I think people appreciate Kobe now, but it will be years down the road before people really understand how great of a player he was.
Career isn’t quite over yet, but the fact before he was injured he was still be regarded as one of the Top 10 players in the league was a feat itself.
Grant Hill explains why it was so hard to defend him over the years and why Kobe was the toughest player for him to guard.
“Now that I’m retired, I can probably say now that I don’t have to see him anymore is Kobe (Bryant). I felt like I played him well, and I felt like I made him work. But I’d go out there and he’d still hit some crazy shots on me. I would’ve liked to go against him when I was younger, and I had some moments when I was in Detroit. Even in recent years, he was tough.
“It was hard to really have a game plan for him because he really didn’t have a whole lot of weaknesses. He could go either way, he could go over each shoulder in the post, he could catch and shoot, he could go off the dribble. A lot of guys have a game plan to try to stick to, and certain guys have tendencies—they prefer going over this shoulder or prefer going right or left—but with Kobe, it was hard to figure him out. I tried to give him a bunch of different looks.”
From @realgranthill33 to @JaredZwerling: "I didn't mind guarding LeBron and Melo and KD, but Kobe used to give me a lot of problems."
— KEVIN DING (@KevinDing) November 5, 2013