This is the ultimate question in professional hoops. Simply vote for which athlete you think is better overall. LeBron James vs. Kobe Bryant. Which is more dominating, which makes a bigger impact in individual games, etc. Consider consistency, leadership, everything. Remember to post your reasoning if you decide to post at all.
I am voting for LeBron, only because when I watch them play he appears more dominating. Kobe is of course amazing, but he seems more stoppable than LeBron.
Essentially the same scoring, more assists (to a considerably weaker supporting cast), slightly more offensive boards, more defensive boards, and in less minutes. Wait, I think I just described Dwayne Wade and Dwight Howard.
Kobe's experience and intelligence gives him the bump imo. LeBron is still growing as a player, while Kobe has peaked. That says a lot about LeBron as he may possibly have the potential to be better, but right now Kobe is better.
lebron is the better play right now. physically he's bigger and stronger then kobe ever was and he's got youth on his side. it would have been great to see a younger kobe vs current lebron.
however kobe has a better killer instinct at the end of games imo. granted lebron does the mj pass at the end thing and it can be great, but some times the alpha dog is supposed to be the alpha dog.
kobes' leadership abilities are overblown. if he learned to trust his teammates like mj or even lebron (who has an untrustable cast) kobe wouldn't have gotten blocked by hedo and forced into OT that game. he went 1 vs 3 for gods sake. you think mj or lebron isn't making that pass?
honestly, we've seen what type of bull kobe would pull if he was in lebrons shoes with a pretty suspect cast. he'd pout. demand to be traded and everything else under the sun until the basketball gods gave him gasol then ariza for free.
lebron has simply asked that the organization commit to winning. at least cleveland is trying although all their moves have been meh. lebron could easily have pulled the classic "trade me now, i quit" vince carter special if he wanted.
it's no shame to be the 2nd best player on the planet behind lebron. and it's not like kobe didn't have his moment in the sun as THE best player on the planet.
funny debate. People giving the edge to LeBron because he can currently pull off the same stuff Kobe got no end of hate for 2+ years ago.
Kobe has a better feel for the game than LeBron...an intangible element. He gives the impression on the court that he's in control, waiting for an opportune moment for his team to take over, whereas LeBron seems to be fighting to win. Kobe was busy fighting to win a couple years ago...i seem to remember people calling him out for being a terrible team mate, never mind that he had almost no supporting cast. You put the 2006-2007 Lakers in the East and they'd have taken a top seed over there too.
I'm not even sure LeBron is the better player in a 1 on 1 aspect right now. Kobe average similar numbers on the season while playing less minutes on average. In a better conference. With injuries. And he plays better defense.
As for "whining for a trade"...that was a calculated move and a brilliant/necessary one at that. It's the kind of thing LeBron should consider, except he's got the option to go free agent so it's less believable. Kobe forced Lakers management to make moves. Mangement that had been doing nothing constructive or aggressive suddenly had to step up and try to put a team together or lose their franchise player. Making that statement, almost certainly understanding the public backlash to come, displayed serious leadership qualities. Remember who else made a similar demand that same year? Paul Pierce. Notice what happened there?
Right now, I give the physical edge to Lebron just because he is in his prime physically and Kobe is 31 and has played over 1100 NBA games, and has some wear and tear going on. However, Kobe is clutch and takes the game over when he needs it, and he also has 4 rings which Lebron is nowhere near matching right now. When it's crunch time and you need one guy to take that last shot, I'm throwing the ball to Kobe way before Lebron.
gasol and odom are heads and shoulders above everyone else on the cavaliers cept lebron. big z? mo williams? delonte west? i mean did anyone on cleveland play even as well as ariza did? and ariza is your 4th option there. mo williams only made allstar because jameer nelson was injured for ****s sakes. ZERO ALL STARS for teammates.
let's face it, cleveland almost beat orlando and would have done it walking away had cleveland made a few 3's. whereas orlando was making a ridiculous amount of 3's that series.
lbj is nothing like kobe. it's clear his teammates like him and he's able to make the jordan-esque buzzer pass. something kobe still doesn't get. like i said 1 vs 3 at the end with 2 open teammates. that game where it went to ot and kobe hit the chair when he went back to the bench like a little punk.
and making excuses for kobe forcing a trade? gimme a break. he held the city hostage twice. when shaq was traded and when he almost went to chicago. regardless of who was right in both situations, how many times is your franchise guy going to pull **** like this? honestly. paul pierces' situation was different too. he toiled for a decade on bad celtic teams. kobe the princess already had 3 championships and probably 3 more he gave up because of his ego.
anyone else pulls that prima donna crap and he's vince carter. but kobe does it and it's because he's a competitor. there's no denying kobe's a great player. but like i said he's had his time in the sun and there isn't any shame in being the 2nd best player on the planet.
Dwight Howard is better than both of them. I can't really vote for either of them because I hate ball hogs a lot, and Kobe and Lebron are the best examples of ball hoggery. Also Lebron is overrated and overhyped.
Dwight Howard isn't comparable to those guys because he plays an entirely different game and is at a different position. But I wouldn't say he is anywhere near the skill level of those two considering he has no post moves, he is just extremely athletic and gets a lot of garbage off the rim.
And game 2 could have gone to the Magic if Lebron doesn't hit that shot, I don't see where you are going with this. The series was 4-1, it just wasn't close. The Magic had at least 2 games where they came back from huge double digit defecits. The Cavs couldn't close, Mo Williams revealed his vastly overrated, and the other guys played to their talents which isn't very good.
4 vs 0, really? You can say Kobe had Shaq but Shaq couldn't have won it without Kobe either. Most LeBron supporters say he had the worst team but if I recall during the regular season people were absolutely fawning over Lebron's supporting cast.
I voted LeBron because he is a funnier human being off the court. Kobe has the sense of humor of a can of ravioli.
Jordan in his prime would spank them both. And also hog the ball for more minutes than both Kobe an Lebron put together. Jordan once cloned himself 4 times to have his own team made up of himselves. Bad part was, none of the clones would pass the ball either.
Thats the thing with these guys....
Take ANY player with alot of court talent, then build 90% of your offensive plays around them...then give them 1000 games, and you get what we have. Two inflated stats mongering fantasy pinatas who we can beat up till the 3-pointers fall out.
Without Kobe, the Lakers are second rate at best. Without LeBron, same thing.
I like to see good TEAMS. Its a TEAM sport.
Kobe made 81 points one game...but the score at the end was 122 - 104 Lakers.
4 vs 0, really? You can say Kobe had Shaq but Shaq couldn't have won it without Kobe either. Most LeBron supporters say he had the worst team but if I recall during the regular season people were absolutely fawning over Lebron's supporting cast.
Or you could talk about how Kobe has been in the league three times as long as LeBron. That might be one of the reason....
Dwight Howard is better than both of them. I can't really vote for either of them because I hate ball hogs a lot, and Kobe and Lebron are the best examples of ball hoggery. Also Lebron is overrated and overhyped.
Lebron was ninth in the league in assists per game. Thats a real ball hog.
lets see here, kobe is the best player now, and lebron will not be the best until kobe retires, 4-0 says alot, and where i agree lebron has the lesser supporting cast then kobe, you had the no 1 seed in the playoffs, not just because lebron, but becase the rest of the team was playing good, it was all good when they swept to the conferene finals, just about how good the TEAM was, but when the magic came to town, nobody else showed up, lebron got his team the open shots, for some reason i dont really lk LBJ but i wont deny he is a monster on the court and until he either gets better consisten team mates or they play better, i wont want to compare a one man show to a guy who has other weapons, thing is, dont say lebron is overrated, it was his teammates, and they need to learn like the lakers did, that things dont come easy, look for the cavs to be stronger next year, unless they just dont learn
LeBron is better. People were fawning over his cast in the regular season because they looked like they were slightly better, but they sucked against elite teams really badly for a number of reasons.
- When Mike James needs to coach the Cavaliers are doomed
- Nobody besides LeBron is better than average on that team
The Cavs were giving Ben Wallace major minutes. Ben Wallace, people.
Mo Williams as All-Star alternate was about as good a choice, in hindsight, as picking Ramon Sessions. James had a good playoffs, but the rest of his team fell off a cliff, and he couldn't carry them through like he did the entire regular season. I think he might've worn on himself too much throughout the season. Kobe wouldn't have been able to either. Heck, Kobe didn't ... numerous times. Just because Kobe had three people [Ariza,Odom,Gasol] on his team step up and Lebron had 0 doesn't mean that Kobe is better.
Having a second or third good player makes a difference. Ask the Spurs.
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I am voting for LeBron, only because when I watch them play he appears more dominating. Kobe is of course amazing, but he seems more stoppable than LeBron.
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however kobe has a better killer instinct at the end of games imo. granted lebron does the mj pass at the end thing and it can be great, but some times the alpha dog is supposed to be the alpha dog.
kobes' leadership abilities are overblown. if he learned to trust his teammates like mj or even lebron (who has an untrustable cast) kobe wouldn't have gotten blocked by hedo and forced into OT that game. he went 1 vs 3 for gods sake. you think mj or lebron isn't making that pass?
honestly, we've seen what type of bull kobe would pull if he was in lebrons shoes with a pretty suspect cast. he'd pout. demand to be traded and everything else under the sun until the basketball gods gave him gasol then ariza for free.
lebron has simply asked that the organization commit to winning. at least cleveland is trying although all their moves have been meh. lebron could easily have pulled the classic "trade me now, i quit" vince carter special if he wanted.
it's no shame to be the 2nd best player on the planet behind lebron. and it's not like kobe didn't have his moment in the sun as THE best player on the planet.
Kobe has a better feel for the game than LeBron...an intangible element. He gives the impression on the court that he's in control, waiting for an opportune moment for his team to take over, whereas LeBron seems to be fighting to win. Kobe was busy fighting to win a couple years ago...i seem to remember people calling him out for being a terrible team mate, never mind that he had almost no supporting cast. You put the 2006-2007 Lakers in the East and they'd have taken a top seed over there too.
I'm not even sure LeBron is the better player in a 1 on 1 aspect right now. Kobe average similar numbers on the season while playing less minutes on average. In a better conference. With injuries. And he plays better defense.
As for "whining for a trade"...that was a calculated move and a brilliant/necessary one at that. It's the kind of thing LeBron should consider, except he's got the option to go free agent so it's less believable. Kobe forced Lakers management to make moves. Mangement that had been doing nothing constructive or aggressive suddenly had to step up and try to put a team together or lose their franchise player. Making that statement, almost certainly understanding the public backlash to come, displayed serious leadership qualities. Remember who else made a similar demand that same year? Paul Pierce. Notice what happened there?
let's face it, cleveland almost beat orlando and would have done it walking away had cleveland made a few 3's. whereas orlando was making a ridiculous amount of 3's that series.
lbj is nothing like kobe. it's clear his teammates like him and he's able to make the jordan-esque buzzer pass. something kobe still doesn't get. like i said 1 vs 3 at the end with 2 open teammates. that game where it went to ot and kobe hit the chair when he went back to the bench like a little punk.
and making excuses for kobe forcing a trade? gimme a break. he held the city hostage twice. when shaq was traded and when he almost went to chicago. regardless of who was right in both situations, how many times is your franchise guy going to pull **** like this? honestly. paul pierces' situation was different too. he toiled for a decade on bad celtic teams. kobe the princess already had 3 championships and probably 3 more he gave up because of his ego.
anyone else pulls that prima donna crap and he's vince carter. but kobe does it and it's because he's a competitor. there's no denying kobe's a great player. but like i said he's had his time in the sun and there isn't any shame in being the 2nd best player on the planet.
Except where both games 1 and 4 easily could have gone the Cavs way had anyone on the team other than LeBron shown up.
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And game 2 could have gone to the Magic if Lebron doesn't hit that shot, I don't see where you are going with this. The series was 4-1, it just wasn't close. The Magic had at least 2 games where they came back from huge double digit defecits. The Cavs couldn't close, Mo Williams revealed his vastly overrated, and the other guys played to their talents which isn't very good.
4 vs 0, really? You can say Kobe had Shaq but Shaq couldn't have won it without Kobe either. Most LeBron supporters say he had the worst team but if I recall during the regular season people were absolutely fawning over Lebron's supporting cast.
Jordan in his prime would spank them both. And also hog the ball for more minutes than both Kobe an Lebron put together. Jordan once cloned himself 4 times to have his own team made up of himselves. Bad part was, none of the clones would pass the ball either.
Thats the thing with these guys....
Take ANY player with alot of court talent, then build 90% of your offensive plays around them...then give them 1000 games, and you get what we have. Two inflated stats mongering fantasy pinatas who we can beat up till the 3-pointers fall out.
Without Kobe, the Lakers are second rate at best. Without LeBron, same thing.
I like to see good TEAMS. Its a TEAM sport.
Kobe made 81 points one game...but the score at the end was 122 - 104 Lakers.
Take his 81 points away, and the rest of his team scored 41 points. That is a pathetic Team.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=260122013
And against who? The Raptors?? Pleeeease.
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Or you could talk about how Kobe has been in the league three times as long as LeBron. That might be one of the reason....
Lebron was ninth in the league in assists per game. Thats a real ball hog.
- When Mike James needs to coach the Cavaliers are doomed
- Nobody besides LeBron is better than average on that team
The Cavs were giving Ben Wallace major minutes. Ben Wallace, people.
Mo Williams as All-Star alternate was about as good a choice, in hindsight, as picking Ramon Sessions. James had a good playoffs, but the rest of his team fell off a cliff, and he couldn't carry them through like he did the entire regular season. I think he might've worn on himself too much throughout the season. Kobe wouldn't have been able to either. Heck, Kobe didn't ... numerous times. Just because Kobe had three people [Ariza,Odom,Gasol] on his team step up and Lebron had 0 doesn't mean that Kobe is better.
Having a second or third good player makes a difference. Ask the Spurs.
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan