G vs Sami Vol. 2

Kobe Vs. LeBron

I know that whatever G and I write here, most people have made up their minds. Stop for a second however, and recognize one simple thing. LeBron James just finished his fifth year in the NBA. LeBron James is 23, he turns 24 in December. We're not just talking about someone who is good, this someone is absolutely incredible. He is doing things in his career that are completely unfathomable. When he came into the league with all the hype surrounding him, there was a lot of doubt that he could ever do the job and live up to it. It's safe to say that LeBron is definitely living up to that hype.

Like everyone knows, LeBron came straight from high school to the pros. For LeBron, there was no learning curve on the bench. The team that LeBron joined didn't have any starts, teachers, or mentors. That team, and the current team for that matter, has been completely devoid of talent. Kobe had Shaq. LeBron had...a young Carlos Boozer. With that said, let's examine some of these stats.

Here's a link to LeBron's stats over the first five years of his career (courtesy of BasketballReference.Com). http://basketballreference.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=JAMESLE01

Now we could sit here and discuss points, but we all know that these guys are dominant scorers. I don't think anybody can refute the scoring ability of either of these guys. My point about LeBron being better is simply this: If LeBron's only job was to score, he could do it as well as Kobe. LeBron is better, because he makes other people around him SIGNIFICANTLY better. He averaged 20 points per game his rookie season, and has averaged 27, 31, 27, and 30 points per game, respectively since then. He's also averaged 6.6 assists per game as well as 6.9 rebounds per game through his career. To go with all that, he's also averaged 1.7 steals per game (he averaged over 2.1 steals the second year of his career), and last season he had one block per game to go with that. Even though one of the biggest knocks on LeBron is his defensive ability, I think it's pretty clear that he is more than capable on that side of the ball. I think a lot of times it gets lost that LeBron isn't the only player on his team with any skill offensively, he's the only guy on his team with skill defensively. They brought Ben Wallace in for that reason, but this isn't the same Ben Wallace that won a title in 2004. When you are measuring how good this guy is, you have to be measuring how bad his team is. We're talking about someone who turned Larry Hughes, Wally Szerbiak, Booby Gibson, and Donyell Marshall into viable second options.

Finally, there's the issue of just being a flat-out winner. We all know Kobe won the title 3 times with Shaq. That doesn't make him a winner though. He didn't win those series'. Go back and look and Mr. O'Neal's stats over that series. ESPN just said that he had two of the most dominant performances in the history of the NBA Finals. So what did Kobe do? Chase him right out of town so he could have his own team. Goodbye Phil, Goodbye Shaq, helllooooo first round loss in the playoffs. LeBron went to the finals with one of the worst playoff teams ever assembled. He beat the Pistons, IN Detroit. He almost beat the Celtics IN Boston this year, and I can bet you anything when all is said and done he will have gotten much closer than Kobe against this C's team.

Here's the thing, when you measure up the fact that LeBron isn't even close to his prime yet, the idea that this guy really might average a triple-double soon, isn't out of the question. He's never had an outburst against his team, or his coaches, and he just flat out dominates his competition. I don't doubt Kobe's ability to score, it's impossible to do so, the guy scored 81 points in a game once. Still, there is no way that someone can tell me if LeBron is on this current Lakers squad, they are doing anything short of winning the title. LeBron James is unequivocally the best all-around player in basketball.