I would pick Wade only because of his attitude. He is not even on the same planet as Kobe as far as talent goes, but Kobe has the worst attitude for a player I have ever seen.
It really depends who you have on your team to begin with. If i have to build a team around someone, i would pick kobe. If i already have another franchise player, i would pick Wade because of his attitude. Kobe is a tall 2guard who can guard another tall 2 guard and most of 3s.. Wade in other hand, is too short to guard strong 2 / 3.
Wade is a more efficient player than Kobe. He has a better shooting percentage and gets his points in the flow of the offense. If Wade tried to score everytime he touched the ball, he would have 35 points also.
Lebron/Kobe/Wade in that order. The first two are bigger, are better passers, rebounders and defenders.
woulda, shoulda, coulda..... I am sure Kobe would have closed out a series if his team up 3-1. I am sure kobe would never score like ONE point in second half of GAME SEVEN and let his team get blown out. I am sure Kobe would never let his team finish the season like 2-19 and miss the playoffs. I am sure with Kobe's talent, he would have won a title with other 3 HOFs. I am sure Kobe would never shoot 38.1% in the finals and still refuse to defer to his dominant teammate who shot 63.1%. Of course it's his teammates, coach, GM, owner, refs, media and fans faults woulda, shoulda, coulda.....
I think Kobe is still the better player, i love Wade and someone hit it right on the head when he said that Wade uses his abilities better than any player in the league. He never settles. Kobe has so much confidence in his shot though that he doesn't see it as settling, its just another weapon for him. Defensively Kobe is ahead of him too, although i did read an article where Wade said he will be working on becoming a "lockdown" defender. The way is see it, Wade has more weaknesses than Kobe right now, so he is not there yet, but he is younger and will only improve.
GOOD question now: The the 2003 Draft who and what did they draft the top 4 PICKS ??? So in other words which GM´s passed on Wade and for who??
well pick #1 was lebron, easy choice over wade. next was darko, horrible. next was carmelo, not as good as wade but had a better college career than wade and was a good rookie and is still a real good player. easily justifiable pick. next was bosh to toronto. he's also had a good nba career and i believe even riley said he was going to pick bosh if toronto hadn't. so not that crazy to take him over wade. now obviously looking back, the only one you'd take over wade was lebron, but aside from the darko pick it's hard to fault anyone else based on what was known at the time. wade had just developed so well and has intangibles that are hard to measure.
The players Miami traded to the Lakers to get Shaq made it to the 2nd round with Wade. So quit this Kobe overachieved nonsense. He failed to take them to the playoffs that first year and then they traded Caron. Odom was a more effective player with Wade. The same arguments you all are using to big up Kobe have been used to denegrate T-mac: taking a bad team (and the Magic teams those 3/4 years were worse than what Kobe had to work with) to the playoffs as a low seed and subsequently bounced in the first round. I'm suppose to be impressed when Kobe does the same thing T-mac did in Orlando back in 2002-03 (except he was more efficient and had even worse teammates)? Hell no. If he's the player he was sold to us as that's the very least he should do. Wade is the better fit for any team. Wade carried this Heat team to the title. Kobe never did that with the Lakers. Dead all this hypothetical crap about how the Heat would have still won if Kobe was there replacing Wade. How do you know? He isn't as efficient as Wade and that played a big part in them winning. Kobe hasn't done $hit without a dominant in his prime Shaq. Wade has made it to the 2nd round without Shaq. And now he's won a title with a fading Shaq (not the 30/15 shaq of the 3-peat run) and a finals mvp. If you want to play the hypothetical game it's much easier to say there are quite a few other players who could have won titles with a dominant in his prime Shaq.
Terrific post, one of the best posts I have read in a long time. That's been my argument all along as well, I never took anything away from Kobe as far as being an integral part of 3 rings won along with Shaq AND their clutch teammates (let's not brush over Fisher, Horry, and Fox, each of whom had MAJOR, memorable moments throughout; it's not unlike the major roles played by the likes of Mario Elie, Horry, Smith, MadMax, Cassell, and others during the Rockets' championship runs). The problem is people have repeatedly attacked other superstar players in the league for perceived 'shortcomings', saying that they're worse than Kobe or this or that player because they didn't get to play with Shaq in his prime, when he was consistently flirting with quadruple doubles and absolutely destroying opponents. What was the counterargument? Well, people said, "let's wait to see what Kobe will do without Shaq and then we can truly judge". Fast forward to the past couple of seasons. Season 1: The Lakers collapse at the end of the season and miss the playoffs by a mile (not even close). Season 2: the Lakers make the playoffs as a lower seed (which was expected) and then improbably lead a series against the extremely shorthanded Suns team 3-1, leading to everyone predicting a Lakers-Clippers series within a matter of days...only they manage to lose three straight and blow the series, with Kobe visibilly and clearly giving up on the game barely into the second half, leading to even some of his most ardent supporters to question his intentions, and clearly frustrated with the fact that he "didn't go down fighting". On the other hand, the detractors of Shaq have ALWAYS argued that he only could win it all with Kobe, and that "while Kobe never won it without Shaq, Shaq never won it without Kobe"...True enough, myself and others argued. So let's wait and see what Shaq can do without Kobe, except for the fact that Shaq's prime was well behind him while Kobe's prime was in the here and now, coming off career-highs in many statistical categories and easily his best season yet. Then, what do you know? It takes Shaq only 2 seasons to win one without Kobe, at a time when he's clearly well beyond his prime years. Moreover, most people argued that Wade wasn't in Kobe's class. Hmm...so let me get this straight: Shaq is well beyond his prime (but strangely enough still is the focal point of the defense, with Wade rarely if ever double-teamed thanks in large to Shaq's mere presence in the paint, a luxury players like Kobe used to enjoy but not any longer), and Wade isn't as good as Kobe or anywhere near his prime as of yet...and yet they won it? Suddenly, in the mere span of two seasons, many myths have been thoroughly discredited about Kobe, Shaq, and the former Laker dynasty. In one season, Kobe experiences what T-Mac has always been criticized for: losing a 3-1 series lead. Moreover, his former 'body in crime' wins a ring without him. Iverson would tell you, "I told you so!", T-Mac would tell you the same, Garnett would tell you the same, all those guys know what havig a Shaq on your team means. Despite all the detractors, Wade perfectly understands what having Shaq on his team means, that even if he doesn't score 30 anymore, he's still a dominant presence that can't be ignored by the opponent...even Magic Johnson is still puzzled and confused to this day as to how you can have a Shaquille O'Neal on your team and let him go! You see, Magic would've never let Kareem flee LA near his prime, to this day he still says, "I knew my job was to keep the big man happy, he made life so much easier for me." AI would never run Shaq out of town, McGrady would never run Shaq out of town, Lebron would kill to play with Shaq for one season if he could, Garnett would do the same. But for Kobe, the grass was greener on the other side; it's his call.
In all fairness, the Eastern Conference was piss-weak in the season Wade and Odom went to the playoffs. (4th seed, 42 wins). 42 wins wasn't even good enough for the 8th seed this season. The Lakers won 45 games and almost took out the 54 win Suns if not for a simple bounce off the rim. While there is no excuse for Kobe's bail out in game 7, there are always lines to read between. No right or wrong in this argument, but Shaq's presence is a major factor for both players. No one should deny that.
That laker team was basically a one trick pony team like t-mac's orlando magic. Maybe in the east I'd expect that team to make the playoffs but in the west I'm amazed they made it in. Because Houston underachieved and I hate to say it but with Utah's talent they should have made the playoffs too. Basically I feel the lakers would not have made it if we and Utah weren't riddled with injuries. I guess they didn't overachieve but took advantage of other team's bad luck. I don't think that laker team is better than our francis/yao/mobley year and yet they won 45 games somehow. I guess they overachieved in my mind because I didn't expect them to make the playoffs. After kobe you don't have much. You have talent in Odom but he basically took a huge backseat to kobe.
Assuming that he doesn't have Shaq or any other all star player on his team. Lets say if we could pick the Rockets future SG I would pick Kobe, But due to him getting older in the long run. I would pick Wade if we were trying to build for the future.
Here is how I see it. Do I choose a player who 1. has the ability to score 81, yet refuses to score when his team needs him the most? 2. drives the most dominating modern day center away from his team 3. drives away a coach who has 9 championship rings 4. gets into rape cases 5. held his team hostage during contract negotiations Or do I choose a player who is a model citizen, liked by everyone and pretty much SINGLE-HANDEDLY won the championship for his team.
Dwayne Wade is excellent, and in this series he proved that he is in the same category as Lebron, Kobe, T-Mac and AI. But the hype surrounding him after this championship run has become ridiculous. ESPN keeps mentioning the Wade vs. Jordan comparisons, THERE IS NO COMPARISON THERE. He's about 5 MVPs and 10 scoring titles short, to say the very least. Kobe is still clearly better than Wade. Let's look at Wade in this series, for example, NO DOUBLE TEAMS. Go back, check the highlights of his 4th quarter heroics, he kept facing guys 1 on 1 and scoring on them. If Kobe were in this situation, the defense would swarm him. Before these playoffs, Dwayne Wade was a very good player but really didn't dazzle the way any of those guys do on a nightly basis. Let's face it, when any of the 4 players I mentioned above get the ball in a close game situation, you just KNOW they're going to do something special, but Wade doesn't give you that same feeling. This is why he rarely faces double teams (to go along with having Shaq in the middle). And if we really have to argue about Kobe vs. Wade, one word puts Kobe lightyears ahead of DWade, DEFENSE. Look past the stats, Kobe makes all-defensive first team every year, Wade isn't even close. Oh, and someone mentioned that Wade got to the second round by himself with bad teammates? They beat CHARLOTTE, comparing that to T-mac and Kobe taking Detroit and Phoenix to 7 games is absurd. And that "hypothetical crap" is true, let Kobe face one-on-one coverage the entire game, and he'll beat you every night. I like Dwayne Wade's selfless approach to the game, but Kobe is still better. And I HATE Kobe.
Now i think i will choose Kobe, Kobe will be a better team player if he is in a team that suits for him.
Your saying Wade has worse team mates? When the Lakers won a championship? Your crazy Walker (all star), payton (all star), shaq (nuff said, zoey (all star), the list goes on.
