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Lebron James (Los Angeles Lakers)

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Bucky32 said:
The argument is certainly there for LeBron. Obviously, we're talking about two different positions - which I find generally pointless - but looking at the numbers, LeBron has a case.

Ahead of Kobe in all traditional statistics: PPG, RPG, APG. Even if you dip into the advanced stuff, LeBron leads in PER and WS/48 but is behind slightly in WS.
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Not trying to pick nits, and I'm not even going to bother looking it up, but I would be surprised if Kobe didn't still average out to a higher PPG over his career. The other two, lebron probably has in spades as the last time I looked, Kobe was averaging somewhere around 28, 5 and 4 and Lebron was like 27, 7 and 8
 
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Bucky32 said:
The argument is certainly there for LeBron. Obviously, we're talking about two different positions - which I find generally pointless - but looking at the numbers, LeBron has a case.

Ahead of Kobe in all traditional statistics: PPG, RPG, APG. Even if you dip into the advanced stuff, LeBron leads in PER and WS/48 but is behind slightly in WS.
Click to expand...

WyoBuck said:
Not trying to pick nits, and I'm not even going to bother looking it up, but I would be surprised if Kobe didn't still average out to a higher PPG over his career. The other two, lebron probably has in spades as the last time I looked, Kobe was averaging somewhere around 28, 5 and 4 and Lebron was like 27, 7 and 8
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FWIW, Kobe's career PPG includes two years as a teenage backup (on a playoff team) to start his career, whereas LeBron came into the league with a fully-formed NBA body and was The Man for a bad team right away. Take out Kobe's 2 years of 7.6 and 15.4 PPG, and their career scoring averages are virtually identical.
 
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WyoBuck said:
Not trying to pick nits, and I'm not even going to bother looking it up, but I would be surprised if Kobe didn't still average out to a higher PPG over his career. The other two, lebron probably has in spades as the last time I looked, Kobe was averaging somewhere around 28, 5 and 4 and Lebron was like 27, 7 and 8
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Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but Kobe is averaging 25.5 PPG over his career while LeBron is averaging 27.5.
 
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exhawg said:
If your criteria is current best I think Lebron is better than Kobe. 3+ years ago that might have been different.

I would be interested to see what the answer would be if you could honestly ask NBA coaches and GM's which player they would most like to have on their team if they wanted to win a title this season. I'm guessing Lebron would get over 90% of the vote.
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Lebron in his prime vs. Kobe in his prime, I'd be surprised if more than 1-2 GMs said they'd pick Kobe.
 
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Kobe wasn't the athletic freak that Lebron was/is.

Kobe is a finesse player and relied on isolation to make his shot. He has a tendency to take very difficult shots because he couldn't drive the ball every time like Lebron can.
Hence his shooting % is much lower.

I would take Lebron over Kobe in their respective primes by a slim margin only because Lebron was also a team player and a distributor.
 
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Bucky32 said:
If I'm choosing between the two in their prime (has LeBron even hit his prime yet?) I'm taking LBJ every time. Out-of-this-world athleticism and can play/defend every position on the court.
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It depends on the situation. If I need someone who can light up 40 points in 2 quarters or 55 points in 3, I would go with Kobe. If I need a clutch play to win the game, I go with Kobe.

If you ever saw Kobe play during the 06-07 season, he was out of this world. He was literally the closest thing I've seen to Jordan to this day.
 
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NFBuck said:
Kobe was also a reserve for most of his first 2-3 years in the league. That skews his numbers slightly.
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You can't just throw out the years that Kobe wasn't good enough to play to prove that he has better numbers than Lebron. Throw out the top 2 and low 2 seasons for both and that would be a more fair assessment. Part of Lebron's "greatness" was that he he came into the league so young and avergaged 21 6 and 6. Kobe didn't even do that in his 3rd season when he was getting 38 mins a game.

Throwing out the top 2 and low 2 years Lebron is at 27.6 pts per game and Kobe is at 25.4.

If you throw out Kobe's 3 worst years since he is definitely on the decline while lebron is in his prime, Kobe is at 26.1 pts per game. Lebron is definitely ahead in Reb and Assists no matter how you look at it.
 
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