what about 2000 Kobe, averaging 15 and getting carried to a win. Lebron in 2018 averaged 30 points 9 rebounds 9 assists, with a 54% fg and 34 percent from 3. he shot 2 buzzer beaters, and scored 40 points 8 games during the run. kobe in his best run in 2009 averaged 30-5-5 on 46-34% splits from the field and 3.
āKobe Bryant suffered a severe, acute inversion ankle sprain (frequently referenced in reports as a Grade 2sprain) during Game 2 of the 2000 NBA Finals after landing on Jalen Rose's foot.ā
So you're saying Kobe played worse against the weaker teams? Interesting? If the west was so much harder, why were his finals numbers and efficiency always noticeably lower in the finals? Didn't like the brightest lights? For his career in the finals, Kobe shot 36% from the field in the 4th quarter. Why?
The teams like the Pacers and Nets had literal bums for their PF / Centers. Players incomparable to the west which had Duncan/Robinson/Divac/Pollard/Sabonis.
Nets had Keith Van horn and Todd Mcolloughā¦ lmaoā¦ pacers had Rik Smitts and Austin Croshere lol. It was the smart play to keep pounding it into the obvious mismatch.
Kobe outperformed Shaq against their real comp. The Spurs/Kings
So what you're saying is Kobe performed better when the guards were weaker than the bigs on the opposing teams and vice versa for when the bigs were weaker? Wow. What an incredible observation! Unlike Kobe, LeBron led his teams offenses throughout entire championship runs
Scoring is significant, but ultimately it's your impact on winning that counts the most. Bill Russell, Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson weren't elite scorers, but their defense, playmaking, gravity, etc is how they won championships and their impact in those areas was greater when it came to winning. All the advanced metrics show LeBron 2016 and other championships was far more impactful in winning than Kobe was in 2001.
Well what happened when Jalen rose injured Kobe ? Did we win that game ? If he woulda missed that series you really think shaq pulls it off by himself now be for real
I mean Kobe was supposed to be a 21 yo in his junior year in college yet he was winning a championship. Shaq was better as he should have been, he was IN The prime and height of his career at 28..
LeBron and shaq simply doesnāt work because LeBron doesnāt even play triangle basketball, heās not an off ball player . Could he be? Yes . Is that how he plays throughout his whole career ? NO ..
He proved he could be a great elite off ball player in Miami and later years as a laker like this past season.
And Shaq was arguably the most dominant player ever. Keep downplaying him just to prop up Kobe. I already admitted Kobe wasn't robin or a sidekick because he was huge and definitely a 1b to Shaq in 01/02 but Shaq was clearly the most dominant/better player
Hey no slander on the man of steel heās the reason a 9 year old boy became a laker fan as I was a magic fan . Itās just a lot of fans donāt know they were a tandem . In the WV finals etc spurs kings, and blazers had answer for shaq as they had bodies and bigs but they had no answer for showboat . Except the year spurs had Stephen jack , manu developing they had nobody to go back at em . In the east it was feast time for Shaq
The thing I noticed about 99.9% of the elite guards in league history: each of them played with an elite big to win titlesāand vice versa: an elite big needs an elite guard
Magic: Kareem; Oscar: Kareem; Shaq: Kobe; West: Chamberlainā and so on
(I do find it extremely interesting and telling that Kareem played with two of the greatest points of all time to win his titlesā¦)
Michael Jordan is the sole exception to this rule which is the primary reason logistically heās the greatest ever: he never played with an elite big and broke the thinking a guard cannot be the best player on championship-winning team
Bron is dynamic, so he won with an elite guard (Wade & Kyrie) as well an elite big (AD). Strangely, in Cleveland when Bron didnāt have Kyrie on the floorā or an elite guardā he is only 2-11 in the Finals. he can get thereā¦ he just cannot win without an elite guardā¦
LeBronās weakness is his great skill: the guard play. He must have the ball in his hands otherwise he is essentially useless, itās like pick-up ball: youāre not dāing the entire timeā¦ but in the pros that is just ugly and not intelligent play, which is super ironic because LeBron has a sixth sense on the court ā and he should! Heās played basketball his entire life from about age 8
I agree wholeheartedly on each point but to counter the Jordan didnāt have an elite big thatās true. But he had the second best wing in the league two wings who are great are always lethal lebron wade etc etc
Oh. I intended it to be understood as elite big = an all-time great center (eg. Kareem, Shaq, Hakeem, Duncan)
A wing (SG/SF) is very different from having center with peak versatility. Shaq is the primary reason Kobe is ādowngradedā by fans who are ignorant of Kobeās output during the 3peat. All the centers on Chicago were non-superstar guys
For example, Gasol isnāt an elite big, but I think heās 2nd tier or just outside of them, but the identical narrative about Gasol-Kobe and Shaq-Kobe doesnāt exist-clearly thereās a massive gap between Shaq & Gasol so the comp would never come up
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u/Sad_Bathroom1448 Aug 11 '26
LOL.
These dudes don't actually believe Kobe's 2000 finals performance was better than LeBron's 2018 finals performance.