Kobe Bryant’s Mount Rushmore of basketball

SACRAMENTO, California—Kobe Bryant came out Sunday with his own picks for the Mount Rushmore of basketball.

Asked during a news conference before the NBA All-Star Game at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Bryant offered his lineup of the four greatest players ever to play the game.

Bryant’s picks were Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Bill Russell.

Acknowledging that there are more candidates than spots available on the granite rock of NBA royalty, Kobe told NBA TV’s Steve Smith: “That’s impossible to do four, though, man. Come on. That’s crazy. That’s tough. Absolutely tough.”

Modesty got the better of Kobe as the Los Angeles Lakers superstar made no mention of himself among the four greatest players ever to play James Naismith’s invention.

On the other hand, LeBron James stirred the pot five days ago when he started the whole fad of naming basketball’s fabulous four for the ages.

LeBron, like Kobe, also picked the “easy three”—Jordan, Bird and Johnson.

After selecting his fourth—Oscar Robertson—King James said he’d eventually end up there in the pantheon of the four greatest.

A two-time NBA champion and four-time MVP, LeBron of the Miami Heat said he believes he will be one of the game’s all-time greats, though he didn’t say who he would bump to make room for himself.

“I’m going to be one of the top four that’s ever played this game, for sure,” James said in an interview with NBA TV’s Smith.

“And if they don’t want me to have one of those top four spots, they’d better find another spot on that mountain,” James told Smith and the whole basketball universe. “Somebody’s gotta get bumped, but that’s not for me to decide. That’s for the architects.”

Bryant, still nursing an injury,  was not among the top dogs in the 63rd edition of the All-Star Game—the world’s biggest pickup game. But James was as the East snapped a three-game losing streak to the West, 163-155.

This was the most points scored in the NBA All-Star Game with a combined 318 points. The previous record was 303 in 1987.

But then as in the previous All-Star encounters, no defense was played. Zilch. Zero.

Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers almost broke the All-Star record for points with 38, four shy of the mark set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962.

Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who ended up as the game’s Most Valuable Player, matched Glen Rice’s 1997 record for the most points in a single half with 24 points.