Michael Jordan ranks Kobe Bryant ahead of LeBron James

If you’re a fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers, players doing or saying things that don’t make much sense has been a common theme this summer. Luckily for you we have another story like that, only this time it doesn’t come from a member of the Cavs.

At this Flight School camp, as transcribed by Ryne Nelson of Slam, Michael Jordan ranked Kobe Bryant ahead of LeBron James. His reasoning:

Would I rank LeBron over Kobe in terms of best of all time? No. There's something about five that beats three. Now he may be better than that, but Kobe won five championships. LeBron won three.

This isn’t exactly new, as Jordan has always ranked Kobe ahead of LeBron. It makes some sense as Kobe is carbon copy of Jordan’s game in a lot of ways, making it easy for him to relate to that style. Bryant is also the emotional, competitive nature of Jordan taken to the max, for better or worse.

On the other hand, LeBron often gets compared to Jordan in terms of historical greatness and are typically discussed as No. 1 or No. 2 all-time in most historical discussions. So, as a player that actual poses a threat to his legacy, it makes sense that he would turn the attention towards team accomplishments.

Plus, Jordan didn’t comment on the historical rankings on players like Robert Horry or Bill Russell. Both players won more titles than Jordan’s six.