This is how they regularly spoke about Kobe while he was actually playing

Pure hooper

this is why ill never let these new dorky stat boys on twitter try and tarnish his name

Man it was always Kobe, MJ, and Bron. Now you got dudes saying he ain’t top 10 🤦🏽‍♂️

WE ALL KNOW kobe better than lebron

Twitter warriors would make you think Kobe was a bum lmao

"Who is to say Kobe Bryant isn’t going to be better than Michael Jordan? Let’s get that out on the table right now. He’s a lot better than Jordan was at the same age.” Paul Westphal after the Lakers won the 01' title. "I've always held the bar up very high for Kobe; he's jumping over the top of it right now. It's the best that I've seen a player of mine play with an overall court game." Phil Jackson on Kobe before the 01' Finals

But NBA analytics twitter will tell u about Kobe FG%, rim pressure, & TS%! Just listen to the players! Top 5 🐐

What some folks don’t understand is how real the Kobe/LeBron debates were back then. Kobe was at the top of the game. He had the accolades, the charisma and the respect of his peers. He had the championships. Truly one of a kind.

Yet he gets a lot of disrespect now

“Ppl didn’t rank him high until he died”