Greater: Kobe Bryant vs Stephen Curry

[dhsilv2]

Kobe obviously. How the heck is the poll 22-14?! Should be 20-2 IMO. Either we have alot of millenials on this website (probably true) and alot of haters who saw Kobe beat their teams in dominant fashion from 1998-2013 (also true).

Y'all disgust me.

Millenials saw Kobe's whole career and many were younger and more impressionable and as a result are biased Kobe fans. And the poll should be firmly in Curry's camp...Curry has peaks significantly higher.

[Gooner]

Kobe obviously. How the heck is the poll 22-14?! Should be 20-2 IMO. Either we have alot of millenials on this website (probably true) and alot of haters who saw Kobe beat their teams in dominant fashion from 1998-2013 (also true).

Y'all disgust me.

Millenials saw Kobe's whole career and many were younger and more impressionable and as a result are biased Kobe fans. And the poll should be firmly in Curry's camp...Curry has peaks significantly higher.

Until he actually gets to the peak, the finals. He never won finals MVP.

[dhsilv2]

its funny how everyone that puts curry over Kobe is only talking about shooting and saying defense is overrated and that kobe wasnt a good defender even though he was all defense 1st team 9 times. i get you have to discredit defense to give curry the edge but all titels are won on defense even those of GSW.

can we just stop comparing players in the "oh you touched me thats a foul" era VS everything before that. because shooting % are up for a reason more fouls means less missed shots, means more FT means a higher TS and we all love to use TS with high percentage FT shooters who get ticky tacky fouls.

I mean the media is a pretty bad judge of defense, so... I mean we can literally go case by case of all his all defense awards and point out the years where he didn't deserve them, or even the years where he was bad. I mean you remember Kobe Bryant won them after he wasn't in his prime and got them over guys like Iggy and Allen - does that sound accurate to you?

The bold is the big thing. It is one thing to pick the wrong guy, but to pick a player in a bad defensive season is pretty telling.

[Baski]

I think I'm with the guys who feel that it feels off to say Curry right now, but 5-6 extra years can change a lot.

[dhsilv2]

Kobe obviously. How the heck is the poll 22-14?! Should be 20-2 IMO. Either we have alot of millenials on this website (probably true) and alot of haters who saw Kobe beat their teams in dominant fashion from 1998-2013 (also true).

Y'all disgust me.

Millenials saw Kobe's whole career and many were younger and more impressionable and as a result are biased Kobe fans. And the poll should be firmly in Curry's camp...Curry has peaks significantly higher.

Until he actually gets to the peak, the finals. He never won finals MVP.

I don't think you know what the word peak is. And please never discuss basketball if you're going to talk about finals MVPs.

[C-Melo Man]

Kobe obviously. How the heck is the poll 22-14?! Should be 20-2 IMO. Either we have alot of millenials on this website (probably true) and alot of haters who saw Kobe beat their teams in dominant fashion from 1998-2013 (also true).

Y'all disgust me.

Millenials saw Kobe's whole career and many were younger and more impressionable and as a result are biased Kobe fans. And the poll should be firmly in Curry's camp...Curry has peaks significantly higher.

Until he actually gets to the peak, the finals. He never won finals MVP.

As much as stressing Finals MVP for Curry gets old after a while, I'll be looking at these next couple seasons now that he doesn't have KD & it's his team again what he can do. If he can stay healthy & win at least one or two more titles & get at least one FMVP, I may have him above Kobe Bryant. He already has more regular season MVPs than Kobe (I still firmly believe that CP3 should've won it in 08) including being the first unanimous MVP.

[AIfan3]

Kobe. And I’m not even that big of a fan. Kobe actually was the best player on his championship team at 31..

[LKN]

A lot worse offensively though, and some of those defensive awards were by reputation

A lot worse? Are you just going off percentages?

How do you personally conclude that an award is given by reputation? I'm just curious?

His offensive impact is on a different level than Kobe's. I can throw out all the impact metrics that demonstrate as much, but that doesn't resonate with everybody. So I'll do it by efficiency.

By TS%:

Spoiler:

17-18 Curry: 67.5
15-16 Curry: 66.9
18-19 Curry: 64.1
14-15 Curry: 63.8
16-17 Curry: 62.4
13-14 Curry: 61.0
11-12 Curry: 60.5
10-11 Curry: 59.5
12-13 Curry: 58.9
06-07 Kobe: 58.0
07-08 Kobe: 57.6
12-13 Kobe: 57.0
09-10 Curry: 56.8
04-05 Kobe: 56.3
08-09 Kobe: 56.1
05-06 Kobe: 55.9
00-01 Kobe: 55.2
03-04 Kobe: 55.1
02-03 Kobe: 55.0
98-99 Kobe: 54.9
97-98 Kobe: 54.8
10-11 Kobe: 54.8
99-00 Kobe: 54.6
09-10 Kobe: 54.5
96-97 Kobe: 54.4
01-02 Kobe: 54.4
11-12 Kobe: 52.7
13-14 Kobe: 50.5
14-15 Kobe: 47.7
15-16 Kobe: 46.9

Beyond that, Curry's off ball gravity and ability to play within the flow of the offense is more valuable than Kobe's iso-mode.

Regarding your question about defense, it really comes down to his defensive impact not aligning with his accomplishments. You'll find this to be a consensus opinion on the PC board, not that you should just believe what other people tell you.

Curry obviously would still come out ahead... but you should at least be using relative TS. Cross season/era TS comparisons are fairly useless/meaningless.

TS is also somewhat of an overrated metric that ignores a lot of things (and to be clear - I'm not disagreeing with your premise... I just think posting a bunch of TS numbers like this isn't a great way to prove it).

[koningcosmo]

Curry's game doesn't cramp the play of his teammates. That is why he is a rare kind of superstar. The Warriors finished with a number one defense or close to it a number of times. Whatever Curry does has allowed them to do that.

Bryant is clear cut top 10 player. Curry at this time somewhere between 25-30.

Name me all the NBA basketball players in history that have 2 MVPs and 2 championships to their name. That number won't reach 10.

tell me what regular season mvp that won titels doesnt have a FMVP?

[LKN]

With the numbers Harden is putting up in this era Kobe would be pushing 40/10/10 averages.

Harden is better offensive player than Kober ever was. In basically every aspect of the game.
Nostalgia really clouds peoples perspective.

Eh - this is certainly true in the regular season. But Harden's numbers are significantly worse in the postseason. Kobe's #s are pretty much the same across regular season/postseason play.

I suppose one could argue Harden's diminished postseason #s are still better (and I haven't bothered to do a deep dive on that)..... but he's going to lose some stature with me regardless since it negatively impacts your team's entire strategy/plan when you can't maintain your performance in the postseason. At least with Kobe, the Lakers knew they'd get pretty much the same guy.

[Optms]

With the numbers Harden is putting up in this era Kobe would be pushing 40/10/10 averages.

Harden is better offensive player than Kober ever was. In basically every aspect of the game.
Nostalgia really clouds peoples perspective.

Nostalgia? Talk about recency bias.

Harden's core game is layups and 3's. And his numbers are largely manufactured. The most by any star in today's game. lol

[Brooklyn91]

Common sense says Kobe right now. Longer Prime, More accolades and and stats. Steph literally spend the first 6 or so years of his career battling injuries, had 4-5 good years with one year being absolutely legendary. Suddenly I’m putting him over Kobe? Lol hell naw

[Optms]

This is not Kobe easily as the poll suggest. Curry is already arguably the greatest offensive player in NBA history and it doesn't matter that Kobe has a defensive edge here, Curry's offense destroys his by several tiers.

[ballup]

Kobe has an an additional 10 seasons over Curry so as of now, the iron man trait of Kobe's career may be the one giant factor that holds him over Curry. Let's say Curry even plays 5 more seasons with a majority of them being all NBA, he would still be at the minimum 4 all NBA selections behind Kobe. That's quite amazing.

Curry will be looked upon more favorably because he was the forefront of this new guard breed. We've seen Kobe's archetype before. The MVPs would side with Curry more, but he might need one more for it to have an argumentative weight over Kobe.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[Jabroni Lames]

If you look at the big picture of basketball, then it's Curry, hands down. Curry is a true game-changer, in every sense of the word. He was an innovator and his range changed the landscape of basketball at every level.

Kobe, by comparison, was a weak imitation of MJ in almost every way, and the game quickly moved away from Kobe's style of play.

[Up-And-Coming]

Curry is the GOAT player that's 6'3" and under

West is still ahead of him. Again quite clearly.

I disagree, but you can make that argument.

When Curry’s career is over I think it will be clear he was greater

[Side beard]

Kobe was a pretty good player in the post 2006-era. But he was the best guard in the league the early 2000s when it was very physical, and developed his skills in that era. I really doubt Curry would've been remotely as effective in the early 2000s especially in the playoffs, he probably would've looked a lot more like in 2015 when Dellavedova guarded him.

Teams have to really **** try to guard Curry. He uses court so well and effective. Comparing him to Dellavedova, whos only goal was to play defense and sit in the corner, is not right.

[snaquille oatmeal]

Have to pick Kobe, Steph never had defenses focus on just him. Kobe after Shaq and before Gasol had to do it alone. Steph hasn’t yet.

[dhsilv2]

A lot worse? Are you just going off percentages?

How do you personally conclude that an award is given by reputation? I'm just curious?

His offensive impact is on a different level than Kobe's. I can throw out all the impact metrics that demonstrate as much, but that doesn't resonate with everybody. So I'll do it by efficiency.

By TS%:

Spoiler:

17-18 Curry: 67.5
15-16 Curry: 66.9
18-19 Curry: 64.1
14-15 Curry: 63.8
16-17 Curry: 62.4
13-14 Curry: 61.0
11-12 Curry: 60.5
10-11 Curry: 59.5
12-13 Curry: 58.9
06-07 Kobe: 58.0
07-08 Kobe: 57.6
12-13 Kobe: 57.0
09-10 Curry: 56.8
04-05 Kobe: 56.3
08-09 Kobe: 56.1
05-06 Kobe: 55.9
00-01 Kobe: 55.2
03-04 Kobe: 55.1
02-03 Kobe: 55.0
98-99 Kobe: 54.9
97-98 Kobe: 54.8
10-11 Kobe: 54.8
99-00 Kobe: 54.6
09-10 Kobe: 54.5
96-97 Kobe: 54.4
01-02 Kobe: 54.4
11-12 Kobe: 52.7
13-14 Kobe: 50.5
14-15 Kobe: 47.7
15-16 Kobe: 46.9

Beyond that, Curry's off ball gravity and ability to play within the flow of the offense is more valuable than Kobe's iso-mode.

Regarding your question about defense, it really comes down to his defensive impact not aligning with his accomplishments. You'll find this to be a consensus opinion on the PC board, not that you should just believe what other people tell you.

Curry obviously would still come out ahead... but you should at least be using relative TS. Cross season/era TS comparisons are fairly useless/meaningless.

TS is also somewhat of an overrated metric that ignores a lot of things (and to be clear - I'm not disagreeing with your premise... I just think posting a bunch of TS numbers like this isn't a great way to prove it).

I actually something along these lines.



2019 is around the allstar break and Curry dropped off from that freaky high point but the data otherwise is valid.

[LarryJoeDuncan]

This debate should be over with the below post. No way in hell Curry ever gets even close to Kobe all time. Kobe's greatness is too far ahead for curry to ever get there.

P.S. Curry will win another title this year. Still wont be enough though.

At this moment clearly Bryant. His longeativity is just another level compared to Curry. Literally double the numbers in the most categories, awards, stats it doesn't matter.

Bryant is clear cut top 10 player. Curry at this time somewhere between 25-30.

Some career achievements so far:

Bryant:

• 5× NBA champion
• 2× NBA Finals MVP
• 1x MVP
• 18× NBA All-Star
• 4× NBA All-Star Game MVP
• 11× All-NBA First Team
• 2× All-NBA Second Team
• 2× All-NBA Third Team
• 9× NBA All-Defensive First Team
• 3× NBA All-Defensive Second Team
• 2× NBA scoring champion

• 33,643 points
• 6,306 assists
• 7,047 rebounds

Curry:

• 3× NBA champion
• 2× MVP
• 6× NBA All-Star
• 3× All-NBA First Team
• 2× All-NBA Second Team
• 1x All-NBA Third Team
• 1x NBA scoring champion
• 1x NBA steals leader

• 16,315 points
• 4,588 assists
• 3,132 rebounds

There is just no argument career wise so far for him to be over Bryant and I don't think he ever gets there. He joined the league on older age and it took several years for him to reach his potential. It's not knock against Curry's career per say but Bryant is just different level of player and Curry is not there.