Give Chris Rock this much: He’s honest.
At halftime of Kobe Bryant’s epic 81-point game in 2006, Rock was asked if he thought Bryant was the best player in the NBA. No, Rock replied, that was Dwyane Wade.
Twenty-four minutes of game action later, Bryant had posted the second-greatest scoring performance in NBA history and Rock was feeling pretty foolish. He owned up to it Tuesday on NBA TV, although he still knocked Bryant down a peg.
Asked whether Bryant, who will soon pass Jordan on the league’s career scoring list, can do anything to pass Jordan on the list of greatest players ever, Rock was adamant.
“No, he’s done,” Rock said, adding, “It’s a nice run. He had a nice run, and he’s one of the greatest ever. Hey, I’m not going to pass Richard Pryor. I ain’t going to lose no sleep over it. Richard Pryor’s better than me. So what?”
At first, it sounds like Rock is being self-effacing, except it also sounds like he’s calling Pryor the Jordan of comedy and himself the Bryant of comedy. That’s a humble brag if we’ve ever heard one.
