If the goal is to win the games, Kobe is clearly better. Thought Lebron fans have always been more interested in stats.
This is funny. You replace Heat's LeBron with 2006 and 2007 Kobe. They'd have 2 rings already, period.
That would be a horribly imbakanced team with Kobe and Wade running isos and jacking up jumpers like a dueling piano bar. Might as well throw Carmelo Anthony and JR Rider in it too if you want to create an all black hole squad while Bosh hides from meteor strikes.
Not so sure about that. Depends on if Kobe decides to shoot them out of the series, like he did in 2004 when he got upset with a better team.
Unlike LeBron, Kobe can play without the ball. He also has much better post up skills. And he knows how to play with bigman so Bosh doesn't have to be just a jump shooter. Heat won it all with overwhelming talents, not because they clicked. The 2004 Lakers had no one to space the floor for Kobe in finals after Malone was down. Shaq was great but he's not better than Wade and Bosh combined. 2004 Kobe was also plagued by surgery and lawsuit and he didn't condition himself in the offseason. Not the case for Kobe in 2006 and 2007. That was a guy making 50pts a night if you don't double team him. And no, Kobe may shoot a team out of the series in 2004. But he at least died hard trying. He didn't quit like LeBron last year. LeBron quit once he realized he had no chance to be FMVP and he's gonna be a proven sidekick. Had Kobe been like that, Shaq wouldn't have any FMVP right now.
People seem to forget how great Kobe was. He was a pheomenal scorer with that nasty killer instinct. LeBron can't put the ball in the basket nearly as much as Kobe could but LeBron is a much better passer, rebounder, defender. But right now? Not even close
Yup. Pretty much all this^. Lebron's ballz seemed to have dropped late in these playoffs. Let's see how long it lasts. As of now, Lebron has a lot of work to do to be the scorer Kobe was.
And he will still shoot you out of a series, like he did in 2004. Kobe has blown it with a more stacked team, so to act as if he would have for sure got it done in Miami is funny. He blew it with a better team. Um, which of Kobe's rings were won on a team that wasn't overwhelmingly more talented than the competition? Definately not the 3-peat Lakers. Definately not the 09 team, when Houston took them to 7 and they got the Magic in the Finals. And definately not the 10 team when they got Boston with no Perkins for G7. What's the difference between garbage production because you don't try hard and garbage production because you are ballhogging and ignoring your teammates? The end result is still garbage production. I don't care how hard Kobe is trying when he is shooting in the mid 30% range and jacking more shots than everyone else on the team, mainly the C shooting like 60%!!! But if you think LA lost in 04 because they didn't have Malone to space the floor then surely you can excuse LeBron for not ever winning in Cleveland. LA had enough to win that title....Kobe just shot them out of the series.
Does he now? At the same stage of their careers (9 years) LeBron has scored 5,011 more points than Kobe. His career average is 28 a night, compared to 22 a night for Kobe at the same stage. He's shot over 47% every year but his rookie year, and he's been over 50% the last 3 seasons (53% this year). Kobe has never shot over 47%. So yeah, I guess if you think a guy who has scored less points, and is less efficient putting the ball in the basket is a better scorer....then sure.
It probably depends on whether or not Wade was willing to take a facilitating role or not. If Wade was willing to defer to Kobe I think they get the last two rings.
The better athlete? Lebron hands down. At any point in their careers. People have to remember, the guy was anointed in high school. He was the #1 pick at 16. Kobe was a Philly prep-star. Raw, and questioned. That being said, so far, only Kobe has come close to matching Jordan. Kobe has shown what Lebron has not. And that is one hell of a killer instinct. Kobe has been in the league longer, and thus his career and legacy cemented. Kobe was more worried about flash early in his career, with his in game dunks and crossovers. But once he matured, he got his fundamentals down to a T. And at times you knew he was toying with Phil when he didn't feel like playing hard. LeBron still has a ways to go. You can't compared a player in his prime' to another player clearly on the other side. LeBron still has a ways to go. But the Brofest he went into, will sort of always be there. Like it or not, he picked and chose his path to the finals in a weak ass Eastern Conference. Kobe can at least say he went past San Antonio, Portland, Sacramento, and Phoenix in their hey days. Not the Heat playing to the level of competition, who had no business even threatening Miami.
This might be the single stupidest excerpt I've seen yet, and I've been reading CNN's Supreme Court Healthcare fail coverage all morning. In a word, no, you're just so incredibly wrong it's embarrassing. Do you also think that the problem with Stockton-Malone was that they didn't get their teammates involved, or that the problem with Hakeem Olajuwon was that he spent too much time in the post, or that Ben Wallace wasted too much energy on defense? Go back to Lakersunderground with this embarrassmetn - it's also the one of the few places on the planet where people don't tend to realize how much better LeBron is than a less diversely-skilled player like Kobe.
Lebron is like Shaq, relies on his physical strength rather than shooting skills, which works extremely well before he turns 30.
Which part of his statement did you disagree with so strongly? You don't think Kobe is a better off the ball and post up player than Lebron or you don't think Kobe fits better with big men?
Sorry but the whole direction of the argument that Kobe has a more diverse set of skills than a 6-8 260lb PF/SF/SG/PG who has 3 of the top 10 most productive seasons in NBA history, (Wilt and MJ have the other 7, and Kobe has 0 of those, in case you're counting...)is so stupid it justifies only derision and insults and mockery.... LeBron just put up an epic all-timer of a performance loads better than anything that Kobe has ever done, and just dragged his team through the postseason by serving as 1) the point guard/offense initiator 2) the primary scorer 3) the primary faciliatator/assister 4) the leading rebounder, 5) the primary low post threat, and 6) the top defender when needed against the league's premier pure scorer in the finals... ...to say then that "kobe comes off a screen better!" or that "Kobe knows how to play with big men better because Shaq takes less jumpers than Bosh!" just makes you look like a complete idiot and speaks for itself, in terms of sheer desperate stupidity.
Eh certain parts of Kobe's game are better than Lebron's even if Lebron is the better all around player but I won't really argue about what Kobe could or couldn't have done with the Heat over the past two years. However, I love how Rockets fans don't even appreciate how great Hakeem was back in the day. There is no way Lebron has three seasons that are better than Dream's 89-90 year. Hakeem averaged 24 ppg 14 rpg, 2.1 spg and 4.6 bpg that year.
The answer is pace. That was the tail-end of the Showtime era, so Hakeem played on a team that had 101 possessions per game taht year (contrast with 94 by 1995)....LeBron's teams pace in around 88-91 in his MVP seasons. LeBron's 27-30 points, 7-9 rebounds, 6-8 assists on 10%+ fewer tries, with better shooting is better by most formulations.
I didn't realize relying on physical strength was a bad thing in an athletic competition. FYI, Shaq almost won an MVP at 32, and broke down because he didn't take care of his body.
