It is difficult. When they were both at their peaks, Duncan was playing on stacked teams while Kobe was playing with Odom and a bunch of dudes who had zero business playing in the NBA. I really believe if Kobe was on squads which did not have D-Leaguers in their starting lineup, he would have more rings and Duncan less.
I love how everybody is talking about how Kobe has only won with strong supporting casts but ignoring the fact that Duncan has had incredible supporting casts throughout his entire career...
the 2002-2003 spurs were a great cast? young tony parker (who wasn't near the level that he is now) that shot 40% on only 14.7 ppg the entire postseason and stephen jackson who shot 42% on 12.8 ppg? kobe won his first nba championship as a role player. he was basically jr smith in 2000. 15.6 ppg on .367% shooting. luckily he had the most dominate player of his generation carry him to his first ring while averaging 38/17 i
NOTHING like Hakeem. This post is highly offensive on a Rockets forum. He had Parker (averaged 16 PPG on 46%FG during the reg season), nice defensive wings (Bowen/Stephen Jackson/Ginobli), good defenders/rebounders up front (even past his prime Admiral was still a solid shotblocker/rebounder, Malik Rose was solid as hell too). The casts which Kobe had during the mid-2000s is laughable that they were even in the NBA, let alone playoff race (and pretty much always in the playoffs). Those teams had Kwame Brown, Luke Walton and Smush Parker IN THE STARTING LINEUP....
2003 duncan carried that team alone. Seriusly his finals performance that year was one of the , if not the best performance on the nba finals ever. I mean seriously, how can u average over 6 games, 24.2 pgg, 17 rpg, 5.3 apg and 5.3 bpg. He still holds the nba finals records for most block on a series and he didnt even played 7 games. He completely destroyed kenyon martin ( he wasnt that bad on 2003). Hell he almost got a quadruple double on the finals , with 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assint and 8 blocks. He already got a game one with 32 points, 20 rebounds and 7 blocks. Peopple tend to forget how dominant duncan was and how he atracted double and triple teams on his prime. Kobe never had such dominant games in the playoffs.
Parker had a .468 TS% in the playoffs, that's horrifyingly bad. Trying to give credit to Parker in 2003 is like saying that Lebron's current supporting cast is great because he has a big name player in Wade who played well in the regular season, never mind that Wade is playing like dog**** right now.
Lakers were coming off a 3 peat... not to mention 2003 that was the worst supporting cast they've had...Horry shot 5% from 3 point land in the playoffs. Spurs No. 3 to 10 players were twice as good as Lakers No. 3 to 10 players. SAS also had good depth, especially on ondefense Spurs dont get by Dallas in 2003 playoffs if Dirk played the last 2 games of the series, people conveniently forget that
Kobe was the closing out games while Shaq either bricked free throws or sat on the bench due to foul trouble. They both needed each other. Thats not riding somebody's coattails, thats depending on each other to carry the load when the time comes. Duncan sat out a whole 4th quarter last series and the Spurs STILL won. Why? Because the Spurs are Tony Parker's team. Did you watch the Lakers this season? You didn't see Kobe put the Lakers on his shoulders? At this point in his career, him playing 40 minutes a game fighting through injuries is willing his team. When everybody thought the Lakers were done Kobe played phenomenal.
Duncan had better stats, he won more, and he was a better teammate and leader. And if you could start a team with one or the other, isn't it obvious who you take? This debate seems pretty open and shut to me.
The Lakers without Shaq and with Kobe according to SRS weren't a playoff team. The Lakers with Shaq and with Derek Fisher in place of Kobe were around the level of the 2009 Magic. Yeah, there's a slight difference.
Kobe had a weak team for 3 whole seasons b4 demanding a trade and then becoming instant contenders and eventual 2 time champs with the addition of Gasol and Phil. But those 3 wasted seasons were his fault for running Shaq out. People acting like he played with smush parker his whole prime.
This. Kobe had a weak team, but it was what he wanted, he wanted to be like MJ and didn't want a HOF big man on the team. Well 3 years later he was demanding a trade because he realized he couldn't hack it on his own. What if the Gasol trade didn't happen, will Kobe even have rings on his own? I highly doubt it, Bynum's always injured and Marc Gasol wasn't good enough to go toe-to-toe with the Celts during that time. Really, there is no comparison, TD is the better leader and franchise guy. No wonder he's regarded as the PF GOAT, while Kobe will forever be seen as a poor man's MJ.
