Kobe Bryant is widely known among casual NBA fans, as the most prolific scorer ever. He is number 3 all time on the scoring list. He also scored 81 points in game, and is the only player besides Wilt Chamberlain to score 50 or more points in 4 straight games.
That’s all great, but if you look closely, you start to realize Kobe Bryant is actually the most inefficient scorer in NBA history. In 2014 he broke the record for the most missed shots in NBA history passing John Havlicek. He also never shot over or close to 50% at any point in his career. 50% is the gold standard of an efficient perimeter scorer in the NBA, especially legends.
When you take into account these things, and compare them to other all time greats like Michael Jordan, Lebron James, etc., you can see Kobe Bryant’s shooting percentages just don’t compare. These guys took a lot less shot attempts than him, and scored more points with much higher shooting percentages. Could that show how overrated Kobe Bryant really is?
What exactly caused Kobe Bryant to brick so many shots in his career? Many people might say it was his low IQ selection of shots has a lot to do with it. Others might focus on him wanting to be like Michael Jordan, and take unnecessarily tough fade away shots for clout. However, I think the real reason behind his inefficiency was the fact that he had a jump-shot that had a very low arc most time he shot the ball.
Anybody who played basketball before knows from day one they teach how important having an arc on your jump-shot is. Those of us who played organized basketball at some point, all remember the drills where coaches would make you shoot the ball over a broom stick, which trains you on putting arc on your jump-shot. Increasing the arc on your jumper, gives it a higher chance of going through the basketball hoop.
The video in the tweet above helps put into perspective how low the arc was on Kobe Bryant’s turn around fade away move. As expected the shot bricks off the back rim. Low arcing shots usually brick off the front rim or back rim, because you need an almost perfect trajectory for it to go in.
At the end of the day, Kobe wanted to be like Mike, but ended up being the inefficient version. He’s still a legend, and one of the most polarizing NBA figures ever, but one could also argue he might be the most overrated legend of all time.