fuckyeahlakers:

Kobe Bryant is the greatest scorer in Lakers history.

Ever.

Not Shaq. Not Magic Johnson, James Worthy or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Not Gail Goodrich, Elgin Baylor or even Mr. Clutch himself, Jerry West, whom Bryant passed with a gutsy end-of-road-trip performance in Memphis.

After 13 days on the road, most of the Lakers looked like they simply wanted to hop on Monday night’s charter back to Los Angeles. But with the team down 11 points in the second quarter, Bryant scored the final 13 of the quarter himself to get to 23 points, five shy of West’s 25,182.

Then in the third quarter, Bryant exploded through the paint for consecutive slam dunks, the latter a breakaway two-hander that got him to 29 points on the night and 25,183 for his career, surpassing West by a point.

Earlier this season, we had the opportunity to speak with Jerry West himself. Who better, after all, to talk about Kobe than the man who drafted the skinny 17-year-old out of Lower Merion High School in Philadelphia.

Here’s a portion of the transcript from our interview with West, which took place at his house in late December: (click photo for interview)