Sports Illustrated recently released part of its Top 100 NBA Players of 2016 and Kobe Bryant landed the 54th spot.

According to the magazine, the partial list, which was revealed by Rob Mahoney and Ben Golliver, is the 100-51 spot wherein Kobe was listed after Tony Parker, Rudy Gay and Ty Lawson. While his rank came as a little bit surprising, the list was not without basis.

As detailed by Golliver, Kobe's rough season has played a major part on his standing, not to mention the low stats he showed during the 2014-2015 NBA season. Golliver stressed out that Kobe's unimpressive field goal percentage and defensive rating took toll on his popularity rating.

Sports Illustrated also made a statement regarding the basis of ranking. Posted on the Sun Times Network, they merely implied that Kobe still ranks on top if the basis was popularity and the financial aspect is another consideration when choosing a player. However, they also indicated that these are not the only things that matter during the selection, but the player's performance and statistics as well.

Apparently, in Kobe's case, his ranking dropped because of his health issues and not because of his dwindling play time and talent. Plagued with injuries, Kobe, 37, has only played 41 games in all combined three seasons starting 2013. This alone gave him the disadvantage of making it to the top of the list.

The complete post of Sports Illustrated significantly explains why each player was ranked the way they were, and, indeed, one of the biggest factors that affected a player's standing has been his overall health. Injuries and less play time has been the culprit on the downward spiral of their standing, particularly Kobe.

Last year's list has put Kobe on the 24th spot, just behind Derrick Rose and Damian Lillard. Kobe Bryant is coming from a shoulder injury and insists that he's a hundred percent ready for the next season. Prior to his shoulder injury, the Lakers guard has been dealing with chronic Achilles injury that prevented him from having more play time with the team.

Meanwhile, the longstanding rift between former teammates Bryant and O'Neal may have come to an end after the latter demonstrated his feelings towards their disagreement through a podcast. A complete introduction of the said opening has been posted on the Bleacher Report. Kobe heeded his message, eventually answering him with his own version of introduction, all in the name of putting everything under the bridge.

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