I had an "engaging, interesting, lively" argument today during my lunch period at school discussing Kobe Bryant. IDK how the hell we got into the conversation, I believe we were comparing LeBron to Kobe and I said LBJ was better and they asked me who has won more championships, then I retaliated saying that Kobe has never won a championship by himself and they disagreed saying he won all his championships by himself. I'll address the first issue later but check this out:
C Pau Gasol (All-Star)
PF Andrew Bynum
SF Trevor Ariza (2008-2009)/Ron Artest (2009-current; All-Star)
SG Kobe (All-Star)
PG Derek Fisher (All-Star)
Bench 1 Lamar Odom (All-Star)
When you play on a team with 4 other all-stars to pick up the slack for you when your not having a great game, how is that winning a championship by yourself? In the last NBA Finals game last season we saw a clear example of that when Gasol picked up the slack for Kobe who only had a whoppin' 4 points in the game! He didn't win those championships for 2 straight years by himself, it was a cohesive win.
Remember that year he scored 81? 2005-2006 season, here is his starting 5:
C Chris Mihm
PF Brian Cook
SF Lamar Odom (All-Star)
SG Kobe (All-Star)
PG Smush Parker
Did they win the championship that year? NO Why? Because Kobe had no help, you can't expect any human to play 82 consecutive games and lead his team to the playoffs and put them on his back to win the title. It's been tried by many including Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs during the 2005-2006 season, Allen Iverson and th 76ers in his whole career, Gilbert and the Wizards, Melo and the Nuggets, LEBRON and the CAVS and the list could go on and on and on.
My theory for winning a championship supposedly "by yourself" is being the dominant force on your team without having the ability to take any nights off or else your team losses and STILL being able to win the championship. Kobe has never won a championship by himself and probably never will.
For that matter, it probably will NEVER happen in the NBA. It happens all the time in college basketball but is not possible in the NBA because of the length of the schedule....unless you are superhuman of course.
But let me tell you why LeBron is/will be better than Kobe. LBJ made it to the NBA Finals in the 2006-2007 season and was in a similar situation to Kobe in the 2005-2006 season, he was the main guy on his roster with a bunch of bums and no help. Check out the roster:
C Zydrunas Illgaskus (All-Star)
PF Drew Gooden
SF LBJ (All-Star)
SG Sasha Pavlovic
PG Larry Hughes
Doesn't that look eerily similar to the Lakers roster that Kobe had by himself, Kobe led his team to the playoffs while LeBron led his team to the NBA Finals; yes, LBJ did not win the championship but for him to be as young as he was at the time to put a team on his back to the NBA Finals with no help is an amazing feat, Kobe with his roster was a ballhog who got stuck in the same situation but never was able to defeat the roadblock until he got help (Gasol, Fisher, Bynum etc.)
Imagine what LBJ is going to be able to do as his career moves forward after gaining all that experience with no real supporting cast and no injury problems compared to Kobe who has occasional problems with his knees etc. Right now Kobe is the better of the two because of his veteran leadership, charisma, skills and athletic play. He is still dominant and a force to be reckoned with.
But when all is said and done and LeBron's career is over, LeBron will turn out to look like the better of the two because he has accomplished so much at such a young age without any help or assistance (unlike Kobe who had Shaq during his younger days), he is still improving his game, he will learn how to share the ball more in Miami while maintaining his unstoppable style of play, he's only 25 and STILL hasn't reached his prime yet. I can only imagine what the future holds.
Oh, and one more thing.....can everyone stop worshiping Kobe, I mean really? He's good and all but he's not MJ!!
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