Anytime a well-known entity produces the ranking of players before the beginning of a season, there’s some level of controversy because everyone has an opinion about the value of a player.
Especially when the name of the ranked player is Kobe Bryant, and especially when the ranker is ESPN.
We’ve seen over the years that the ranking of the superstar guard always makes serious noise, and there is usually repercussions (wrath of the internet) for the writers who do the work, no matter how accurate the ranking or the assessment may be.
Bryant’s rankings by ESPN have steadily gone down over the years – particularly since he suffered the Achilles heel injury. He was ranked 25 overall in 2013, 40 in 2014 and 93 in 2015. The guard himself has commented a bit on these rankings, but it’s usually his supporters who have done all the defending for him.
On Friday, Bryant’s ex-teammate Nick Van Exel saw an article by ESPN’s Nate Silver in which Bryant was actually ranked 236th overall. To that, Van Exel had this to say:
You have a million followers. You cant want attention that bad. Smh. Terrible https://t.co/CK6GORYCUh
— nick vanexel (@vanexel31) October 10, 2015
It’s unclear whether Van Exel actually looked at the statistics provided by Silver. Either way, you’re never going to win in terms of popularity if you’re going to rank Bryant as low as 236, no matter how old the guard is.
Jim Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.