Bird had 3 rings, 3 MVPs and was also credited with some defenive honors. He didn't last nearly as long because of injuries. Bird had to battle tougher opponents to get his rings and was never not the best player on his team. Kobe had Shaq. I don't put a ton of weight on the "rings" argument and to be honest I think LBJ is better than Jordan was. People love to talk about Jordan's 6-0 finals record but he had his share of embarrassing early exits. He had awful playoff games too, the type of games that critics have crucified LeBron for. I'm old enough to have watched all of these guys. I'll be happy to admit Kobe is up there with all of these guys, but I do think he's behind them slightly. It's all opinions though :)