Kobe Bryant is the Best Athlete of All Time

It is difficult to measure an athlete's greatness before he finishes his career, and Kobe Bryant figures to have at least five more years to play in the NBA, maybe even more than that. But Kobe Bryant has already accomplished so much that one can extrapolate from his current success to come to an estimation of what his full achievements will be.

NBA Championships

Kobe Bryant has already won four NBA championships, according to his Wikipedia page. These championships occurred in 2009 and in 2000-2002 when he was paired with Shaquille O'Neal.

Kobe Bryant has appeared in six NBA Finals, winning four of them. The Lakers lost in the finals to the Boston Celtics in 2008 and to the Detroit Pistons in 2004.

To put that in perspective, Kobe Bryant has played 13 seasons of NBA basketball and in six of those seasons he and his team reached the Finals. That is almost 50 percent of the time. You can bet that Kobe Bryant will get back to the NBA Finals a number of times in the future. He is likely to win a few more NBA championships, maybe as many as six which is how many Michael Jordan won as a player.

Awards

Kobe Bryant is not a one-dimensional player. He is awesome on both offense and defense. His Wikipedia page lists some of his many awards: 11-time NBA All Star; 7-time all-NBA first team; and 7-time all-defensive first team.

How about MVP awards? Kobe won the NBA MVP award in 2008, the NBA Finals MVP in 2009, and three times he won the NBA All-Star Game MVP award.

Great athletes are measured by how many championships they win and also by how well they do on an individual basis. Kobe Bryant will end up being the greatest NBA player of all time and the best athlete of all time.

Sources

Los Angeles Lakers, NBA website

NBA Championships, Wikipedia page

Kobe Bryant, Wikipedia page