Unpopular Opinion: Kobe Bryant was a better basketball player than Lebron James.
- buc18011
- May 31, 2022
- 6 min read
Four reasons Kobe Bryant was a better basketball player and had a better career than Lebron James.
Reason 1: More championships
Five is greater than four. That is a statistical fact. Most of us learned that before we were even potty trained.
Think about it, would you want five cookies or four cookies? Would you want five donuts or four donuts? Five basketballs or four basketballs? Five cars or four cars?
There may be few cases where you would only want four of something and not five, but not many. We live in a society where we want more, more, more.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that five championships will always be better than four championships. All the time. Period. End of story.
Another question I would like to pose is how credible is the bubble championship that Lebron won with the Lakers?
I know that it was still basketball and everything, but was everyone’s heads in the right frame of mind to compete? I don’t know. That’s not for me to say.
Another statement that I would just like to throw out there is, in my opinion, I don’t see Lebron winning another championship. I know that he is still putting up ridiculous numbers at his age, but I just don’t see it happening because of the players he has around him.
Reason 2: Less All-Stars on championship teams
Ok let’s do a little math here. I’ll break down every year that Lebron won and then every year that Kobe won and who was on those teams.
Lebron James:
`11-`12: *Ray Allen – 10x, *Chris Bosh – 11x, Juwan Howard – 1x, Rashard Lewis – 2x, *Dwayne Wade – 13x. Total: 5
`12-`13: Same as previous year.
`16-`17: Kyrie Irving – 7x, Kevin Love – 5x, Mo William – 1x. Total: 3
`19-`20: Anthony Davis – 8x, Dwight Howard – 8x, Rajon Rondo – 4x. Total: 3
In summary, Lebron James played with 11 All-Star caliber players in the years that he won a championship. Five of those players, he played with two times, so I guess it’s personal preference if you want to count those twice.
Now let’s do Kobe’s teams:
`99-`00: Derek Fisher – 2x, A.C. Green – 1x, Shaquille O’Neale – 15x, Glen Rice – 3x. Total: 4
`00-`01: Derek Fisher – 2x, Shaquille O’Neale – 15x, Horace Grant – 1x. Total: 1 new
`01-`02: Derek Fisher – 2x, Shaquille O’Neale – 15x, Mitch Richmond – 6x. Total: 1 new
`08-`09: Derek Fisher – 2x, Andrew Bynum – 1x, Pau Gasol – 6x. Total: 2 new
`09-`10: Derek Fisher – 2x, Andrew Bynum – 1x, Pau Gasol – 6x, Metta World Peace – 1x. Total: 1 new
As you can see, Kobe only played with nine All-Star caliber players.
If you want to make the argument that, “Well, Kobe had Shaq for three of those championships,” that’s fine. It’s true.
My counterargument would be: Lebron wouldn’t have his two from Miami if it wasn’t for Ray Allen, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade. All of whom are or will be in the Hall of Fame.
Speaking of Hall of Fame players, just for fun, let’s see how many of those Lebron played with and how many Kobe played with.
The three mentioned about are for sure Hall of Fame players. The other for sure one I would put with those is Dwight Howard. Ones on the fence would be Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, Anthony Davis, Rajon Rondo. That comes to a total of eight current or future Hall of Fame players.
Kobe had Shaq, Derek Fisher and Pau Gasol. Again, Kobe had less, and yet he has done more.
Reason 3: Better work ethic
We all know that Kobe’s work ethic was unmatched by anyone that has been or is currently in the league. Michael Jordan may be close to the same level.
Kobe Bryant embodied what it meant to perfect your craft - not by talent, but by hard, blue-collar work. Words like dedication, commitment and perseverance were not just things that Kobe said but lived every second of every day.
From stories to videos to interviews, players, coaches, fans and basically anyone that knew him, praise how hard he worked and how dedicated he was to the sport of basketball.
There is a reason his work ethic and the way he lived his life have a famous saying: The ‘Mamba Mentality.’
Throughout his NBA career and after, people raved about the way he approached life and basketball. I have no doubt that his work ethic played a part in him winning an Oscar as well.
One of the things that frustrates me the most with Lebron and proves my point here is something that happened just this last season.
Toward the end of the regular season, every game counted to get into the play-in game for the playoffs. Everyone should have been on the court, giving it 100%.
Yet, where was Lebron?
He was sitting on the bench with a minor injury, watching his team fight, struggle and ultimately fail in their attempt to make it into the play-in game.
Then there is Kobe, who in his last season, was on the bench looking like a mummy because of all the ice and wraps he had on his numerous injuries.
May I remind you that the Lakers went 17-65 that season. There was no hope of making the playoffs, but Kobe was out there running up and down the court with his team because he loved the game.
He knew that there was some young kid in the stands that drove for hours just to see him, and he wasn’t about to let him down.
I give Lebron all the credit he deserves. He works hard, trains hard and spends a crazy amount of money on his body every year. But, in my opinion, nobody will ever be more dedicated to the sport of basketball than Kobe.
There is nobody like him.
Reason 4: Won all his championships with the Lakers
How many teams did Kobe play for? One. How many has Lebron played for? Three.
I just watched the new movie ‘American Underdog’ a week ago or so. It’s a story about legendary quarterback Kurt Warner. In the movie, his college football coach benches him.
One day after practice, Kurt approaches the coach and asks, “Why did you bench me?” The coach replied with something along the lines of, ‘You’re a great athlete, but you don’t stay in the pocket. When things get hard, you bail.”
That kind of reminds me of Lebron James. When things got hard, he bailed. Things weren’t going the way he wanted in Cleveland, so he bailed and went to Miami where he knew he would succeed. And he did. With Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to help him, the Heat went to the Finals the first year he was on the team.
Then in 2014, with Bosh and Wade both opting out of their contracts to become free agents, James decided to bail because of the uncertainty and go back to Cleveland, making the Finals the following season and then winning the chip in 2016.
If it worked two times, why wouldn’t it work a third?
After losing to the Warriors in the 2017 Finals, James decided that it was time for a change … again. He joined the Los Angeles Lakers the following offseason, where they would win the championship in 2020 against one of his former teams, the Miami Heat.
Kobe, on the other hand, was there for the good and the bad. He wore the purple and gold for his whole career.
While he experienced a lot of success, he also experienced seasons where wins were sparce. For the last three years of his career, he missed the playoffs.
In Kobe’s last season, the Lakers went 17-65, which is the worst record in franchise history. Yet, Kobe was there night after night to either cheer on his team from the bench because of injury or play on the court if front of thousands of fans.
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