Lebron is the most criticized pro in history of american pro sports. People's expectations of him were just not realistic. He averaged 38-8-8 and people were criticizing him.
Not knocking him by properly noting that he didn't lead those teams to titles. No one is punishing Kobe by stating what actually happened.
all i know is, if i were to build a team from scratch, i'd pick lebron over kobe 10 times out of 10. also, id pick shaq over both 10 times out of 10 as well. lebron - consistent all game defense, scoring, rebounding, assisting. less likely to go off for 40 points here or there. balanced load of scoring/rebounding/assisting. improved post game, enough to run most of the offense in the finals through him. needs work on footwork. kobe - more likely to go off for 40 points here or there, wants to shoulder the scoring load more than anything else, defense is not consistent but capable, rebounding and assists not as consistent but also capable. best bad shot maker. ice cold jumper. great footwork. shaq - destroys you until you're forced to put him at the FT line it would really depend on what the team makeup is to decide who you want. I'm just glad to be able to watch all three play in their prime. truly amazing talents in an era where people say there's no talent. i use to hate kobe, i use to hate lebron. now i enjoy them both.
According to Hollinger (who we all love and respect), Lebron's last season was only matched by Shaq and Jordan in terms of sheer dominance in regular season and playoffs.
Sheer dominance? They only finished fourth best record in the league and the only series they dominated was against the Knicks.
Oh I get it, when they say sheer dominance like Jordan they were comparing his performance to how Jordan dominated the league in 1987.
So you ignore where I said that LeBron is the better player but in terms of career that Kobe still has it? I also mentioned that I think LeBron will pass Kobe. For the basis of this question I am looking at it in terms of if both players careers ended today. We can't assume what the future will bring all we can go on is what has already happened. So yes your statement that Kobe has played longer is the reason why he is still rated higher. That is what the term "career" is about, the totality of all they have done.
That guy that he responded to was kinda punishing Kobe. He said Lebron passes Kobe with a second ring because Kobe was robin for half of his career. No mention of the MVPs or many other legitimate reasons for Lebron being ahead of Kobe with the same amount of alpha rings.
Not ingoring it. Noting that longevity doesn't necessarily equate to better. Gale Sayers and Jim Brown didn't play a ton but still are considered better RB's than most based on what they accomplished in their few seasons. LeBron just had a better season than Kobe has ever had, a better postseason than Kobe has ever had, has better career averages than Kobe and more MVP's. His career totals at the same timeframe are also better than Kobe's. See my Mark Jackson reference.
In reg. season and playoffs: Lebron led the team in minutes, points, rebounds, assists, steals, PER He was one of 8 players in history to win MVP and FMVP in the same year.
He needs a couple more. I don't think he needs to match Kobe's number of Championships to be on a higher level historically, but he needs more than 1. All that said, I expect him to get a few more and will be one of, if not the best basketball player in history.
My point is that the 3 championships with Shaq don't count in the equation because even Tmac would have won 3 championship playing with Shaq in those 3 years.
I don't like Kobe. Never have, never will. That being said 5 is much greater than 1. Let's talk when Lebron wins as many as Jordan before we can talk about him surpassing Kobe. The be all end all in basketball is the number of rings. Nothing else matters.
If you use this logic, then Lebron's first championship shouldn't count either since it's with WADE and BOSH. Tmac would've also gotten championship if he played with Wade and Bosh.
t-mac would never average 30/10/6 with great defense for an entire playoff series in kobe's first championship with the lakers he average 16 ppg shooting 37% from the field. it's not too far off to say other all-star perimeter players form that era could not put up similar numbers for that year.
