Philadelphia 76ers legend Julius Erving has always had interesting takes in the all-time great conversations. His GOAT is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , not Michael Jordan.
When asked for his Mount Rushmore, he left out both Jordan and LeBron James . Asked once about his all-time great teams, he did not include LeBron on his first or second teams .
Now, the "Doctor" has added another controversial take to his long list - he's picking LeBron over Kobe Bryant . And what's controversial there isn't who he picked but why he chose him.
"I think LeBron is one of one," said Erving when asked by "The Schmo". "Kobe's another sort of imitation of Michael Jordan. You know, there have been plenty of imitations of Michael, Kobe, me and other people. LeBron's like one of one. So I'm going to give him this pick."
Bryant was the confessed MJ clone. Kobe idolized Mike so much that he not only patterned his game after "Air Jordan" and copied his moves, but he also imitated his gestures and mannerisms. In fact, Bryant copied Jordan so well that even MJ himself once said that Kobe was the only player who could beat him in a game of one-on-one .
"If I was in my prime, who would I want to play one-on-one? That list is very long. Start off with Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant in his prime, LeBron in his prime, D-Wade in his prime. Melo. That's a good start. I don't think I'd lose, other than Kobe Bryant because he steals all my moves," Jordan once said.
Meanwhile, LeBron is the guy who's always been pitted against Michael in the greatest of all-time debate. However, while Bryant copied Jordan to the "T", James is the anti-MJ because he is a pass-first player who, unlike Mike - and his copycat Kobe, who never left the game-winning shots in any of his teammates' hands, is always willing to make the right basketball play, even if that means passing to a wide open teammate with the game on the line.
The Schmo also asked Erving which two players he would want to team up with if he were to play in an all-time three-on-three basketball contest. Not surprisingly, he didn't have LeBron or Kobe on his list. But neither did he mention Mike.
His choices weren't as popular, but they made a lot of sense.
"Give me Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell," Erving added. "I'll be a guard. Certainly, we'll be able to protect the rim, right? And Wilt can score 100 points. So what the heck?"
I mean, how can you go wrong with having Bill and Wilt to rebound and protect the rim? While Russell wasn't a prolific scorer, Wilt was and that's where Doc also comes in.
But going back to The Schmo's first question, picking LeBron over Kobe is going to make a lot of Lakers fans mad. But yeah, without putting names on the back of their jerseys, a player who is an original is always better than a copy.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jun 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
