by kingjames23 on Tue Nov 23, 2010 9:00 am
actually guys, its kind of hard to say who is better, considering kobe is slightly past his prime and has accomplished so much already, and lebron is still a young buck with years of potential championship runs ahead of him even once kobe retires. its as silly as the arguments back in the 80's about jordan vs magic, or jordan vs bird.
of course magic and bird are better than MJ because they have more nba titles... if the year is 1990 still...
where is the logic in that?
are we talking about a player's stats? on very different teams? with different chemistry? different players who specialize in different areas? with different coaching strategies and playbooks?
it took MJ 7 years to get a championship yes? did the bulls aquire players to compliment jordan's game so that they could win titles? hell yes! Pippen? Grant? Rodman? Jud Buechler? ok, just kidding on that one...
did kobe land in a good situation early in his career? with shaq in his prime? hell yes! did kobe struggle when he didnt have great role players around him? yes! did kobe and the lakers start winning when the right pieces started coming together? yes!
did lebron make the right choice? who knows. only time will tell, but to fault him for wanting to win by joining 2 other allstars... when kobe, still paired with shaq, enlisted malone and payton and couldnt get it done... and then got gasol and artest on his team and then did get it done...? oh i get it, wade and bosh are young.... so were pippen and grant.... except nobody knoew how good those two were yet...
the point is basketball is a team game. the only way to tell for sure if kobe or lebron is better at this point, would be to trade them, straight up for each other and compare thier numbers for each team, and if they won a title or not. not gonna happen of course.
they play different positions for one thing. kobe is a sg, lebron is a sf
kobe has more ways to score, more moves for getting open, better handles
kobe is a better perimiter defender, he puts you in a phonebooth and says "dribble your way out"
lebron is more athletic at this point and thus makes more "spectacular" offensive and defensive plays.
lebron is more likely to gamble on defense to get the block or steals.
kobe has a killer instinct and is clutch
lebron hasnt yet developed a killer mentality, but can still be clutch
kobe is more selfish, but has learned to trust his teammates more. he's more like jordan mentality than magic mentality...
lebron is less selfish with the ball, he's more like magic than jordan (mentality), but with a skillset to rival both in thier youth.
lebron gets more rebounds due to his size and athletic abilities and because he can play every damn position on the floor.
kobe is a pure shooting guard, its not his role to go after rebounds as much as lebron does and doesnt have the frame to go and bang on the inside with the big guys.
they both play at a high level. they both excell at different aspects of the game. save this argument for when both careers are finished.
everyone is entitled to an opinion, but mine is that its still too early to tell, and its all up to lebron really. kobe has solidified his legacy already and has a few years left to add to it. lebron has a decade or more left to prove himself. give it a rest.