Considering he quit in Game 7, I put a great portion of the blame on him. Players are never supposed to quit, especially your star player. I give him full props for dragging a scrub team to the postseason and for going up 3-1, but if you are up 3-1 and you don't close out then the star typically gets most of the blame. Ask T-Mac if you don't believe me.
If you want to say Kobe is better I'm not gonna disagree, but it's close. But if you are going to keep going the title route, at least acknowledge that each team Kobe won a title on was both of these: - at the least one of the top 5 talented teams in the league - better than any team LeBron has ever been on Kobe led a team to the ship last year, but that team also had the most supporting talent in the league. The only close case was Boston and KG was injured. If LeBron was on the Lakers I still think they win the title. Do you honestly not think he would? Do you honestly see Kobe taking any of LeBron's Cavs teams any further than LeBron took them? You are pumping Kobe for getting some scrubs to the playoffs....please look at the roster that LeBron got to the Finals. Granted he was coming out of a weak East so it was a little easier.
KB used precise mid-range to pound Spurs 2 seasons ago. And just one season ago when LBJ faced that same team, embarrassing sweep. LBJ's game is about overpowering opposition into hoop (which he's really good) and shooting 3 (which he's OK). His mid-range game is poor, he's below 40% in that range. When Magic crowded inside and challenge outside, he can't do the damage in mid-range with single coverage, that's why they failed. Now give you Gasol and Bynum clogging the lane all night long, LBJ will either be ineffective, or he'll force Gasol and Bynum on high post, as Shaq and Z are doing. And you have to be in delusion to think that'd work. No, LBJ wouldn't get the stats he gets in a triangle offense, nor does he know how to run it. If Nash doesn't know how to play with a big center, I doubt LBJ will get it overnight with 2.
i agree kobe had more individually talented teams, but if you know basketball and unless you are isaiah thomas, youll understand that role players and right pieces are more important than talent. Lebron with a bunch of individual players even on that lakers team with that offense would not have done as well as kobe on that same team bc of his skill-set. so as much as we like to simplify and say iverson took a bad team to the finals, point is they built that team around him with shooters and mainly defenders to make up for his gunning ways, larry brown put it together and they went to fhinals as iverson as the leader, but if you took out dikembe or aaron mckike they wouldnt have gone as far just as if you took out iverson(obviously he was the leader) but they were all needed for that team to win now if you put iverson on the nuggets with that much more talent, it didn't guarantee a better team, bc its all about fit...and thats hoops, so are lakers more individually better than cavs? yes, if lebron was on lakers would they win the title? as much as stat huggers would like to say so, no, his stats would be drastically down bc the offense is equal opportunity, so would his assists, his driving which his main source of scoring would be down with bynum and gasol clogging paint, and him playing more off-ball and relying on his jump-shot like the offense calls for.... this discredits your argument, i hope i articulated it well, sorry if i did not, don't feel like proofreading, but hopefully you get the point
i think kobe's the best, as the OP said, the player seem to think that too as do the legends and coaches...but funny thing is, if we get away from our biases....last year Dwade was the best player, this year Carmello is the best player, if carmelo develops on defense, I think hes undeniably the most DANGERous player and if you start a team, believe it or not, you have 3 young powerful players in Lebron, Chris Paul, Dwight, those are the youngest players who can anchor a team, and you go with Dwight first bc big men are the easiest to big around and change the other teams game plan the most and garner the most attention, then chris paul bc point guards control the game the most and heh as it, and then lebron, obviously kobe is knocked out bc of age, but as of now, closer, intangibles, just deadliness, mamba takes it
James is the champion of hype while Kobe, as despicable as he is as a person, from a purely basketball point of view, is a real NBA champion. If James is as good as he is hyped, then there is no need for so many excuses. When Jordan was regularly being bashed, literally, by the Pistons' Bad Boys, he would always get back up and dared the Pistons to bash him again. He eventually conquered the Bad Boys and sent them to oblivion. That folks is a real champion. I have not seen James come even close to that. Kobe has also overcome so many odds, although not even close to Jordan, but you can say that he is a champion too in his own right. James' only claim to any championship is that he was crowned "King James" by the media, especially ESPN, before he even played a single NBA game. The verdict, no contest for Kobe (only from a basketball standpoint).
I love how everyone loves accentuating the fact that Kobe would be nothing w/o Pau, when in reality Pau had not even won a playoff game prior to coming to the Lakers. And when has it become difficult to grasp that every superstar player (w/ exception of Hakeem situation) had needed a #2 player to get to that next level.
I love how all these questions cater to LeBron's team and the make up of it, lets compare them as PLAYERS and THEIR accomplishments - as it should be: If you look at this question objectively and free from any sort of bias, it seems almost preposterous to even ask the question to begin with. Aside from a handful of clutch performances and a lengthy highlight reel, Lebron James has accomplished very little thus far. If you want to talk strictly about careers, the discussion is asinine (at very best). Kobe has 4 NBA Titles (Lebron has 0); Kobe has an NBA Finals MVP (Lebron has never won an NBA Finals game); Kobe has 2 NBA Scoring Titles (Lebron has 1); Kobe has more NBA Finals appearances than Lebron has Playoff appearances (6-4); Kobe has been All NBA First-Team 7 times (Lebron 3) and All NBA First-Team Defense 7 times (Lebron 1). I could go on, but I won’t. I think we all see where this is headed. Kobe wins in a rout. Here's categories that are fair in assessing the two: Individual Accomplishments: Kobe won an MVP (’07-08), a Finals MVP (’08-09), was All NBA First-Team (twice) and All NBA First-Team Defense (twice). Lebron also won an MVP (’08-09), was All NBA First-Team (twice) and All NBA First-Team Defense (once). In just the last two seasons, Kobe is up a Finals MVP (Lebron has never won a Finals game) and an All NBA First-Team Defense award. That gives Kobe the edge in individual accomplishments. Team Accomplishments: This is where it starts to get out of hand for the Lebron camp. Kobe has 4 NBA Championships (Lebron has 0), two NBA Finals appearances (Lebron has 0) and a 7-1 record in playoff series (Lebron is 3-2). Additionally, the Lakers have a regular season winning percentage of .744 (Cleveland is at .677). It’s not hard to see that Kobe and Lakers win this section over Lebron and the Cavs in a landslide. By The Numbers: Kobe (47%, 36%, 27/5/5) vs. Lebron (48%, 33%, 29/7/7). This is the only advantage Lebron has in the debate (and it’s by the slimmest of margins). He has posted slightly better numbers than Kobe over the past couple of seasons (and to consider that the offenses that they run allows LBJ to accumulate his numbers). Let’s give that to him and concede the point. O Kobe 2, Lebron 1 | Final. (And it really wasn’t even that close.)
when lebron is finished, the only thing kobe will have over lebron is possibly NBA rings. lebron will have more individual accolades than anyone of his generation when it's all said and done. MVPs, all-nba, all-nba defenses...
Lebron all day everday. If I had to choose one guy to start a team, I would take him over Kobe anyday.
the end of this MIA/LAL game showed one big difference between kobe and lebron. kobe once again gets a terrible shot off in a last second situation. he managed to pull the antoine walker special and bank in the 3 but the D forced him into a bad shot again even though they were only down 2 (i realize he only had 3 seconds but it's part of a trend). it's really perplexing. from about the 3 minute mark to the 15 second mark of the 4th quarter, kobe is about as deadly as anyone we've ever seen. he gets shots he wants and even when he doesn't, he makes tough ones. but at the end of the game, the lakers never seem to get a good shot. either kobe can't even get the ball and some other laker throws up a terrible shot or kobe dribbles himself into trouble or he waits for the perfect shot, which doesn't materialize and has to fling up something really bad. and i say all this as a kobe/laker fan. he's just not good at getting easy shots for himself or teammates at the end of a game. whereas lebron is one of the best i've ever seen at either getting a good shot for himself (he's had a bunch of game-winning layups and nobody gets layups to win a game) or a teammate (always getting wide open corner 3's for teammates) at the very end of a game.
