re: Phil Jackson on Kobe and MJ

Kobe has been a great player majority of his career (~13 years, first few years he didn't put up 'kobe-esque' numbers and last year was bad.). Other than his shooting #s going up and fg% going down, his R/A were always consistent. His PER numbers were hovering around 23-24 for majority of his career and once in a while will spike up to 26, 28 and that is about it.

LeBron's and Jordan's numbers started off 'above average' and just vaulted into a different class of their own for a good 7 years and dropped down to 'above average'.

In a 7 year span, Jordan averaged .518/.311/.846; 33.2/6.4/6.0 (30.4 PER, 121ortg, 103drtg)

In a 7 year span, LeBron averaged .519/.349/.755; 28.0/7.6/7.1 (30.1 PER, 120ortg, 101drtg)

In a 7 year span, Kobe averaged .453/.339/.845; 29.1/5.8/5.3 (25.1 PER, 113ortg, 105drtg)

Coincidentally, their best years thus far have been from around 22-29 years of age before they started going down (in the case of Jordan and Kobe). Is that going to happen to LeBron? We'll see.