Please. Kobe didnt stay b/c he HAD to. He stayed b/c he is selfish and wanted to become the greatest Laker ever. You really think he was seriously going to go to the Clippers? Kobe was never going anywhere.
People need to stop using Robert Horry as the argument. Be on a team, as a role player, that win a championship is not the same as carrying a team to a championship as a star player.
You are correct. And Kobe has carried a team to a championship twice, not five times. Being a secondary option is also not the same as carrying a team to a championship as the primary player. Yet folks continue to give Kobe primary player credit for all 5 of his titles.
LeBron has better averages and better stats at the same point in their careers. Koeb has basically played longer. LeBron also has 2 more MVP's and his career isn't even done yet. Mark Jackson is one of the leagues all-time assist leaders. Does that mean he was the best PG ever?
Don't forget about clutch either. For years Kobe was known as the most dangerous player in the fourth quarter while Lebron was known as a choker.
Right there was Shaq... Except that team was not known as the Shaq's team but Shaq&Kobe's team cause it was carried by two players. Kobe avg-ed 21.1, 29.4, 26.6 in those playoffs and those years were known as the O'neal Bryant era for a reason.
Did the Lakers ever win a title during those "clutch" years? When I think of Lakers' postseason clutch moments, I can't recall anything from Kobe. It's mainly Fisher and Horry.
If Lebron wins another championship, he beats Kobe. The reason is because Lebron has never been Robin where as Kobe has been Robin for half of his career.
Don't forget about created media memes that we can repeat instead of looking at real evidence. Yes, LeBron was known as a choker, after pulling off ridiculous epic performance against Detroit in the playoffs by scoring the last 25 points in the 4th period and overtime. But now he's an unchoker. Yeaaay.
It was known as Shaq's team, and the consensus was that if Kobe were replaced with Iverson, McGrady, or Vince Carter, the Lakers would've still won those titles.
I was thinking today. Losing last year was the best possible thing that could have happened to Bron Bron. One of the biggest non-tact related criticisms of the decision was that part of colluding to form a big three was to create an easy path to get rings. I quick way to end the "but, Lebron doesn't have any rings" argument, and an easy path to accumulating multiple rings. If they won last year AND this year the narritive would be "they're doing what they're supposed to be doing since joining forces." Since they lost last year, the prevailing narritive is "It's not easy. Lebron earned this." Which is better for the lebron story. He couldn't have planned it better (maybe??) to have lost last year.
If Lebron would have played with a PRIME Shaq, he would have definetly been Robin. So can you really knock Kobe for playing with the most physically imposing player int the history of the NBA.
This. On top of that, aside from AI, you really cant say Tmac, VC or any of the other wings of that time could replace Kobe easily. Iverson was the only other player who would bring it every game.
While I think LeBron is way better than Kobe, Kobe hit a number of huge 4th quarter shots in a few of those series against the Spurs IIRC.
When both players are retired, I wish we could somehow find out who had the most haters during their playing days.
