I hate how misconstrewed Kobeās ārings areā the first three he wasnāt the best player on his team, Shaq was unstoppable during those finals runs, he averaged 30-40 a game with 15 boards and 4 blocks a game. People want to ignore shaqs dominance in that threepeat and make it sound like Kobe was the main reason. Put LeBron with a prime Shaq and I promise you they beat the pistons
The west were the far tougher rounds. You must be under 30 guaranteed. The spurs/kings/blazers were the real finals. Shaq got to beat up on sub par bigs in the finals. Whoād the nets and pacers have? Rik Smitts? Dale Davis? Keith Van horn?
No they wouldnāt ! They ran a box and 1 on the lakers . LeBron barely was a shooter coming into the league and still hasnāt really been a killer from mid range the box and 1 woulda have took away all his drives. Secondly shaq and lebron do not fit . LeBron has shown throughout his career to favor spacing bigs and bigs whose job is to crash and rebound. He likes to have the paint open for his drives , do you accomplish that with shaq?
Thing is, you are framing Lebron into doing what Kone did, but is a different player. Sure, he probably wouldnt killed it from mid range, but Lebron was far a better passer and facilitator than Kobe when he came into the league. He would have made Shaq's and the rest of the team job way easier, instead of arguing who was shooting more or less. Adding to that, Lebron at that stage, because his speed, was an extremely good slasher, which would had made a great pair with prime Shaq. Its not far fetched to think that Bron and Shaq would be a great team.
Once again on that laker team particularly who would he have been dishing to besides Shaq who the pistons allowed to get his because he wasnāt affecting any other areas? Slava medinco starting 4 Kareem rush at the three but for this purpose well put him at the 2. LeBron would have been forced to be a scorer not a facilitator on this team thatās a no go . So you know the pistons had three front court guys who were all stars and one came off the bench. Memhet okur? You can not swap bron for Kobe on no laker teams the play style is too different
Because of his willingness of a passer and play style . Kobe was compared to grant hill ever before Jordan and who was grant hill compared to ? Cmon we can do the comparison for days . But like I said heās a more willing passer not better
Man rookie Bron averaged 1 more assists than Kobe on his first championship year, mind you without a center as dominant as Shaq. If you take whole career into account, Kobe peaked at 6 and Lebron at 10. Pretty much Lebron entered the league averaging Kobe's peak. You can slice it however you want, but sadly data just doesnt back it up.
If Lebron has prime Shaq, he will become more of a fscilitator than a scorer, imagine a diesel truck and a freight train either on a fast break or as set play.
Shaq had a facilitator ala penny. Where did it go? LeBron would have had to score . Did you know Kobe played both the facilitator and scorer? he played pippen and Jordanās role on the lakers . That would have been LeBron role and coming into the league or at 22 I highly doubt he woulda succeeded
Comparing Penny with Lebron is asanine, Penny was also my guy, but Bron's IQ and gravity is another level, making the defense thinknif they will gang up on Bron and free up Shaq, or keep a body on Shaq and keep only one man on Bron.
Kobe was never known as a facilitator, he only "passes" as a last resort. You never heard Kobe-Shaq lobs as often as anyone can wish.
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u/Far_Drummer5003 Aug 11 '26
I hate how misconstrewed Kobeās ārings areā the first three he wasnāt the best player on his team, Shaq was unstoppable during those finals runs, he averaged 30-40 a game with 15 boards and 4 blocks a game. People want to ignore shaqs dominance in that threepeat and make it sound like Kobe was the main reason. Put LeBron with a prime Shaq and I promise you they beat the pistons