Stephen A. Smith calls James Harden the heir apparent to Kobe Bryant

Lets just make sure we understand that there is a difference between a GOAT list, which is an accumulation of career accolades, rings, trophies, etc, which Kobe represents very well vs. asking who is actually a better player, IE, on a single night, who gives you a better chance of victory with all things being equal. Harden is easily a better player than Kobe Bryant, although not higher on a GOAT list.

 

I didn't watch because SAS gives me hives so not sure if you're being sarcastic or not.

Regardless, Stephen A will Stephen A. There is no method to his madness.

 

I completely ignore awards because the voters have proven themselves to be incompetent and "ringz" have more to do with surrounding cast so it's not something I factor in when ranking players.

When you say that Harden isn't a top 5 player, I agree.....but neither is Kobe, hell Kobe isn't top 10, probably not top 20. He's a slightly less ridiculous version of Russel Westbrick that got carried to championships by better players and WAY overhyped because it all happened in LA. Nothing more.

 

@hakeemthagreat

name at least one please

who could have single handedly carried the rockets farther last year anyway?

or you ignore this question and refuse to answer because there's none. and you don't want to admit the team and coach are the problem and not Harden

how was Kobe's performance in the playoffs when he did not have superstar beside him?

oops.. he didn't even make the playoffs

 

@Htownballer38

name at least one please

who could have single handedly carried the rockets farther last year anyway?

or you ignore this question and refuse to answer because there's none. and you don't want to admit the team and coach are the problem and not Harden

apples to dirt

Harden got to the WCFs and Finals

Harden >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> TMac

interms of regular season and playoffs success

 

Smush Parker, Lamar Odom, Chris Mihm, Kwame Brown. This is the team he carried to the 2006 playoffs. Which one of these guys are superstars again? Please elaborate

 

how many wins and what round did they get kicked out?

and name at least one please

who could have single handedly carried the rockets farther last year anyway?

or you ignore this question and refuse to answer because there's none. and you don't want to admit the team and coach are the problem and not Harden

 

First let's acknowledge that your facts were incorrect. Kobe INDEED carried his team to the playoffs, with not only no superstars, but a bunch of legitimate scrubs. More importantly, in the WEST. So you were mistaken

 

not everytime.. the year before they didn't make the playoffs

Kobe failed making the playoffs at least once and made the playoffs at least once when he was the only star of the team

all of hardens years where he was the only star they made the playoffs

see the difference?

now answer my 2 questions:

how many wins in the regular season and what round did Kobe get kicked out in 2006?

and name at least one please: who could have single handedly carried the rockets farther last year anyway?

or you ignore this question and refuse to answer because there's none. and you don't want to admit the team and coach are the problem and not Harden

 

After all is said and done, Harden might be the best player out of that trio...

 

So Kobe was good enough to help get a team with only Bynum and Odom to being a couple of games over .500 good enough for the 7 seed and be one and done in the playoffs. That is truly impressive....

If anything that just shows how important it was for Kobe to be carried by Shaq and Pau.

 

By WS, Kobe is the 18th greatest player of all time, behind Reggie Miller and ahead of Bill Russell, which I think is accurate, I can name 17 players better than Kobe. He's a great, but massively overrated since he's treaded like a top 5 to top 3 player of all time.

EDIT: Hes 15th in WS/48, so that makes him top 15 I guess

 

It's not linear.


SIL

 

Not calling you wrong, but where are you getting your WS/48 numbers from? The numbers I'm seeing have Kobe ranked 56th in NBA history and 57th in combined NBA/ABA history.

When it comes to raw win shares, that's a compilation stat so it rewards him for having a long career and that can put him ahead of clearly better players who didn't play as long. For example, I don't think anyone with a fully functional brain puts Kobe over Hakeem Olajuwon, but Kobe compiled more win shares than the Dream due to playing almost 4,000 more NBA minutes than he did at a lower rate per 48.

 

Spoiler

like non...

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But it was response to you stating Kobe never made the playoffs without a superstar. When in reality, that's a stupid comment given he actually DID do that. You guys hatred for Kobe has you just making up stuff in your head. On the other hand, give me ANY of Lebron's supporting cast worse than Kobe's 2006 team.

Wait, so Beverley's defense was SO overrated he made all defensive team last year? Um, yea sure buddy (point for me). Second, Moreyball wasn't completely successful until MDA came here, along with Eric Gordon & Ryno, 2 great shooters. Morey's track record pre MDA was mediocre (another point me). For the record, I was one of the FEW who wanted MDA here.


Note: You just made the Sam Hinkie thing up. Never said any of that, wrong poster

 

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/ws_career.html

 

Yeah I got that, I was talking about WS/48

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/ws_per_48_career.html

The win shares stat is a compilation stat like points or minutes played. The per 48 gives a better idea of the quality of basketball they were playing while out there.

Of course there's flaws with this too, like when a player continues to stay in the league well past their prime, but it's at least a little bit better than the raw numbers.

 

I knew you would go there. Typical response when people don't won't address the truth. I wasn't comparing them two players in that freaking manner. Im talking about what they are labeled as. Harden is labeled as a choker ever since he faced LeBron in the finals. Every year here he's disappeared in big time games in the playoffs.

 

Who D.Wade? Chris Bosh? Kevin Love? Ray Allen? All these guys were already great before they played with Lebron lol