That's a decent comparison. That said, Lebron's career averages are better than what Kobe did in that year. Lebron is far and a way a better player than Kobe, and now that he has a good team finally, he'll add winning to his resume (the only thing Kobe has over him thanks to being on great teams for all but three years of his career). I don't get people bashing on Lebron for getting out of Cleveland, who never got him any real help (same thing Kobe was crying about back in 2005-2007). Yeah, the way he did it with the ESPN announcement was classless but that's not what people are most vocal about. They don't like that there's a new superteam in town (that isn't the Fakers).
notice how he didn't answer that. we all know the cavs will be one of the worst 5 teams in the L. from top reg. season team to lottery. that should further tell you how great lebron is.
i didn't think lebron was better than kobe that year b/c his jumpshot was still subpar and his defense wasn't all-nba. i thought lebron was the best player 2 years ago till now. i think he's bar none the best player and kobe/wade are actually fairly far behind.
Good one. Kobe has had teams with good shooters (the threepeat squad surrounded Shaq with reliables like Fisher, Fox, and Horry who could all drain the longball) and he's always had the best bigmen in the game to get him single-coverage, yet he's never shot over 46%. Even in the Olympics when he had a bunch of great shooters and the best talent ever he shot... 46%! It's not rocket science: he could shoot over 50% if he just took better shots but he is a chucker and can't help himself.
Because he always had some bigman to clog his lane? Like Shaq and Bynum? How long does it take to see Shaq's the odd one in LeBron's system?
IMO Lebron was most certainly better than Kobe that year. Statistically he was better and he took a worse team (IMO) deeper, in fact, almost upsetting the 64-18 Pistons with a band of scrubs (that he took to the Finals the following year). I can't wait to see what Lebron does with real talent on his team, finally.
bynum clogs the paint? he didn't play much in the finals and kobe shot 40%. paul opens up the paint b/c of his versatility to play outside and make the J. so no, tat's not the reason.
Why doesn't Kobe's FG% go up when Bynum is out then? Gasol hardly "clogs the lane". And honestly, if you think having Shaq made Kobe's FG% decline you don't know dick about basketball. Guys who draw triple-teams make everyone else shoot better.
We'll hear you LeBron didn't have good role players to help him one year from now, coz he only had Jordan and Grant, but he didn't have Longley, Kerr, you named it.
Kobe shoots 45% because he is a chucker. It's as simple as that. In the Finals he shoots even worse (historically bad, like 40%) because he takes even worse shots.
Born and raised in Houston but been living in LA the last 3 years so I've got to see a lot of Lakers games. Over the past 3, which is how long the Lakers have had Pau, Kobe has missed a total of 9 games and 4 of those came at the end of this year when the Lakers had the number one seed locked up. So that is 5 real games where the Lakers have played without Kobe since they started competing for titles. And with a guess that you aren't from LA and probably weren't able to see all of those games I will say that there is a good chance you've only seem them play 2 or 3 games over the past 3 yrs when they had to play without him. So my question to you is have you or anybody REALLY seen the Lakers play without Kobe? Because if you are talking about a 5 game stretch where he was out last year you are assuming a lot from a very small sample.
Yes, it does, because Kobe couldn't rely on drive to get his points, unlike LeBron or Wade. And Kobe couldn't play down low, when Gasol was out, he did that and he's shooting 48%. And Lakers had better offense last year, simply because Bynum was out, and Ariza was a better shooter than Artest.
Nope, not from me. Assuming the team stays healthy, if Lebron, Wade & co don't win at least 4 titles in the next 6 years, I'll consider him to be a big choker. They'll be the small favorites next year and bigger favorites every year after that as the team gels and they have the MLE to use on better role players. Having the best two players in the league both in their prime at the same time is amazing and nothing but championships is acceptable. Lebron finally has real pressure because he can't use the excuse of a crappy team (which is what he's had his whole career) for losing.
dude, i grew up in orange county. i've watched te lakers on kcal and fsw. and i went to every laker-rocket game there were for 3 years before i moved up to sf. now i got LP to follow the best players in the L, besides rockets. and i posted the games kobe missed this year. they went 6-3 without him.
Outside of the three seasons where Kobe didn't have much help (eg, he had what Lebron had his whole career), his teams have had just as good of a record when he was out as in. This doesn't mean he isn't a great player, but that he's always had stacked teams that could make up for his absence.
you do know wade played with shaq when shaq still averaged 20 points that year right? he shot 49.5%. so no, keep searching. PS - the years kobe didn't have shaq or gasol, he shot 43.3%, 45%, and 46%. so no, keep searching again.
Kobe drove constantly during the threepeat. That's how he got most of his points. He played a lot more like Wade than he does now. He can't drive now because his athleticism is shot, so he relies on his mid-range game, which is quite good. He would shoot close to 50% if he didn't take stupid shots.
Ouch. OWNED. Wade, Lebron, and Bosh are all going to shoot over 50% this year, probably well over 50%. In fact, Mike Miller probably will as well if they can get him on the floor with two of them. That is going to be some kind of team.
Game 1 - They beat a Portland team w/o Roy Game 2 - They beat a Spurs team at home that was playing terribly at the time (6-5 in the month of Feb) Game 3 - Beat a quality Utah team Game 4 - Beat the Warriors Game 5 - Lost a close one to the Celtics So that's 4-1 with 2 quality wins if you count them beating a struggling Spurs team. That is a very small sample to go as far as saying that they are a good team w/o Kobe. I'm not even going to mention the last 4 games of the season that meant very little.
