LeBron James Has the Edge in Regular Season, but Kobe Bryant Has the Titles

The debate between LeBron James and Kobe Bryant is one of the most volatile topics in all of professional sports.

There is no middle ground between the two. Fans are on one side of the fence or the other, and the juxtaposition of the two superstars brings nothing but spirited conversation.

Kobe Bryant is not a better player than LeBron James because he has more championship rings.

LeBron James is the more talented player of the two.

However, talent is not the sole determinant in finding sustained success.

When James is at his best and being aggressive in his approach, there is nobody better on the basketball court. He can flat-out dominate in every facet of the game.

The difference between the two players resides between the ears.

Mike Brown, who has now had an opportunity to coach both James and Bryant, recently talked about some of the differences he saw between the two:

"

"There's just a different feel to the two guys," Brown said.

"They're different personalities. LeBron, he's a guy who likes to laugh and joke...Kobe is not as much. Kobe's more serious-minded and so on and so forth."

"

It's nothing that should shock anybody.

This is nothing new.

The mental makeup of players can serve as a defining difference between two players, and that is exactly what we have with the difference between James and Bryant.

Talent has never been the issue with James. He's dominated the game since coming into the league with Cleveland, and he'll be a force to be reckoned with for his entire career.

Since arriving in Miami, he's deferred too often to Dwyane Wade when he should be asserting himself as the the best player on the floor.

When Wade has been out of the game, we've seen James turn up the heat significantly.

That's what we should see from James every night, even when Wade is back on the floor.

If he showed up with that fiery intensity every single game, there would be significantly fewer questions surrounding James' game.

Bryant has shown an unwillingness to shrink from crunch time when the game is on the line, and James has come up small in the same situations thus far in his career.

In head-to-head matchups in the regular season, James has emerged with success.

When the two players are on the court together, James has played with an elevated level of confidence.

He plays to prove a point against Bryant, and that is the way he should be playing every game regardless of the opposition.

Bryant brings out the best in James, but he shouldn't have to—James needs to find that competitive drive every game no matter who he's lined up against.

Bryant, 33, has five championships to his name, while James, 27, has yet to win one in his career.

Until James adds one to his collection, that will continue to be a popular sentiment.

That is the most obvious dividing line between these two great players, and it's a tightrope James will continue to carefully toe.

These two have nothing to prove to each other, but the rest of the world has questions waiting to be answered.

This is a comparison that will go on long after each finishes his career, and there will never be a consensus among the masses.

There is an old saying that you can take different steps to reach the same place.

James is still searching for firm footing on the path to a championship.

LeBron may be winning the head-to-head battles, but thus far, Bryant has overwhelmingly dominated the war.