My record so far in this pundit-prediction business is woeful. So, if you are one of the very, very few individuals that actually take my prediction seriously, then I caution you to take what you are about to read with more than a grain of salt........a spoonful will suffice.
Before I go on with my rant on Kobe and LeBron, I would like to congratulate the Orlando Magic for proving everybody wrong. I can safely say that no one picked the Magic to beat LeBron James and the Cavs. In retrospect, I should have seen it coming though. After all, Orlando is the only team in the playoffs this year that provided a plethora of mismatches against their competition. Imagine being a head coach and having to devise a defense that would work against Hedo Turkoglu. Hedo can play the point, beat almost anyone off the dribble and then take your puny point guard to the post to get schooled. Now imagine the headache of stopping Rashard Lewis; a 6'10 small forward/power forward that shoots the ball like a shooting guard. Throw in the role players: Mickael Pietrus, Courtney Lee, J.J Redick and Anthony Johnson. There you have it; the guys that proved the basketball world wrong. The guys that served the basketball deficiencies of King James on a platter, and displayed it for everyone to see.
New paragraph for this one.....
Yes, you heard me correctly!!! LeBron James has deficiencies in his game. Not a lot but enough. I have discussed and argued with a good number of people over this topic and so far it seems like there are waaaaay more people out there that think LBJ is hands down the best player in the game right now. I say that Kobe Bryant is still best in the game. I would like to thank Mickael Pietrus and the Orlando Magic coaching staff for helping me to prove my point. The coaching staff came up with a game plan and Pietrus carried it out to the last letter of the plan. They allowed James to get his buckets in transition (I can't really say "allowed" because LBJ can not be stopped in transition) but Pietrus did a phenomenal job in keeping James in front of him in the half court setting and forced him to take jump shots or pass. King James shooting touch has definitely improved from last year but it's not quite consistent or clutch enough (please don't even bother bringing up the game winning shot in game two of the series. I made the "not clutch enough" statement in spite of what he did). LeBron has yet to fully develop his dribbling skills. This is the deficiency that I am noting here. LeBron can dribble but he can't DRIBBLE!!! He can obviously dribble the ball but he does not have the crafty ball handles that Kobe Bryant possesses.
I will not win this battle of opinions with regards to pointing out "certain" things about LeBron James. Nor will I win when it comes to stating that in comparison to Kobe Bryant, LeBron James set of skills simply does not....compare. One reason I can't win on this matter is that people will start getting emotional about it and accuse me of "hating" the guy. Please allow me to quell this notion. LeBron James is one of my favorite players in the league but unlike most people, I can constructively criticize someone I really like. Statements like "LeBron is way better than Kobe" is a statement made with biases and emotions. It is obviously not accurate but I have come across and heard many statements like this since the playoffs began. I will repeat something I have said on numerous occasions about how people react to someone or something that seems so dominant....or imposing! People put sub-conscious blinders on and fail to see the imperfections. The "new" seems way better than the "old".....even if the "old" is just as good or better. The term "great" is tossed around too loosely nowadays.
It's time to state the obvious!!
LeBron James is absolutely sick to watch. He moves very fast for his size. His skill set to size ratio is something to marvel at. At this point in his career, compared to some of the greats at this junction in their careers; LeBron as already surpassed them statistically. LeBron just might go down in history as the greatest player to ever lace up a pair of high tops.
I said high tops!!! Kobe wears his "low". I am talking 'bout sneakers ya'll.
I am trying to be clever here. Does anyone get it? Greatest player to ever lace up a pair of high tops but Kobe wears his sneakers low!!!!! I hope you get my point here.
If Kobe and the Lakers win this years championship and he manages to tie or pass Michael Jordan in the ring department in the next few years. Then absolutely nothing that LeBron James does (short of winning just as much "bling" or more ) will make me think that he is better than Kobe. Their are players that had better career numbers than Jordan but didn't win a championship. Those players are considered great but not great than Jordan. On that note, I'll end with this to all the "LeBron is better than Kobe" fan club members. Kobe has three rings (yes, he won it with Shaq but tell me if any great player has ever won it all by themselves). LeBron needs to win one before I will entertain anymore of this "who is better than who" talk.
Here's something for you guys to think about when comes to greatness:
"Great numbers can make a player great, but winning a championship makes a great player greater than....."
Lekan Afolabi
Sportacularly yours,
The Vicarious Athlete
King James is still the best! Kobe may be a little slicker offensively and smoother, but Lebron is just unstopable especially when he has his jump shot going. Numbers don't lie, Lebron lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocked shots last season. What more could you possibly ask of your superstar. And when playoffs came around, he took his game to an even higher level.
ReplyDeleteThis talk of saying that Lebron is not better than Kobe because Kobe has 3 championships with Shaq is flawed. Hell Robert Horry has like 6 championship rings. Does that make him 2 times better than Kobe? Does that make him better than Charles Barkley, or Tim Duncan,or Karl Malone? I think not!
I love basketball and have been following basketball since I was a kid. Over this time I have seen some great versatile players who excelled in multiple facets of the game easily wether scoring, passing, rebounding, or playing great defence. Players like Clyde Drexler, Scottie Pippen,young and healthy Grant Hill and Penny Hardaway, Michael Jordan, Dwayne Wade, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird.
All of these players are greats and in their prime where amazing to watch. However none of them were then or are now as unbelievably talented as Lebron. Lebron scores, rebounds, assists as effortlessly as Jordan used to put points up. I mean Lebron has 25 points 7 rebounds 7 assists and 2 steals and that is a bad game.
The scary thing is that Lebron is at least another 4 years from his prime. He will go down as the greatest basketball player of our generation.
Well enough on my Lebron vs Kobe rant. I will be rooting for Orlando to win 4games to two. If only to keep Kobe from winning his first title without Shaq.
Ngatho
Using Robert Horry or maybe even John Salle in an argument is flawed. Nobody is saying Horry is a great player. This whole discussion is about "GREAT" players not role players. Kobe is great and LeBron is on the cusp of being truly great.
ReplyDeleteYour argument about LeBron's numbers being better than Kobe is flawless. Please do yourself a favor and check the stats in the playoffs so far. Like I said, peeps put blinders on and can't or don't choose to see what else is going on. Here are the Kobe/LeBron playoff stats:
Kobe:30ppg,0.8blks,1.7stls,5rpg,5ast
LeBron:35ppg,0.9blks,1.6stls,9rpg,7ast
So, LBJ has 4 more rebounds per and 2 more assist per. I won't even touch on the scoring cuz 30 and 35 are basically moot points.
As for rebounds, of course LeBron should get more rebounds. He is 6'8 while Kobe is 6'6. Two more assist per game can be argued but really, that boils down to supporting cast. Yeah Kobe has better team overall but LeBron has better shooters.
Since I just threw out this whole "LeBron's numbers are so great" theory. The only thing that will make LBJ greater than Kobe is winning the bling.
You mentioned a slew of great players and then said that LeBron is greater than all of them already. WOW!!! The audacity of crap!!! lol
Since you have been following basketball since you were a kid and so I will ask you this question. Who is Oscar Robertson? How come he is not called the greatest ever to play the game. Dude average 30ppg, 9.7apg and 10rpg.....all in his rookie season. The following season, he averaged a triple double. He was know as a great stat stuff but it was until he won a championship in 1971 that he was considered a truly great player. If you are about to say that competition back then was different. Well, here is your answer. It was so tough to win a championship that Oscar only won one.
Here's a question for you? Is Dwight Howard one of the best centers ever? After all, his numbers on par or better than some of the greatest centers to ever play this game.
Please tell me you did not ignore the part when I said that LBJ is arguably going to be one of the greatest ever.
I like LeBron just as much and actually a little bit more than I like Kobe and here I am making an argument based on facts without emotion or bias. Please tell me that you don't dislike Kobe? You do and that's why it's like you have the blinders on. It's the deer in the headlight effect. The LeBron light "seems" so bright right now that everyone is forgeting how great Kobe is and how much (not much) LeBron is still behind "the black mamba" in the greatness debate.