[marme]

Gretzky is great example because he was not the best player because he scored the most. He was the best because just him being on the ice lead to others scoring as well. Just being out there he was able to help the rest of the team score as well. Contrast this with a player like Kobe Bryant who was a great individual player but horrible team player. Kobe did not get along with his team mates and other than the points he put up on the board Kobe did not really contribute much to the Lakers. Kobe was such a ball hog that they refer to a missed shot that is rebounded and scored by the offense as a kobe assist because it was only way he was going to give up the ball

[mod]

Kobe is top 30 all time assists. What are you talking about?

I detest the man, but you can't use statistics to argue against him.

http://stats.nba.com/featured/kobe_by_the_numbers_2015_11_29...

[pyoung]

But he played ball for 20 years. I think average number of assists per game is a better stat here, where he was ranked 136th according to this link [1].

[1] http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/ast_per_g_career...

[dcole2929]

There have been over 3000 people to play in the NBA. Ranking 136th still makes him better than the vast majority of people to have ever played the game. Especially as a two guard on a team that primarily ran the triangle, an offensive system that devalues traditional pick/roll dribble creation and generates most of it points on secondary actions (eg hockey assists) off high post play.