Lakers News: Dwight Howard Praises This Lakers Teammate As Most Skilled Player Of All Time

Howard has played with several Hall of Famers during three eventful L.A. seasons.

Free agent former 2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard had a deep and wide-ranging conversation with Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes for their Showtime series All The Smoke recently.

Howard would know. He has played with several of the best players ever over the course of his 18-year career: Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, James Harden on two different teams, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony, and, if he stays healthy, Joel Embiid. The eight-time All-Star and three-time Defensive Player of the Year never overlapped with Michael Jordan on the court, but, in his opinion, the most skilled NBA player in history was not the Chicago Bulls legend, but in fact one of Howard's many colleagues. 

It was a Laker, yes, but maybe not the one you'd expect.

"Kobe is the most skilled out of all the players [ever]... Everything that [Michael] Jordan did, I feel like he just multiplied... And people [are] mad at him for doing it... He did everything [Jordan] did and made it better. Even watching him in practice, some things that he was doing, I was like, 'Why is he doing it?' One day I saw him getting his fingers stretched, I just saw the lady doing this for a whole hour, I guess it was [for] when he shot his jump shot, to be [smoother]."

Bryant famously indicated, once his playing career was behind him, that he had deliberately cribbed most of his on-court actions from MJ. In terms of efficiency, Jordan still outpaces Bryant in overall field goal percentage by a significant margin (49.7% vs. 44.7%). Neither was a particularly great three-point shooter, though connecting from deep was more of a focus during Bryant's era than it was during MJ's. Bryant proved to be a slightly better shooter from deep, having connected on 32.9% of his 4.1 attempts as opposed to Jordan's 32.7% completion rate on just 1.7 takes. Bryant played for quite a bit longer, and his performance tapered off significantly following his Achilles tear in 2013, so some of the percentages would have been closer presumably if he could have stayed healthier.

Howard also offered some interesting differences between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, the latter of whom this writer expected Dwight to list as the most skilled player ever over Bryant. Although perhaps Howard thinks of LBJ as having more raw talent, whereas in his view Bryant developed his footwork and shooting aptitude more?

"They're two different people. I always felt like Kobe was like Batman and LeBron's like Captain America, for real. LeBron always, he wants everybody to be around, saying he wanna have fun, he wanna dance before the games and put on his music. Kobe's just locked in. He don't say nothing. He got the basketball, and he dribbling the heavy ball before the game."

Here's the full conversation: