NBA: Kobe Bryant has overtaken Michael Jordan's record - so is he the better player?

Bryant's record-breaking shot

There was an inevitability about Kobe Bryant overhauling the mighty Michael Jordan’s NBA points-scoring tally on Sunday night but the true value of the legendary pair might have been best underlined by a shot that Bryant missed.

The LA Lakers star, with the crowd anticipating a spectacular moment, attempted a fall-away shot that would have taken him past Jordan’s record. A jump-shot while jumping backwards, away from the basket and from the defender, has been Bryant’s go-to skill throughout his meteoric career but remains a shot he learned from Jordan.

It was the Chicago Bulls icon who patented the shot, maximising its effectiveness and passing his knowledge onto a young Bryant, eager to learn from his hero, almost two decades ago.

But Bryant’s effort on Sunday hit the rim and rebounded away, leaving him temporarily adrift of the record he had come to claim. He would eventually claim it with a free throw in the second quarter but his inability to score the fall-away seemed a poignant reminder that, despite the rewriting of the record books, Jordan remains the true master.

Past and future

Yet Bryant, now a 36-year-old with five NBA titles, has enjoyed a career worthy of adulation and passing Jordan’s 32,292 points mark leaves him behind just Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) and Karl Malone (36,928).

The eventual 100-94 win over Minnesota Timberwolves was a sideshow as Bryant, occasionally deploying trademark selfishness with ball in hand, raced towards his individual landmark. Defending against him was Minnesota’s 19-year-old Andrew Wiggins, which Bryant accepted was an apt battle between the past and the future not dissimilar to his own rookie-year contest against Jordan himself.

Wiggins scored Minnesota’s first six, out-pacing and out-thinking Bryant who had missed his first three attempts. But it wasn’t to last – Bryant needed nine for the record and passed it with a free throw after winning a foul from Zach LaVine who was just one-year-old when the Lakers man debuted. He went on to score 26.

As the ball finally slipped through the basket, the match was stopped as a mark of respect. The record-breaker was congratulated by team-mates and opponents and embraced Minnesota coach Flip Saunders, who remarkably was the opposing coach when Bryant made his NBA debut in November 1996. That day he went scoreless, Sunday’s match was never likely to be a repeat.

Chicago Bulls' Jordan and a young Bryant of the Lakers

Who is better?

While there is no questioning Bryant’s brilliance in isolation it is largely accepted that Jordan remains the superior player. A career that began in Jordan’s shadow has rarely escaped its confines and Bryant’s latest achievement has only encouraged debate.

The two shooting guards have used spiky, aggressive personalities to light fires within themselves throughout their careers. Jordan, perhaps behind his public persona, was an abrasive character not afraid of conflict and Bryant has followed that path. The Lakers man’s inability to gel with fellow great Shaquille O’Neal forced the latter to leave LA and last week Bryant unleashed a foul-mouthed rant about his team-mates.

But the controversy lies in Jordan’s missing years that have, his supporters claim, allowed Bryant to overtake his points tally. Jordan played three years of college basketball before debuting professionally aged 21 whereas Bryant began in the NBA aged 18.

Jordan, ever the unpredictable maverick, also lost points-scoring time aged 30 when he inexplicably retired to forge a baseball career. An 18-month hiatus dramatically ended with his notorious “I’m back” statement but in 1999, aged 36, he quit again. A two-year break was ended by joining Washington Wizards but his bizarre career trajectory is the opposite of Bryant who has seamlessly remained with Lakers for 19 years.

Bryant had 2,755 points by the age of 21 when Jordan’s career began. They played 13 seasons at the same age and Jordan recorded higher statistics in nine – absence from the court blighted two of the other four. The words of Phil Jackson always ring clear – the coach who had both men in their prime stoutly maintains Jordan is better.

The statistics – and the nostalgia – remain staunchly on the side of the older man but Bryant’s achievement on Sunday night in Los Angeles remains a great one. Whether his legacy is ever distinguishable from his illustrious predecessor's may be the challenge that defines a career.