Greater: Kobe Bryant vs Stephen Curry

[iLLmatic860]

Kobe played both ends and lroved he can win without Shaq

Steph hasnt proved he can win without Klay or Dray. Or even KD. They wouldve won vs Raps if they had KD

Also 2 finals mvps

Its mind boggling how some of you can choose Steph

[LKN]

Kobe played both ends and lroved he can win without Shaq

Steph hasnt proved he can win without Klay or Dray. Or even KD. They wouldve won vs Raps if they had KD

Also 2 finals mvps

Its mind boggling how some of you can choose Steph

Come on to be fair - no one wins without other good players on their team!

I mean do you want Steph to play 1 on 5?

[CS707]

Kobe played both ends and lroved he can win without Shaq

Steph hasnt proved he can win without Klay or Dray. Or even KD. They wouldve won vs Raps if they had KD

Also 2 finals mvps

Its mind boggling how some of you can choose Steph

Huh?

And how do Klay and Draymond equate to Shaq?

[Capn'O]

For players this good where the gap is this close I always come back to the same question. It's Game 7 of the Finals and you can have one of them. Which player is it?

I have to take Kobe here. With Phil as the coach please. And it's not about a clutch gene or what have you. Kobe has a wider arsenal to beat a wider range of defensive strategy and he's going to lock down your best wing. The only way to beat him is try to corner him into chucker mode as Larry Brown did in '04. There are some niche situations where I may prefer Curry.


That said, Curry's 15-16 season is far and away better than any season Kobe ever had. But that final game gets me here.

[CodeBreaker]

For players this good where the gap is this close I always come back to the same question. It's Game 7 of the Finals and you can have one of them. Which player is it?

I have to take Kobe here. With Phil as the coach please. And it's not about a clutch gene or what have you. Kobe has a wider arsenal to beat a wider range of defensive strategy and he's going to lock down your best wing. The only way to beat him is try to corner him into chucker mode as Larry Brown did in '04. There are some niche situations where I may prefer Curry.


That said, Curry's 15-16 season is far and away better than any season Kobe ever had. But that final game gets me here.

I'd like to use this from now on when comparing great players that are too hard to choose from

[iLLmatic860]

Kobe played both ends and lroved he can win without Shaq

Steph hasnt proved he can win without Klay or Dray. Or even KD. They wouldve won vs Raps if they had KD

Also 2 finals mvps

Its mind boggling how some of you can choose Steph

Huh?

And how do Klay and Draymond equate to Shaq?

Ok fair enough

Steph still has no finals MVP

[Dominator83]

Kobe played both ends and lroved he can win without Shaq

Steph hasnt proved he can win without Klay or Dray. Or even KD. They wouldve won vs Raps if they had KD

Also 2 finals mvps

Its mind boggling how some of you can choose Steph

Huh?

And how do Klay and Draymond equate to Shaq?

Maybe he meant to say Andre Igoudala

[freethedevil]

When it's all said and done, who's going to be the greater player?

Depends on longetivity. Curry peaked higher but health/longetivity is keeping kobe ahead. If curry can maintain this level of play and manage a lebron-like aging arc, he has a case for top ten when it's all said and done.

[freethedevil]

I'm a big Steph fan, but it will be hard for Steph to be greater than Kobe with the amount of defensive accolades that Kobe has under his belt. Kobe was all defensive 1st team 9 times!

It's amazing people take d accolades more seriously than how he affected his team's defense.

[freethedevil]

Friendly reminder that these playoffs, post kd's injury, curry led the playoff's best offense while managing kobeesque scoring volume on greater effiency.

[DoItALL9]

Its incredibly tough for now to rank a guy like Curry and even KD.

Curry has 0 fmvps and won 1 ring without KD in a year where the cavs lost 2 of their top 3 guys. On top of Delly going to the hospital and Shump playing hurt for half the series.

KD has 2 rings and 2 fmvps, but also didn't accomplish too much without Curry.

For now, Curry doesn't have the longevity, fmvp(s), and the big shot moments. On top of him never being able to touch Kobe defensively in his prime. This is all coming from a guy who doesn't like kobe and thinks he is one of the most overrated players of all time (for people who think hes top 3-5)

So I'm going Kobe. If Curry was to win a ring or two on his own and win 1-2 fmvp, this could swing in Curry's favor

Dellavedova didn't just "go to the hospital". He went into a full body cramp and almost died trying to guard Curry!

Give Curry his due kudos

Sent from my LM-G710 using RealGM mobile app

[I_Like_Dirt]

Curry is just an odd player. He doesn't fit the pattern of other all-time greats with the exception of maybe Jerry West. In terms of two-way play, it's Kobe. Kobe also has longevity on his side as well, and that matters. For now, I'd say it's Kobe but the gap isn't as big as a lot of people might think. Curry may never bridge that gap anyway, though I expect he will. Curry has changed the game in ways that few players have, and it's usually bigs like Mikan, Wilt, Kareem, Shaq, etc. that bend the game that way. It's really hard to categorize him because of that. By contrast, while I expect Curry to surpass Kobe, I don't expect him to catch Lebron, yet Lebron hasn't changed the game the same way Curry has.

[SpreeS]

A lot of Kobes fans talk **** in this forum. How huge is Kobe in PO and how Curry underperform as always on big stage.

PO elimination games (Career)

Kobe MIN 41 PTS 22.3 TS 0.495 REB 5.79 AST 3.47 STL 1.21 BLK 0.63 TOV 3.00 +/- minus 3.63 19G 11W
Curry MIN 41 PTS 27.5 TS 0.573 REB 5.91 AST 7.18 STL 1.64 BLK 0.64 TOV 3.27 +/- plus 5.73 11G 7W

PO only 6th/7th elimination games (w/o 0-4 or 1-4)

Kobe MIN 43 PTS 22.8 TS 0.502 REB 7.00 AST 4.58 STL 1.42 BLK 0.92 TOV 2.83 +/- plus 1.00 12G 9W
Curry MIN 41 PTS 27.1 TS 0.568 REB 5.80 AST 7.30 STL 1.30 BLK 0.70 TOV 3.10 +/- plus 5.70 10G 6W

PO only 6th/7th elimination games (w/o 0-4 or 1-4), Kobe w/o O'Neal, Curry w/o KD

Kobe MIN 41 PTS 22.3 TS 0.491 REB 7.83 AST 2.67 STL 2.33 BLK 0.50 TOV 3.33 +/- minus 3.33 6G 4W
Curry MIN 41 PTS 26.9 TS 0.551 REB 5.50 AST 7.13 STL 1.13 BLK 0.38 TOV 3.00 +/- plus 1.38 8G 4W

Kobe always was black hole. How bad he looks at elimination games, espacially w/o O'Neal: 22.3PTS 2.67AST 3.33TOV. Shooting 0.368 from the game...Gasol/Bynum/Odom saved his ass a lot of time. This front court was the best in 2008/2011 by huge margin. This could be "O'Neal saved Kobe" part2.

[Strepbacter]

-Yeah, no. He's #8 in playoff RAPM from 15-19
-Please link me to playoff RAPM for prime Kobe
-Because most don't understand that scoring efficiency isn't efficiency. I've already explained this. Prime Kobe and Prime Curry have extremely comparable overall efficiency. That's a fact.
-I'm comparing the DRTG's of the teams they played. Use relative DRTG if you want. The fact remains that Bryant played far better defensive comp. From 01-10 the average team he played ranked #5 in DRTG.
-Again, try getting your facts straight.

My facts are straight. Clearly you are using a different RAPM dataset. https://basketball-analytics.gitlab.io/rapm-data/

Scoring efficiency is efficiency. You are just trying to draw the line in a place that positively reflects Kobe. With your logic we may as well expand to "basketball efficiency" to include all elements of the game.

"I'm comparing the DRTG's of the teams they played for. Use relative DRTG if you want." That's a neat trick you did... trying to deflect from the fact that you referenced a non-relative stat after criticizing me for using non-relative scoring efficiency

I believe he used each player's Ortg for their respective year against the Avg Drtg of opponents faced for those same respective years. That's as relative as it gets isn't it? How would one even adjust for that?

Yep. Exactly. Thank you.

[Homer38]

It's Kobe ... Kobe is much better when things are not easy, especially in the playoffs.

[DrCoach]

Kobe is a true Alpha with 5 rings

[Danny1616]

Kobe played both ends and lroved he can win without Shaq

Steph hasnt proved he can win without Klay or Dray. Or even KD. They wouldve won vs Raps if they had KD

Also 2 finals mvps

Its mind boggling how some of you can choose Steph

He didn't prove he could win without Shaq. His team missed the playoffs in 2005, got knocked out in the 1st round in 2006 and 2007, and then needed to trade for a top 10 player in the NBA in Pau Gasol. If anything that proved he needed another superstar beside him to win, lol.

No player has proved they can win without another superstar alongside them, LMAO.

Bird never won without McHale, Parish and Denis Johnson.

Magic never won without Worthy (and Kareem early on).

Jordan never won without Pippen and Grant (and then Rodman).

Kobe never won without Shaq or Pau.

Lebron never won without Wade/Bosh or Irving/Love or Davis.

Shaq never won without Kobe or Wade.

Hakeem never won without Drexler.

Also it's quite strange you said Steph hasn't proved he couldn't win without KD when he literally did win without KD and led the Warriors to the finals in both 2016 and 2019 without KD.

You probably made the weirdest response I've ever seen on realgm.

Curry haters get more stupid by the day.

[Danny1616]

Kobe currently with a 58 point lead over Steph

Recency bias.

Steph was injured all last season and didn't have a good first game. Public perception is always short-term memory.

If this thread was made 2 years ago, Steph would be leading.

[King4Day]

Recency bias is why I think Curry is even this close.
Kobe was challenging MJ for GOAT.
Curry is the GOAT shooter and has had an incredible career, but like others have said, I just can't put him against someone like Bryant.

[JN61]

Just no. Only thing that Curry has on him over or even close to Bryant in terms of career achievements is MVPs. Everything else he is 2-3 times behind on Bryant. I would also be very surprised if Curry manages to break 25k career points.