When Bill Simmons wrote the Book of Basketball he ranked Kobe Bryant as the eighth best player of all-time. Bryant was behind Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain and Tim Duncan; just ahead of Jerry West and Oscar Robertson rounding out the Top 10. In the seasons since the book was published, LeBron James has now forced himself, deservedly so, into the Top 10 in the eyes of most. It seems, however, that it wasn’t at the expense of West or Robertson, but at the expense of Bryant. During that span of time has Kobe Bryant somehow gone from all-time great to underrated?

A random poll conducted on the RealGM Forums asked: “Out of the following active players, which are most likely to finish their career as Top 10 All-Time players?”

The choices were LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant, Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Tim Duncan or Other. These choices gave a range of players at the beginning, middle and the end of their careers. Voters were given the option to choose up to three players of who they deemed most worthy of Top 10 status.

LeBron James was the runaway leader; followed by Tim Duncan who also received a healthy chunk of the votes. Third place was split between Anthony Davis and Kobe Bryant, but both behind James and Duncan by a very wide margin. Being that the RealGM Forums are made up of some of the most passionate and knowledgeable followers of basketball in the world, and the voting was so decisive, it is fair to say that a large percentage of people no longer consider Kobe Bryant a top-10 player in basketball history.

It is possible Bryant's peak seasons are being overshadowed by his end of career play and the typical nostalgia that sets in for the all-time greats hasn't begun.

In recent years, Bryant has been both injured and hasn’t played as well as he did during the Lakers’ most recent title run. Each of his past three seasons have ended in injury. Bryant has shot his worst percentages since the early years of his career. His turnover rate has also been fairly high. Additionally, Bryant signed an extension with the Lakers that has paid him a larger percentage of the cap than any other player in the league. Combine all these factors together, along with the Lakers' presence in the lottery, and you have a player whose reputation is now that of a selfish gunner who only cares about stats and money.

Kobe entered the NBA during the 96-97 season straight out of high school, playing in 71 games, shooting at a low efficiency, and with a high turnover rate. Year 2 brought improvement; the shooting improved, the turnovers went down, and the defense was better. Year 3 started down the path of greatness that we eventually came to expect. The all-around game was starting to show up and he was impacting games like he hadn’t previously. From that point forward, Kobe was consistently in the conversation of the best players in the league. Kobe won just one Most Valuable Player award, but he was named to the All-NBA Team in 15 seasons with 11 being a First Team selection.

When Bryant entered the NBA, it was beginning a transitional period that would take a while to fully manifest. The vast majority of teams were still built on an inside-out method around dominant big men. Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing and Kobe’s own teammate Shaquille O’Neal, were the prime pieces contenders were built around. The only team not built this way was the Chicago Bulls and they were wrapping up their championship run with Michael Jordan.

As Kobe progressed toward the peak of his career, the entire league began to shift. A dominant big man who would be fed post touches and isolation heavy basketball was slowly but surely replaced with athletic wings and spread offenses like the Warriors, Spurs and Hawks that prize ball and player movement. Kobe Bryant learned to play in the NBA in an era where a dominant scorer was fed the ball and everyone else got out of his way. Because of this, he is viewed through a lens where the efficiency analytics told a less favorable story. The eye test that spoke of his scoring greatness for some, led to others preferring the flow of a team-oriented offense.

For the early part of his career Kobe was a high flyer; an athlete who might never put it together. As his game rounded out, he was arguably the best sidekick in history when paired with Shaquille O’Neal, forming the nucleus of dominant title winning teams. Kobe and Shaq were two of the four or five best players in the NBA during that time period and it is always difficult to assess their individual contributions to their three titles together.

A few years later, after an infusion of talent in Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, the Lakers rebounded to make three straight NBA Finals, winning two more titles. The Lakers attempted to prolong that run by bringing in Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, but they were never as successful and his refusal to cede control of the franchise to Howard was used by some as an example of him forgoing the opportunity to be a title contender because of his unwillingness to adapt his individual game. 

But we can’t let this recency bias overwhelm the evaluation of an incredible career that has seen Kobe Bryant reach levels few others have before. Kobe is one of the few top scorers who are also great all-around players. Out of the Top 20 scorers in NBA history, Kobe Bryant is one of only six players to have career averages of 20+ PPG, 5+ RPG, and 4.5+ APG. The others? Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, John Havlicek, Jerry West and LeBron James. This alone is proof that Kobe Bryant isn’t an unconscious gunner only out for his own stats. If you need further proof of his all-around play, you can look at the 12 times he was on the All-Defensive Team, nine times on the First Team. 

When he takes the floor in the 2016 season, Kobe Bryant will be one of only 5 players to have played 20 or more NBA seasons, joining Kevin Willis, Robert Parish, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kevin Garnett. One thing Kobe doesn’t have in common with any of those players is that he’s played every one of his 20 seasons in the same uniform.

Kobe Bryant stands alone as the only player with 30,000+ points, 6,000+ rebounds, and 6,000+ assists. Others have more points or more rebounds or more assists or more titles. 

Maybe Kobe can play at a high level this year and drag the Lakers to the playoffs or at least get close. It would be an accomplishment on par with any of his others. 

The longevity of Kobe, for better or worse, shouldn’t impact our overall evaluation of him as a Top 10 All-Time NBA Player. For me, he’s nestled somewhere around eighth or ninth behind Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain; and, for now, just ahead of LeBron James, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson.