No correction, it isn't a good argument to YOU because you have no answer for it. All because you hate Kobe lol. You can't criticize a player for having a horrible team, but ignore the players surrounding him. 06 Lakers=One of the worst collection of players ever assembled
Durant never played with anybody like Shaq or prime Pau. He is straight-up better right now than Kobe has ever been, he just doesn't have the same supporting cast.
Durant turned 25 fewer than six months ago. He's just now entering his prime. Too early to call. Now, young (19-24) Kobe v. young Durant? I'm taking Durant. He's bigger, has a more varied offensive game, and doesn't appear to have a borderline antisocial personality disorder.
Why do you keep leaving off Lamar Odom when you mention Kobe's teammates from those seasons? Which player on LeBron's teams gave more production than Odom gave Kobe in 06 and 07?
Yes, Odom was that much better of a player. His production in 06 and 07 was greater than what Big Z produced even in the years that he made the All Star team. But forget going back and forth about who was better between the two. The question, that you keep avoiding, is why do you constantly leave off Kobe's best teammate when you mention those teams? A teammate giving the type of production Odom was giving?
WTF? I'm sorry but WB was never as good as Pau Gasol was in his prime. Prime Gasol was so good he was able to bring a Memphis team with only Shane Battier as only good NBA player all the way to the playoffs, something guys like Kevin Love and Dwyane Wade weren't able to do, and certainly that's not something WB can do. Pau Gasol was so good he was able to dominate both KG and Perkins, and allowed Kobe to win his 4rth and 5th rings. Check out his stats, Kobe scored 40% FG the year he won a ring. If your star shoots that low normally you'd lose, but the Lakers won anyway thanks to Gasol and Odom.
I don't even know why this poll is close at all, it should be KD by a wide margin, if we're counting this season as his prime. With all due respect to how good Prime Kobe was, current/prime KD is having arguably the greatest statistical season ever while also carrying the Westbrook-less Thunder to the #1 seed in one of the most competitive Western Conferences ever. Kobe with a slightly less talented team in a lesser competitive Western Conf. barely got 8th seed or missed playoffs...can't remember exactly, but point being, he's always needed a dominant big man on his team to be considered a contender.
Don't worry, as time passes and the Kobe fan club parade dwindles in numbers, Kobe's stock diminishes. Just last year some delusional idiots had him ranked in the top-5 and now most have him out of the top-10. Eventually he'll drop to his rightful top-30 spot.
Exactly, its not even close. The arguments given by the Kobe group are fail, citing "Oh buhh buhh smush parker and Kwame Brown!" It honestly doesn't even matter, Durant as much as I have begun to dislike him since hit UT days...is having one of the greatest individual seasons ever, one that is better than any season Kobe ever had.
I think people are missing a huge part here: defense. Although Kobe's all-nba 1st team D was bloated in his later years, but in his prime, he was a lock down defender and was considered a top perimeter defender in the league. Compound that with a dominant offensive repertoire, he was a beast. Durant in his prime will go down as the better offensive player than Kobe. And probably everyone but Jordan IF he keeps up what he's doing THIS year. But defensively, he still has a lot to achieve. I still take Kobe with the all-round game on both ends of the floor. Until I see Scott Brooks thrust his entire defense to Durant like he does with offense, hard to put him in the category of 2-way players like a Kobe or a Lebron. Not yet anyways.
Depends what you consider his prime, tmac. Most people say 2006 or whenever he had the 81 but he didn't even try on D then. He was an above avg defender in is younger years with Shaq, although still highly overrated because he had one good game against Iverson and one good 4th quarter agains mcgrady (in a game where mcgrady still scored 50 I think). Keep in mind that scrubs like Bruce Bowen and that white guyon Charlotte who looks like Clay Aiken routinely got career highs on Kobe, and Arenas burned him for 60. I think just due to his length, Durant now is just as good of a defender as young Kobe and much better than 2006 Kobe.
No way, he has too many faults in his game. I would say more like 10-15 range. In any case he's nowhere close to as good as Shaq was in his Lakers days and he's not even as good as Pau was.
Never heard of Kobe as a lock down defender....Good defender when dialed in. It's really not close in this debate, it's Durant by a mile based off physical attributes and skill set. Guys with his size, handles, and shooting don't come around often.
In Durant's stretch, he hasn't just gone crazy on offense, he's been one of the best perimeter defenders in the nba. They don't call him a 2-way player, because it's a nice way to say "limited offense"
