Make the Pass or Shoot the Ball?

                                                       Make the Pass or Shoot the Ball?

                                                                       

            Michael Jordan to many is arguably the best basketball player to ever play the game of basketball. Why? For his ability to rip his opponent’s heart out with clutch shot after clutch shot, posterizing dunks, trash talk and of course he is six for six in finals appearances. How can you argue perfection? There have been two players since the Michael Jordan era that have rivaled his greatness and sprouted the most talked about debate in NBA history. Who you got, Lebron James or Kobe Bryant? Well let’s look at the numbers for each player.

            Kobe Bryant was drafted out of high school in 1996 and played 20 NBA seasons. For his career, Kobe averaged 25 points per game with 4.7 assists and 5 rebounds while shooting 44% from the field, 32% from the three-point line and 83% from the free throw line. In seven NBA Finals appearances, he has five wins to two losses with two Finals Most Valuable Player award. Lebron James also like Kobe Bryant was drafted out of high school in 2003 and is currently still playing. For his career, he is currently averaging 27 points per game with 7 rebounds and 7 assists while shooting 50% from the field, 34% from the three point line, and 74% from the free throw line. In seven NBA Finals appearances, he has three wins to four losses with three Finals Most Valuable Player Award. By the numbers the edge goes to Lebron James but the one statistical category that Lebron James would rather have over Kobe Bryant is the NBA Finals victories which is what they both wanted most in their careers.

            Such a debate of course would have different viewpoints based on the facts and from watching them both play. I conducted a simple survey of who one would choose and why. One person said “Lebron is someone you can put on ANY team and it becomes a championship contending team.” Another; who was a little conflicted with his choice said, “comparing Kobe in his prime to ‘bron in is prime could really be a tossup, I still give Kobe the edge b/c at the end of the day he had the ability to simply put the ball in the basket.”

            Lebron James and Kobe Bryant are both once in a generation players who easily set themselves apart from everyone else since stepping onto the basketball court. Lebron James is a physical specimen standing at 6’8 around 250 pounds with a combination of athleticism, immense speed, strength, and passing ability beyond imagination. He can just about do it all for a team when needed. Where Kobe Bryant stands at 6’6 around 212 pounds and is someone who combined his athleticism, great footwork, shooting and pure will to win. “Kobe Bryant’s competitive nature is unlike any other not named Michael Jordan; there were times people question Lebron’s will to win but in Kobe’s 20 year career it was never questioned.”

To put it simply, Kobe has a killer instinct in which he wants the ball in his hands no matter what, where LeBron is more passive and is comfortable with a teammate taking the big shot if he feels they have a better shot than him. This ultimately stops people from really appreciating Lebron’s greatness. Why? For the simple fact that as a basketball fan you want to see the star players perform in crucial moments of the basketball game. Kobe time after time rises to the occasion and if he doesn’t come up clutch for his team he goes down swinging which make people respect Kobe. Putting the Kobe and Shaq led Lakers teams aside we have seen Kobe’s greatness personified in playoff series against a Carmelo Anthony Denver Nuggets team, a Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire led suns team, and a Ron Artest and Yao Ming led Rockets team where we all remember where we were when he told the world “HE CAN’T GUARD ME” after hitting another jumper over defensive specialist Shane Battier for the and one. Kobe simply put his impact on the game by scoring the basketball and withstanding what the other team threw at him.

  To Lebron’s credit he is a pass first player and looks to get other people involved while also getting his, but being the best player in the world for the better part of almost a decade now…there is simply no excuse for why Lebron seems to shy away from the big moment. For example, the 2011 NBA finals against Dallas up two games to one he flat out chocked and disappeared from the series as they lost three games in a row and is now viewed as probably the biggest superstar meltdown in NBA history in terms of performance. He has shown us all that he can perform in big moments but it seems we only get to see these jaw dropping performances when his back is against the wall or his legacy seems to be in question. Games such as game four of the 2012 eastern conference semifinals in Indiana down two games to one he drops 40 points 18 rebounds and 9 assists; or game six of the 2012 eastern conference finals in Boston down three games to two he drops 45 points to go with 15 rebounds and five assists, or even my personal favorite game 5 of the 2007 eastern conference finals series tied at two games apiece in Detroit where he dropped 48 points while scoring the final 25 points for his team in a double overtime thriller. In each of those games LeBron had his imprint on every phase of the game and was relentless as can be with confidence in his jumper. That Lebron James is a Lebron that the NBA should be seeing more times than not.

At the end of the day Lebron and Kobe have two different styles of play and are both soon to be hall of fame players but many people give Kobe the edge because of the way he wins and also the way he loses. If Lebron went out swinging or simply dropped buckets instead of deferring like he did in the 2015 Finals loss against the Golden State Warriors and the last 3 games of last year’s NBA Finals, where it was clear he was the best player on the court, the debate of Kobe vs Lebron would have a different flavor and ring to it. And if Lebron wants to make this debate even more interesting than it already is, him and all his fans are gonna need "That Lebron James" type of game tonight and for the better part of this current NBA finals tonight if he doesn't want to see another blemish on his NBA resume as he faces a two games to none deficit with game 3 just about another 30 minutes from now.