not have 2 or 3 more championships in him. It's amazing we think about Kobe this way since he is just 30 years old! MJ won 3 more rings after 30. Of course the mileage on the two bodies when they were 31 or 35 years old is completely different.

Kobe came out of high-school and has played way too many games already. MJ started late and he took those 2 years off playing that stupid baseball and that kept some miles off of him too when he came for his second round. Kobe is at his peak, but I think he would start slowing down soon. But three things to keep in mind. First and foremost, he has been relatively injury free and is a very disciplined and committed professional who is obsessed with basketball. So if anybody can prove the standard model for high-school careers wrong, it's him. I wouldn't be shocked if he extends his window through hard work and conditioning. Steve Nash has shown us it can be done and I wouldn't put it past Kobe. Secondly, what if he slips a little? A 80% Kobe is still probably a top-5 talent in this league and if the team is built right, you should be able to win a ring or 2 with a top-5 talents. Plus, I can't see him walking away anytime soon. He will like to keep playing this game till he possibly can.

Thirdly, all his key side-kicks are actually younger than him - Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum. If they stay together and Bynum gets better, the Lakers should be good for a long time. Of course, they may have some money issues and this is where Kobe taking less money to stay with the Lakers might help his legacy in the long run. Lets see if that ever happens. So while I would hate for it to happen, I wouldn't be shocked if Kobe and the Lakers collect a few more rings over the next few years. Of course we all expect LeBron to take over the league in a year or two. That is the real difference between MJ and Kobe. MJ was way better than any of his contemporaries in the league. Kobe is better, but not by much and that will change in a year or two if LeBron keeps getting better. LeBron might be the bigger challenge for Kobe. In any case, I sure hope to see Kobe-LeBron contests in the Finals like we were expecting this year, but didn't get to see.

Competition is key. While we all talk about LeBron, it's actually KG and the Celtics who beat the Lakers last year. What would have happened if we had gotten another Celtics-Lakers finals with a healthy KG? This Lakers team was better than last years, but it might have been a great series that could have gone either way. So basically even with all the talent around him, Kobe might have a lot more competition in this day and age than MJ did in his hey-day and he has to deal with all this in addition to his advancing age. As for Phil, he will probably go down as the best coach in the history of the game. It's amazing he got to coach 2 of the greatest players in the history of this game during his career - MJ and Kobe. He now got the scoreboard and you got to respect those 10 rings. As for Magic and Van Gundy, they have some growing up to do. Young team that hopefully learnt something in this series. I like the Van Gundys, but I am not sure if they will ever win a ring. They seem to come close and fall short for some reason. Good guys and great coaches, but no rings yet.