NBA

Chandler Parsons Ranks Kevin Durant Ahead Of Kobe Bryant In All-Time NBA Player Rankings: ‘He’s Not Top-3’

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When people talk about the greatest players to ever have graced a basketball court, the debate usually includes the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant. However, former player Chandler Parsons believes otherwise, as he would take one of them out of the Top 3 and exchange one of them for a current league star. 

According to the 36-year-old, who was invited on FanDuel TV this week, the five-time champion with the Lakers shouldn’t even be a part of the GOAT conversation. “I love Kobe, God rest his soul, but he’s not top three in most people’s eyes. I don’t even understand how this is an argument between him and LeBron. I think it’s Shaq (third) but a lot of guys would go even older than him,” he assured.

Parsons noted that most people he knows also don’t have the purple and gold icon in their top three, and explained why he would rank Suns star Kevin Durant higher in the all-time list than Kobe.

“But I don’t think if you look at rankings across the world, I don’t see Kobe in most people’s top three,” he said convincingly. “He’s not. But to put him over LeBron… I would rank Kevin Durant above Kobe.”

Then Chandler proceeded to ask co-host Lou Williams if he considered the Lakers legend to be a part of the top three greatest basketball stars of all time, he had little doubt about his reply: “Absolutely.”

Let’s take a look at their career, will ya? Not only is Bryant a 5x champion, but he’s also earned one MVP award, become the season’s scoring leader in two occasions, and has been selected 18 times as an All-Star. Kobe also ranks fourth on the all-time scoring list with 33,643-career points. To this day, he’s the only player in NBA history to have two different jersey numbers retired by the same team.

As for KD, the veteran has won two NBA titles in 16 years in the league, selected 14 times as an All-Star, also earned an season MVP award, 4x scoring leader, plus an 11-time All-NBA player. This season, the forward is averaging 27.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per match on 51.9% shooting.