54% of fans voted Kobe Bryant NBA Player of the Decade, but the entire Inside the NBA panel vehemently disagreed, insisting it should have been either Shaq or Tim Duncan.

32 comments

  3. Even though I’m not a huge Kobe guy, I feel like Kobe is the pretty clear choice for the 2000s player.

  4. Tim Duncan was great but I feel like at this point people are overrating him.

    EDIT for you nephews:

    Tim duncan averaged 20ppg once in his last 11 seasons.

    At the same age tim was a rookie, Kobe was in his 5th year was averaging 28.5ppg. The 2000s decade – his two lowest PPG seasons were 24-25ppg and Tim’s highest scoring season was 25ppg. Kobe Dominated. TD was amazing but he didnt dominate.

    For all of the 2000s Kobe averaged: 24-25-25-26-27-27-28-30-31-35

    He had the highest PPG season since Jordan in the 80s. the 81 point game. He won 5 championships in the 2000s.

    he was popular because of how dominant he was

  5. People forget how synonymous Kobe’s name was with NBA in the 2000s. This is more of a popularity vote than a legitimate “player of the decade” vote.

  7. Really weird argument Kenny is trying to make.

    From 2005-2009 it will be Kobe but from 2000-2004 it was Shaq *and* Duncan. He literally is making Kobe’s case for him.

  8. Fans also voted Allen iverson an all star starter when he was washed on the pistons 😂

  9. My very personal take is that Shaq fell off hard while Kobe and Duncan were more consistent the entire decade … i don’t think is a bad take having Kobe on top, but i can see why some may disagree, personally i have Duncan, then Kobe and third Shaq … but yeah, those arly 2000s were all Shaq, no doubt about that.

  10. The 2nd half of the decade, Shaqs production and availability heavily declined. He had a great first season with Miami, but then ran into injury problems, and wasn’t ever able to fully stay relevant.

    Tim Duncan was Hella consistent individually throughout the whole decade.

    Kobe stayed in the top 4 MVP race the 2nd half of the decade.

  11. I wouldn’t argue he was the best player of the decade, but he was definitely the “Player” of the decade.

    Kobe! *Shoots fade away with paper ball into office trash can*

  12. There’s a reason they took away fan voting carrying so much weight in the all-star selection lmao

  13. Any rubric or just purely subjective. If just subjective, then who cares? Everybody is correct. FWIW – I would also take Kobe. Allowing for 2000 and 2010 to be in the same decade, Kobe won 5 titles in that span. Duncan won 3 (the other two were in 1999 and 2014 – different decades). Shaq had 4 in the first 10 decade of the 21st century. Yes, there are other factors in determining your own answer.

  15. For the whole 2010s, Kobe makes sense. Tim Duncan definitely is right there as well, so I’m fine if people say it’s either of those two.

    But Shaq at the end of the decade wasn’t the same player he was at the beginning of it. He was still decent, but Timmy and Kobe were both still dominant in 2010 like they were in 2000.

    Shaq “suffers” from the fact that his prine was only at the end of the 1990s and beginning of the 2000s, so neither one of those decades could definitively belong to him (90s is MJ ofc anyway but still)

  16. I’ll see people try to downplay how good Kobe was during the Shaq years, but he was still 1st team All NBA even as the “second option”.

  17. 01-10 it’s definitely Kobe. If it’s 00-09, it’s definitely still Kobe. Duncan was great, but removing his 99 ring and his 2014 ring and he’s unquestionably below Kobe.

  19. If the 2009-10 season counts then it’s clearly Kobe lmao. Hating him is fine but denying he is the first decade of the century goat is delusional.

  20. Shaq was only that dude for like 6 years of that decade it can’t be him. I wouldn’t be mad at giving 00-10 to Kobe.

  22. Bro of course he’s the player of the decade he had half the championships in the decade this isn’t even a conversation

  23. Me sometime in the 2010’s: is Kobe really still that popular?

    My teacher friend: 90% of all garbage thrown in the trash at school is accompanied by a kid yelling “Kobe!”

    From 2000-2016, Kobe was the NBA to most kids.

  24. Duncan is definitely a valid choice and probably the most correct from an unbiased view.

  25. Kobe had the insane work ethic and style like Michael Jordan that fans flock to. Shaq was great but frustrating because his greatness was capped by his lack of work ethic. Tim Duncan was in credible but was also an understated personality.

    Kobe just had that IT combo of talent, work ethic, and intense personality that creates such a fun player to follow 

  26. Five titles for the league’s most popular franchise. With historic scoring performances sandwiched in between a Threepeat and a Back-to-back.

  27. Kids don’t yell “Duncan” when throwing away a wad of paper into a trash can

  28. Kobe was in 7 NBA Finals between 2000 and 2010. He won 5 of them. The 4 years he wasn’t in the Finals… one was when Shaq had surgery “on company time,” and 3 years he didn’t even have an All-Star teammate, during the rebuilding years.

  31. Yeah. Fans are dumb/emotional. Fan votes are popularity contests, nothing more.

  32. Kobe won 4 rings, 1 MVP, 1 FMVP, and a gold medal (after the 04 team featuring Tim Duncan flopped heavily) during this decade… not outrageous at all.

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