Both Kobe and Wade have led teams of nobody's to the playoffs to get slaughtered in the first round. And neither one of them has achieved playoff success without a lot of help.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/fp/flashPollResultsState?sportIndex=nba&pollId=115056 Kobe remains the best player in the world in fans' opinion, like it or not. Dirk is a close 2nd.
i live in LA, and even lakers fans don't think kobe is top 4-5 anymore. but kobe still has the most fans/popular in the world so this result isn't surprising.
That's YOUR opinion, it's pale compared to tens of thousands of fans' opinion. And you can see Kobe isn't just popular in the world, it's also most popular in USA.
both in their prime, Kobe hands down. His offensive skills and his intensive that he bring to the every game is unbelievable. For the people who want to compare stats, check the W and Rings.
Peak? Wade hands down. Overall body of work? Kobe. Wade only has to keep up his production for 3-4 more years until he surpasses Kobe for me. Wade measures out better than Kobe in almost any advanced statistic metric, Kobe just has done it longer. Before you bring the "LULZ! KOBE HAS TEH RINGZ!" argument, ask yourself this: do you really think Wade would not have won all those rings with the 3-peat Shaq and Kobe's supporting casts the last two years? I'd say they would've won even more easily with Wade instead of Kobe.
So the only argument for Wade is hypothetical? You think Kobe would lose with a supporting cast of LeBron/Bosh? It is better than anything he has ever had (yes, two can play that hypotheticals game).
LA is about as fairweather as they get. It is more about what have you done for me lately. (I know, I loved there for several years). Ask them last year and the year prior, their answers would be different.
kobe was a top 5 player the year prior no doubt. i'm talking about this past season. laker fans may be fairweather, but they are fairly knowledgeable. that's why LA is praying that they get another young superstar to pair with kobe (dwight howard - in fact on my drive to work today, a lot of the radio heads believe howard will be going to LA) b/ they know kobe can't handle the superstar load anymore. obviously lakers fans love kobe to death b/c of what he had accomplished for them, but they know kobe is done in terms of leading a team to the finals. but when you see your best player unable to dominate vs single coverage (and he faced single coverage pretty much 100% of the time vs hornets and mavs), you know that time has come for kobe.
Watching the Lakers this postseason really was difficult. To be fair, Kobe wasn't the only one who checked out. I think (pure speculation) there were some internal issues within the organization/locker room but obviously don't know for sure. There were clearly problems with that team, everybody/everything looked out of sync. To believe that he has just fallen out of the top 5 within a year (especially since the team had a great regular season) is difficult for me to believe. If next year was similar to this past year, then maybe I will believe it. But right now, I am just not believing it. Lol reading my above post, I realize I said "I loved there for several years," meant to say "I LIVED there for several years."
