ESPN Live Fan Poll has Kobe > Lebron

[rebirthoftheM]

Well some on this board have Tim Duncan and KG over Lebron and many would consider this absurd (and in KGs case, probably get one fired from speaking on tv about basketball) because they value different things. And rightfully so. Not everyone is in love with the same player attributes.

For my take, I think this debate ended a little while ago. But given the quality of rankings on this board, I think the Kobe>Lebron opinion is pedestrian.

[Euroballer]

http://www.espn.com/sportsnation/story/_/id/20227321/sportsnation-how-rank-lebron-james-kobe-bryant

Simon..

[mademan]

He'd probably win a 2nd greatest player of all time poll too.

[Euroballer]

Water is wet.

You can't team hop multiple times in your prime to form super teams in possibly the weakest conference in NBA history and expect people to forget it.

That and his style of play has proven to be a losing style unless he's surrounded with a super team in a conference that allows him to sleepwalk to the finals every year while easily maintaining his health in the process.

Good lord, the ISH crew is here, 10 alts on one site is not enough eh?

[G35]

I don't know if people remember but back in 2010 after the back to back titles everyone was crowning Kobe and if he could get to seven titles and be over Jordan.

That is what happens when a player is at their peak and still visible to the public. You could call it a "high tide" of optimism about a player. Then when a player retires...after we have seen them at the end of their career and they are not able to carry a team any longer there tends to be a "low tide" with public opinion.

This is only natural...it happened with Wilt, Kareem, Erving, Magic, Bird, Jordan, Shaq and Kobe. You can almost call it a market correction.......

[clyde21]

be ready for lebron fans to go insane with their "advance statistics"

5>3 only stat you need huh big guy?

[Gus Hemmingway]

inthiidde hooopth

[CodeBreaker]

Now all of a sudden, the consensus LeBron > Kobe is being questioned again because of these recent happenings lol MJ started this.

[LakerLegend]

5 indisputable LeBron facts

1. He's played his entire prime on Super Teams, inflating his shooting/efficiency stats with the spacing and overall talent they provide. The one year he didn't have one his efficiency in the playoffs was absolutely horrific.

2. His rebounds are inflated because of the huge amount of Uncontested Defensive Rebs he gobbles up.

3. He's played his entire career in a Historically Weak Conference, where the best competition has been old men(past prime Celtics vs. his Heat) or boys(Pacers).

4. He's played almost his entire career in a league that has softened defenses considerably and encouraged high tempo play(unless you think Harden and Westbrook are the two best perimeter players ever because of the raw stats they put up in 2017) helping to inflate his statistics.

This helps to cover his lack of certain key basketball skills like footwork, postgame, an the ability to shoot off the dribble.

5. He has been either outplayed or displayed lackluster D(for someone who can supposedly guard 1-5) in critical series throughout his career which is directly responsible for multiple supposedly inferior forwards being key for the other team: Hedo/Shard in 2009, Dirk in 2011, Kawai/Iguodala/Durant winning Finals MVP's.

[enko]

be ready for lebron fans to go insane with their "advance statistics"

Yeah, I hate all these crazy people using facts and evidence to support their claims....

stats shows that lebron plays with a super team in weak east conference in his career. this allows lebron to pad stats and preserve his healthy.

[ThaRegul8r]

If I could go back to 2009 and tell my younger self that in 2017, Kobe is now all beloved figure by fans and is considered a "Basketball Saint" of sorts, my younger self wouldn't believe me.

It's crazy just how much the narrative has changed on Kobe after his retirement. I mean, ffs, Kobe was considered the epitome of a selfish, me-first ballhog for the longest time (who of course, drove Shaq out of town because Kobe had a huge ego).

It really is bizarre. Forget 2009, I'd say go back to even 2005 or thereabouts and it seems like there's no way this could be happening 12 years later.

Time changes everything.

[PaulieWal]

We have had plenty of Kobe vs. LeBron threads. The last one last month ran over 7-8 pages IIRC. If posters can't play nice and all they wanna do is post one liners to get their point across, threads will get locked and warnings will be given out at this point. We don't need multiple Kobe vs LeBron threads on this board.