Are we REALLY still debating Kobe vs Lebron!?!?
Welcome to Verbal Ballin! This will be your home for deep thought provoking and controversial sports content, so sit back grab a drink get ready to THINK!
Ok, I wanted to keep the intro short and sweet because I am so hot right now (well more flustered) with Stephen A. Smith of ESPN's First Take (what else is new right lol), I am in my living room holding my 6 day year old daughter in one hand and feeding my 19 month old son hot cakes with other as Mr. Smith and Max Kellerman debate whether Lebron James has already passed Kobe Bryant as a player off of Lebron's horrible performance in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics without their best player. Now this isn't the first bad unexplainable game for Lebron and there is no way to defend it, it was a horrible game. Now with that said, Lebron is far from the only great with a horrible game like this in the playoffs, the difference between Lebron and say Kobe or MJ is that those two guys are shoot first guys and their role on the team is to shoot and to shoot all of the damn time (they are called SHOOTING GUARDS for a reason) while Lebron is the type of player who is going to get his teammates involved instead jacking shots because Lebron's teams don't depend on a high volume of shots from him but they do rely on his ability to get shots for others. So when he defers, the lovers of hero ball will say he's passive (which he did look like at times, no excuse for that) but really for the most part he's still filling his role on the team and if not for a lucky bounce on Avery Bradley's 3 this would be a one day headline. But as was pictured above this type of game isn't unique to Lebron, Kobe has had his share of games like this (who can forget when he scored only 1 point in the second half of Game 7 vs Phoenix) and even MJ himself had terrible games like his 9-35 shooting game vs Miami the difference is those two just continued to shoot their teams deeper and deeper while Lebron opted to pass (too much at times admittedly) to his teammates. Now on to Stephen A. First off, I'm annoyed that this is really is still a debate at this point (It seems to be a debate only to Stephen A. as most sports pundits across his network and rival networks consider Lebron better than Kobe and immediately jump to comparing him to only MJ). I know Stephen A. loves and I mean LOVESSSSS Kobe and he's been pretty clear that he is not that close to Lebron like he is to Kobe so use that as a backdrop to his argument for Kobe. Now I'm going to summarize Stephen A's argument for Kobe and it's the same shit you've heard OVER and OVER and OVER but I'm still gonna go over this shit. So Stephen A. admits that Lebron is a better overall better rounded player, he states like he does about every 36 hours now that Lebron is the possibly the best player ever "for the first 46 minutes" but that in crunch time (last two minutes of the game) he prefers a list of players over Bron. Now I'm a address that clutch bullshit argument in a minute but let me finish recapping what he said. He then states that he ranks players based on if in his words "I can hand you the ball when everything around you on your team has froze and you can take us to the promise land!" Hero ball basically. He LOVES hero ballers like many people today and I believe those people love that style of play because Nike and the NBA did a GREAT and I mean GREAT job of promoting and marketing individual players and especially hero ball ass, shoot til you die ass players. And along with that promotion of selfish ass players (which was used to boost shoes and merchandise sales for players as the NBA expanded in the late 80's to the mid 90's which effectively broke up dynasty teams and made it almost impossible to have big 3's in the league anymore and relegated the league to mostly having 1 All Star talent alone with a bunch of role players during that time) came the marketing and promotion that every game comes down to a final shot and Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant makes every damn clutch shot they've ever taken. That's what the NBA, the shoe companies and the media have promoted for YEARS! Don't believe me, YouTube an old game of Kobe's where he hit a clutch shot and look at the Sportscenter coverage of it. And on a side note I just find it so ironic that the same media that people hate when they boost up Lebron is more than accepted when they over exaggerate how "clutch" Kobe was. That same media that when they are promoting a big Sunday game (now Saturday night game) will show Kobe's game winning shot on a loop is welcomed with open arms when it comes to promoting hero ball. When it actuality Kobe's clutch numbers are worst than Lebron's in the playoffs across the board (in the regular season Kobe's clutch numbers are better than Lebron's but if we're really talking about a clutch moment it happens in the playoffs and not in game 38 in January so I'm not even gonna focus on that shit). When it comes to Kobe's postseason clutch numbers Kobe is 7-28 in game tying or go ahead field goal attempts in the last 10 seconds of the game. How the hell he is considered MORE clutch than someone who shoots 42% in the same situations. Now I know what Stephen A. and Kobe fans will say, "Teams are afraid of Kobe at the end of the game, he's getting double teamed and ran at. So of course his shooting percentage is going to be lower, plus Lebron is taking layups in the clutch. Kobe is making fadeaways" LOL. That argument is again bull to the shizniee like my man Lil Scrappy would say. For one if Kobe is getting trapped and double teamed with the game on the line then isn't there an easy play to be made for your teammate? I mean double teams didn't stop other greats who were just as feared in the clutch in his generation, so what's Kobe's excuse? Oh I know, it's the fact that Kobe has to get all the credit for his team winning and he says the hell with his teammates and their desires to win because in Kobe's mind it's let me win on my own for me first and my teammates second and if I miss everyone has to accept it whether they like it or not. So Lamar Odom you deal with me shooting and missing over two players when you're wide open cuz it's all about me being the reason and the main reason we won. And to be fair to Kobe he has won a ton of games for the Lakers and all of his teammates I mean Sasha Vujacic has two rings because of Kobe, so I'm not saying that he shouldn't take the last shot but part of the reason why Kobe's postseason clutch shooting percentage is so low is because of his lack of trust of his teammates and when comparing that to how other all time greats have performed in the clutch in the playoffs it is an alarming stat (even Jordan knew when to pass in the clutch). And with that being the ONLY and I mean ONLY argument that Stephen A. uses for why Kobe is better than Lebron other than the ring argument which Max Kellerman busted up before he could even get going. Which is the whole 5 ring vs 3 ring argument is such an elementary argument because Kobe only averaged 15.6 points a game in his first NBA Finals (Shaq averaged 38!). And no one wanted to make that argument that Lebron 4 years into his career wouldn't have won a ring with a prime Shaq (in Lebron's 4th season he had already been to the finals with Big Z as his second best player and had already been an All NBA First teamer, 3 time All Star and All Star Game MVP. Lol I think it's safe to say he and a prime Shaq would have some rings together). So I'm not trying to knock Kobe as a player but as far as the comparison to Lebron it's clear who the better player is, if you prefer the hero ball shoot first (2nd and 3rd) mentality and style then you'll always prefer Kobe over Lebron no matter what he does but in every measure possible it's clear that Lebron is the better player and has been at every stage of their careers when compared side by side.
Comments
Post a Comment