Lonzo Ball on why he doesn't have Kobe Bryant on his Mount Rushmore: 'He got the most misses ever'

Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball was born in 1997, so it didn't come as a surprise that his Mount Rushmore of NBA greats did not include the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, or Wilt Chamberlain. His list, however, was rather surprising because it did not include the all-time great who bridged the gap between Michael Jordan and LeBron James.

Kobe Bryant won five championships for the Los Angeles Lakers and was the player who bridged the gap between the Jordan and LeBron eras. However, according to Ball, Bryant's game had a significant flaw that took him off Zo's basketball Mount Rushmore.

"I love Kobe but he was never the best player to me, like watching him. Just because he got the most misses ever, you know. I don't know," said Lonzo on Angel Reese's Unapologetically Angel podcast.

But Lonzo forgot about LeBron

Kobe was known as a scorer and unapologetic throughout his career. He was never shy about chucking up the basketball and did not care about field goal percentages. Bryant was willing to trade his accuracy for production as long as he got the job done.

After he retired, the Black Mamba held the record for most missed field goal attempts in an NBA career, with 14,481. But Lonzo forgot that LeBron recently passed him on that dubious all-time list. King James has 14,628 career misses as of Thanksgiving Day, 2024, and that number will continue to go up as long as he continues to play.

But to be fair to Bron, the main reason he has that many misses is that he's played 22 NBA seasons and continues to play at a high level; hence, he still takes a lot of shots every night. Looking at field goal percentages, 'The Kid from Akron' has a career field goal percentage of 50.1%, which is better than Kobe's 44.7%.

Lonzo's Mount Rushmore

With Kobe out of his list, Ball's Mount Rushmore included Jordan, LeBron, Shaquille O'Neal, and Magic Johnson. He did not explain why he picked MJ and Bron but said Shaq was the most dominant ever. The No.2 overall pick of the 2017 NBA Draft also said he was considering replacing Magic with Steph Curry.

"But back to Curry," Lonzo changed topic. "His resume and the way he changed the game. He's the best shooter ever. He carried USA. Ain't nothing that he ain't did and he got the rings to back it up too. So I don't know. Like Shaq's up there, he is the most dominant. So putting the best shooter in there, I'm not opposed to that."

It's interesting to know if Lonzo would change his Mount Rushmore when he finds out that LeBron has the most misses ever, not Kobe. Also, he talked about rings when making the case for Curry, but Magic has more rings at five to four than Steph. Kobe also has five over LeBron's four.