well, i'm ok with it. anyway, i'm gonna voice out my comments here. in nba.com, there's a post there asking ppl to decide who's better. is it...
...kobe bryant of los angeles lakers? or...
...lebron james of cleveland cavaliers?before i start my long post, i'm going to state that i'm a kobe supporter and a lebron hater, thus this post is going to be bias. however, i'm won't totally degrade lebron james. i'm quite a fair person, i'll try to make this post as neutral as possible.
first. let us take a good look a statistic first.
kobe bryant's stats for the current season.
points per game - 27.9
field goals % - 0.455
3 points % - 0.357
free throw % - 0.860
rebounds per game - 6.3
assists per game - 4.9
steals per game - 1.9
blocks per game - o.7
kobe bryant's stats throughout his career.
ppg - 24.7
fg% - 0.453
3p% - 0.338
ft% - 0.839
rpg - 5.2
apg - 4.5
spg - 1.5
bpg - 0.6
then, lebron james' stats for the current season.
ppg - 30.7
fg% - 0.486
3p% - 0.329
ft% - 0.706
rpg - 7.6
apg - 8.1
spg - 1.9
bpg - 1.5
lebron james' stats throughout his career
ppg - 26.9
fg% - 0.464
3p% - 0.327
ft% - 0.731
rpg - 6.7
apg - 6.5
spg - 1.8
bpg - 0.7
conclusion after looking through the stats? statistically wise, lebron james is the better player this season and throughout his career. well, for that, lebron james is a better player. hands down. he won the statistic battle so far. but allow me to remind us something, lebron james was a starter in cleveland since his first game, kobe bryant isn't. u might have thought that lebron james is seriously a better player than kobe bryant huh? well, not actually.
see. lebron james is a first draft pick and first draft pick is always given to some of the worst team in the nba to try and evenly spread out the talents. so top teams will just choose their new players last. understooded? here's the prob. lebron james is talented, i don't deny that. so when he went to cleveland, no one will have the skills and talents to fight for his starting spot since cleveland back then was the worst team in nba. reasonable?
as for kobe bryant, he's the 13th draft pick. he was drafted by new orleans hornets but traded to los angeles lakers for vlade divac. at that time in lakers, they are already a very talented team thats underacheiving. they had their own all star guards, eddie jones and nick van excel. so give it a thought, do you think kobe bryant stands a chance in fighting for the starting spots? i don't think so. even if he is better than eddie jones and nick van excel at that point in time, he's still lacking in experience in the nba. do you think coaches will let kobe start? still no. he was on the bench for 2 years. as for lebron james, cleveland had no choice but to start lebron if they want to win.
after eddie jones and nick van excel was traded away, kobe bryant simply exploded during his 3rd year averaging 19.9 ppg. second year as the starting shooting guard, kobe bryant had his first championship ring with 22.5 ppg. so let us just take away kobe's first 2 years on the bench and make things fairer.
this is kobe bryant's stats after the first 2 years is taken away.
ppg - 27.6
rpg - 5.8
apg - 5.2
spg - 1.7
bpg - 0.6
the stats looks pretty close isn't it? so, does lebron james still has his walkover win in the statistics battle? answer is no.
stats aside for now. let's talk about championship rings. by kobe's 4th year in nba, he won one championship ring with shaq. so in order for lebron to be on par with kobe in this category, lebron has to win a championship ring this year as its lebron's 4th year in nba. lebron's fans may go, "come on!kobe has shaq, the most dominant center back then when kobe won his first championship!" here's my reply. do you think shaq can win the championship without kobe's help? if yes, why isn't shaq winning before kobe became lakers' starting guard? so in this category, lebron hasn't lost yet. he needs to win one ring and i think its possible for him since cleveland was in the finals last year. prob is that he just has to figure out how to defeat the spurs in the best of 7 series.
thats all for championship rings and lets move on to their current team. why is lebron able to rack up so many assists this season? its because lebron has a better team than kobe bryant. he has zydrunas ilgauskas, a former all star center and larry hughes, an almost all star shooting guard.moreover, cleveland has excellent shooters like donyell marshall and daniel gibson. so given lebron's talents, most teams are utilising alot of players to stop him and that left these players open for shots. main reason for lebron's assists.
as for kobe bryant? he has to play with players who are bench players for other teams. well, here's his team. he has lamar odom, andrew bynum and derek fisher? odom's a versatile forward. thats what everyone says. but for me, i think odom is overrated. andrew bynum is still too soft. derek fisher, he isn't a shooter although he takes clutch shots at times. kwame brown? he's the famous no. 1 draft pick who don't perform like he's expected to. that's why he was traded from washington wizards to lakers as he put too much burden on the team's overall cap salary. taking 3m per season and not performing? thats wicked. as for their starting small forward, luke walton. his father was a legend but he's no way close. saw kobe's team? no all star except for himself and maybe lamar odom in the near future. its not bad that kobe is still able to rack up 4.9 assists with this team especially when kobe had to face double team defences all the time. you may say since its a double team defense, then one player should be wide open. yes, thats true, but they don't sink those wide open jumpers! pls note that an assist can only be counted when the person u pass to sinks the shot.
as for now, conference. lebron and clevelend is in the weak eastern conference and lakers is in the competitive western conference. lakers has to face strong teams like san antonio spurs, dallas mavericks, phoenix suns, denver nuggets and utah jazz 4 times every season. cleveland only meets strong teams like boston celtics 4 times. well, maybe some slightly challenging teams like detroit pistons thats declining and chicago bulls with its young talents. other than that, eastern conference is rather easy. with this bench becoming starters teams in la lakers which always lose a big lead when kobe is on the bench resting, kobe bryant still manages to bring lakers to the playoff with an around 50% winning record. now this is an incredible task. as for lebron? having a 55% plus winning record last season with his team is atrocious to me. he's in the eastern conference! with that team, at least a 60% record is expected.
done with conference and on to their positions. lebron is playing as a small forard and kobe is playing as shooting guard. with my knowledge in bball, forwards are expected to rebound more as they spend more of their time closer to the basket. moreover, with lebron's 6-8 stature, rebounding should be easy for him. kobe on the other hand is playing guard, they do rebound, but not often. furthermore, kobe is already a top rebounder among guards other than jason kidd. also, if kobe, a guard is rebounding more than his forward or center, this simply implies that his team is really a junk team.
age and athleticism. kobe is 29 and lebron is 22. u peeps kept on saying that lebron is 22 and his stats is so beautiful. seriously, i admit lebron's stats is awesome, really one of the best, a legend in the making. but what if i reverse this around? kobe is 29 and its considered quite old in terms of sports, thus he's current athleticism is not on lebron's level and isn't able to rebound like what lebron is doing this season. at 29 of age, kobe is still able to put up with this number and keep up with the young talents, its something admirable. somemore, kobe is regarded as one of the most unstoppable players at this age. on top of that, at 22, kobe had his first ring and we are just waiting for lebron to do that. something to add on here, when kobe was a rookie at the age of 18 or 19, he won his first slam dunk competition. did lebron won one? no. this proves that kobe has the athleticism too. prob now is their age gap.
next, defense. lebron has better stats overall. but don't be cheated by it. defensive stats is the most misleading stats. lets put it this way. bruce bowen of san antonio spurs is well known for being one heck of a defender, he's always guarding the super stars of opponent team as long as they aren't centers or power forwards. he always make life difficult for them by pestering them and forcing them into taking tough shots but take a look at this career defensive stats, 0.9 spg and 0.4 bpg. stunned? yeah. good defensive stats doesn't mean u are a good defender. look at samuel dalembert. he average almost 2 bpg per game for his career but totally stinks on defense. so conclusion? good defensive stats is not equals to good defender. furthermore, lebron james hasn't been name to nba all defensive team before and kobe bryant was in it for 7 times.
almost finishing. let's talk about their records. i think talking about records, kobe is at the losing end as he's in the league for like 11 years? and lebron has only spent 4 years in the league. so kobe's record list should be thicker than lebron's. but that's ok. we'll look at their achievements in recent years.
i'll talk about lebron james' first. he's one of the 3 players to record a triple double in their debut playoff appearance and that's last season. one of the 2 players to record at least 27 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assist for 3 consecutive seasons. the only player in nba to score 25 straight points in a playoff game.
up next, kobe's record. he score 81 points in a match against the toronto raptors while facing a 2 on 1 defense. its the 2nd highest points score by an individual in a nba game. outscore the whole team of dallas maverick 62-61 all by himself in 3 quarters of a nba game, resulting in a win. is one of the 2 players to score 40 or more points in 9 consecutive game. is one of the 2 nba players to score 4 consecutive 50 or more points in 4 consecutive game.
see. both of them have records in which michael jordon has not done before. but overall, i still think scoring 81 points at the age of 27 is sick and that accomplishment alone outshines all of lebron james' accomplishment. if the 81 points is not enough, kobe bryant is the only person to outscore a whole team by himself and its against a strong team. can lebron do it? we shall wait and see.
lastly, kobe's style of play is graceful. the way he shoots, drives, dunks, dribble and pass is so smooth but take a look at lebron. he's clumsy! maybe due to his size. in terms of entertainment, kobe has the upper hand and the crowd tells it all. staples center is fully seated for almost every match.
so after some much of comparison, u peeps should know my answer. kobe is better now. until kobe slows down, lebron will have to wait for a couple of years to be named as the best player in nba. its still kobe's era. fear not, lebron's time will come but it will also be a tough one for him as there is still dwayne wade, carmelo anthony and maybe kevin durant.
24>23. thats my verdict. bias though cause like i said, i'm a kobe supporter.
before i go, i agree with one of the post in nba.com again that it will be cool to have a mvp award and a best player award. this way, that way kobe bryant won't end up playing his entire career without receiving an individual trophy to recognize his greatness. in the current system, the mvp goes to the best player in one of the top teams in the league. only one time since 1982 has the league's most valuable player been awarded to a player on a team that didn't win at least 50 games (malone's jazz) and that was during the lockout-shortened season of 1998-99. like i said, its impossible for kobe to win the mvp award since he's with a bench becoming starters junk team.
done with my comments. if there's any peeps who actually took the time and trouble to finish reading this whole thing, i seriously admire u for ur long attention span. lol.
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