NBA TV announced its All-Decade teams on Monday, and though Kobe Bryant is on one of them, the panelists may have disrespected him by placing him on the Third Team.
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A case can be made that Bryant, who is considered to be one of the top 10 players of all time by many experts, should have been named to the Second Team in place of Carmelo Anthony. The former Los Angeles Lakers star played this decade from the 2009-10 to 2015-16 season.
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In those seven seasons, Bryant averaged 24.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.3 blocks per game. He was named to seven All-Star games and four All-NBA teams. In 2010, the 6-foot-6 shooting guard won his fifth and final NBA title.
The biggest obstacle that kept Bryant from having a greater impact this past decade was his injury history. The Achilles and knee injuries which he sustained in 2013, in particular, kept him off the court for several months. He was only able to play in 398 out of a possible 574 games due to various injuries.
This marks Bryant’s second time to be named to an All-Decade team. He was a unanimous First Team member of the 2000s, the decade he won his four other championship rings.
On the other hand, Carmelo Anthony played in 550 of the 820 games his teams played. Over the course of a decade, Anthony was named to eight All-Star teams and three All-NBA teams, averaging 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists a night. He led the league in scoring during the 2012-13 season.
Anthony may have played 10 seasons compared to Bryant’s seven, but the former lacks the championship hardware and cultural impact of the latter. In fact, after being removed from the lineup by the Houston Rockets after only 10 games last season, no team took him off their hands.
Even as a free agent this summer, Anthony hasn’t been signed by a team yet despite being healthy.
