Many remember Craig Hodges for winning two NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. However, not many know that Hodges also won two titles as a special assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers .
The three-time Three-Point Contest winner was hired by his former head coach, Phil Jackson, to assist the Lakers' players in offensive skills, particularly shooting. He was on the team bench from 2005 to 2011 and was part of the back-to-back title-winning squad in 2009 and 2010.
During his tenure in L.A., Craig had the privilege of working with the late Kobe Bryant . Having witnessed his greatness, Hodges has no doubt the legendary guard deserves to be in the greatest of all-time discussion.
"The way he carried himself as far as the game was concerned, he did not have a peer. He was at the top of the game," Hodges said on the Legends of Sport podcast. "It bothers me when people talk about the GOAT, and Kobe's not involved. That's ludicrous to me when you look at his volume of work, and not only that, the latter part, he realized I got to bring everybody along, and I got to bring everybody to a level where they're at their best."
Kobe changed as he got older
Early in his career, Kobe wasn't considered a good teammate, mostly because he expected the players on his team to be as great and work as hard as he did. When they did not meet his expectations, Bryant alienated himself from the squad.
But later in his career, when he started to mature, Kobe realized that his job was to help his teammates become the best versions of themselves. When that started to happen, the Lakers had a renaissance, and they reached the top again, even without Shaquille O'Neal, who left the organization in 2004.
"He told me one time, he's like 'Hodge if everybody's at their best, not Kobe best, ain't nobody going to beat us,'" added Hodges. "And that was real. If you get everybody playing at that level, and you had Phil in the mix, you had the coaching staff that he had, it was a great blend."
Related: "MJ called Lute Olson and told him he had a diamond in the rough" - When Michael Jordan gave his seal of approval to Gilbert Arenas
No.8 vs. No. 24
That transformation was something that former Lakers forward Trevor Ariza talked about during his interview on the Forgotten Seasons podcast a couple of months ago. According to Ariza, Kobe completely changed as a player when he ditched the No.8 in favor of No. 24 at the beginning of the 2006-07 season.
"No. 8 Kobe's mindset was 'I'm gonna kill f*****g everybody in my way. I'm winning on my terms. If you're not working as hard, I ain't f*****g with you,'" Trevor said . "When you get to No. 24, I think it was in his 12th season. No. 24 was more 'I'm on this side now, I'm in my 12th year, I see younger guys I can take under my wing… I'm still a killer, but I'm gonna bring people with me.'"
The Bulls became a dynasty when Michael Jordan underwent a similar transformation. The same goes for Kobe, who, despite not always being in the conversations for the best player in the league's history, had an undoubtedly all-time great NBA run.
Is that enough? It was for Bryant. After all, the Lakers legend said himself he only cared about "things he could definitively win." The GOAT debate is not one of those.
Related: “There won't be another Michael” – Karl Malone never thought Kobe Bryant should have been compared to Michael Jordan
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