Paul Pierce says Kobe Bryant was never the face of the NBA

Paul Pierce says Kobe Bryant was never the face of the NBA
byu/TheBiasedSportsLover inbostonceltics

34 comments

  1. Gotta disagree, mid-2000s after the Shaq Heat championship Kobe was the face of the league until Bron took over in like 2012.

  2. As much as I stand with Paul Pierce but Kobe been the face of the league since forever and after he passed away, he still has the buggest imprint of the game that we love đź’Ż No disrepect to the truth but thats the whole truth

  5. I agree, his reputation and legacy changed immensely when he died. “mamba mentality” was a joke for a while and he was considered a great but selfish player. That and the rape stuff and he was never really the “face” of the league.

  6. I think Kobe’s legal troubles prevented him from becoming the face of the league (reason for Steve Nash’s two MVPs ). The league pushed AI , melo , bron , and wade.

  7. He was the face of the league what are we talking about. Every kid outside of Boston fans was yelling “Kobe” on all of their shots. I love Pierce but I disagree here.

  8. In the 2000s it was Kobe that made me nervous potentially playing them in the finals every year. As great as every other player was for some reason I was only worried about Kobe.

  11. I don’t think he’s wrong. I don’t think *anybody* was truly face of the league like MJ was prior or LeBron was after and I don’t think anybody from this current gen will be either, Luka may be like Kobe just from the Lakers effect.

    But MJ and LeBron were bigger than the teams they were on, and that’s not the case for anyone else.

  13. This is completely true. But not because of his play. He was the best player in the league for 5 years or so (06-07 thru 09-10), but he didn’t have that whatever charisma and there are the group of people who have still never moved on from Jordan and still aren’t ready to just replace Jordan with the next “face.”

    Really “face of the league” went Jordan to Lebron with a 8-10 year interregnum.

  15. Why has no one mention Durant or Hardon? These guys are also iconic and land commercials. Maybe there’s just too much advertisement to limit the league to having one face.

  16. Seems like he’s still butthurt about the Draymond “They don’t love you like that” comment lol

  17. Can’t debate that, he was sandwiched between MJ and LBJ, and when he was alone in his era there were superstars on almost every team before the whole big 3 meetup trend happened. But he was the equivalent of “I wanna be like _” so if that’s what it takes I’d say he was the face at one point.

  19. Honestly I think if I lived on the west coast my perspective might have been different, and he obviously has the one MVP, but there really was not a single moment in time where Kobe was the consensus best player in the NBA; nor was he ever really statistically the best player in the NBA. That, plus the *rape* kinda prevented him from being the face of the league. But yeah I mean maybe for like a very brief point in time he was here and there.

    But like these guys are saying, Shaq was a household name way more than Kobe. Larry David tripped Shaq, Kobe wasn’t even mentioned in the episode lol

  20. As a Celtic fan, I feel like Kobe was the face of the league for those finals runs and months after from 2008-2010. The Cs rivalry was in full swing, LeBron was stuck in Cleveland, and Kobe was playing extremely entertaining basketball with Pau Gasol and co.

    That’s the only period where I think he was really on top and front and center. Even then, LeBron had a ton of spotlight but I think Kobe was really really popular at that point.

  23. Kobe was on his way to being the face until Colorado. Then LBJ hit the scene and it’s been him since

  26. this is some revisionist ass history in the comments. Kobe was ABSOLUTELY the face of the league in the 2000s. And he was absolutely considered the best player for a while up until lebron really came into his own.

  27. Id say 07ish-10ish he was absolutely the face of the league alongside LeBron. Those two were the main superstars in each conference, had competitive teams, were MVP candidates and people wanted to see them play against each other in a Finals

    Before that? Shaq’s superstardom probably took away from that moniker during his tenure, then as Kobe was being looked at on being at his level you had Colorado

  28. Was it Shea Serrano who said Kobe was never the best player in the league in any given year?

    He was top 2-3 plenty of times, but never number 1?

  30. As a Celtics fan he’s right. As an unbiased human being what the fuck is he talking about lmao

  31. PREVIOUS Faces of the NBA:
    Magic
    Jordan
    Shaq
    Bron

    Current Possible Faces:
    SGA
    Luka
    Wemby

    (But this is a toooooough conversation to have in this day)

  32. PP has a point.

    There also isn’t a face of the league every year.

    We’re getting to the point in the NBA right now where there is no true face of the league.

    Is it still LeBron? It’s not Wemby or Luka yet, it’s not Shai or Tatum.

  34. I think during the 3 straight finals appearance Kobe was def the face of the league

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