Kobe Versus LeBron: Who Do You Want On Your Team?

It is time to add my thoughts to the old debate about who is the better NBA player: LeBron James or Kobe Bryant.

This past week brought two stellar performances in Madison Square Garden from both as their respective teams played the Knicks. In addition, this weekend brings the two together again in a match up between Bryant's Lakers and James' Cavaliers on Sunday in Cleveland.

Quite honestly, you could go either way in this debate and come out justified. Both players are amazing and fill the highlight reels each night on Sportscenter. Whether it is their athleticism on display dunking in an eye popping manner, or their knack for the perfect no look pass to their teammates, they both are amazing and fun to watch.

In the end I am a Cavs fan and my opinion will be biased. I will take LeBron over Kobe. But I don't have to apologize for that. Here is my justification:

This year, James (6'8" 250 lbs) is averaging 28.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and seven assists per game. He is shooting .491 from the field and .297 from beyond the arc. His free throw percentage is 77.4. He turns it over 3.04 times per game. Defensively, he is averaging 1.9 steals and 1.29 blocked shots per game. He commits just under two fouls a game.

Bryant (6'6" 205 lbs) is averaging 27.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game. He is shooting .476 from the field and .367 from beyond the arc. His free throw percentage is 86.2. He turns the ball over 2.69 times a game. Defensively, he is averaging 1.27 steals and 0.39 blocks per game. He commits just over two fouls a game.

So here is a quick rundown of who leads those stats:
Points: James
Assists: James
Rebounds: James
Steals: James
Blocks: James
FG%: James
3-pt%: Bryant
FT%: Bryant
Fouls: James
TOs: Bryant

That means James leads in seven of the 10 categories. Statistically, LeBron dominates Kobe. But being a statistically better player for half a season doesn't make you the true better player. So let's compare career stats by average since Kobe has been it he league longer than James.

Points: James (+2.4)
Assists: James (+2.0)
Rebounds: James (+1.7)
Steals: James (+0.3)
Blocks: James (+0.3)
FG%: James (+0.14)
3-pt%: Bryant (+0.21)
FT%: Bryant (+10.6%)
Fouls: James (-0.6)
TOs: Bryant (-0.37)

James still leads in seven out of 10 categories in the statistical battle.

Again, there is more to a player than his statistics.

If you ask LeBron himself what is most important, he would tell you championships. In this category Kobe has him beat 3-0. Now we enter ring regarding the "team" success that each player has been able to influence. This part of the debate becomes more subjective and less objective.

We can look at the numbers alone and see Kobe is far and away the better player when measured by team's success with him at the helm. But there are a number of points LeBron supporters, including myself, will make.

Kobe did it with Shaquille O'Neal who, himself, is arguably one of the most dominant players of our era. LeBron has never had anyone even close to O'Neal's quality at his side. I personally get tired of the old, worn out, "lack of supporting cast" talk that exists regarding my Cavs, but never do I think to compare Zydrunas Ilgauskus and Andy Varejao or Sasha Pavlovic and others from the past several years to the likes of O'Neal, Gasol, and Bynum among others.

LeBron has been able to get the Cavs to an NBA Finals despite this lack of comparable talent. He did singlehandedly (with some already forgotten by the national media help from Daniel Gibson) get the Cavs past Detroit in an extremely exciting conference championship series in 2007.

But Kobe also won games for the Lakers in the Shaq days when O'Neal was getting fouled so much that Bryant had to step up. So while he had O'Neal there, is it really fair to punish him for that?

Still, I take LeBron in this argument too. Watching what James did in the 2007 playoff run was truly amazing. Even though Kobe people will argue that if you replace James with Bryant in that situation, he would do the same, I am not so sure which leads me to my next point.

Leadership on and off the court is an intangible that is very difficult to measure. At times it seems as though Kobe is out there for himself. It wasn't long ago he wanted out of L.A. (at least the Laker's) and quickly changed his tune when they started winning again. During that same period he was basically carrying the team's scoring load by himself. There were whispers of him being too selfish.

LeBron on the other hand has involved teammates from day one. In fact, he as made it such a point to distribute the ball that many national talking heads have criticized him for it saying he doesn't have that killer instinct. They said he would rather defer the game winner than take it. While many look at this as a negative, this is more of a positive in my mind because he is creating a team attitude —fellow players trust him.

You can see the value in it this year as the Cavs have a tight knit group and players who have been here awhile like Varejao, seem to know where to be and when they are going to get the ball. No longer can a team focus on James.

An example would be the performances this past week in New York. While Kobe dropped 61 points compared to James' 52, LeBron was one rebound short of a triple double (11 assists and nine official rebounds). Bryant had zero rebounds and three assists. LeBron fills the stat sheet nightly as he scores himself and involves others.

The growth of LeBron is also a factor in my preference over Kobe. Not only is LeBron more of a leader, but he listens to his coach and has taken on his coaches persona of defense first. Mike Brown is not Phil Jackson. he did not come in with a chest full of hardware. He didn't have the experience or presence Jackson has had.

LeBron had every reason to think coach Brown was not worth listening to when he continued to harp on defense over offense. But LeBron has evolved from a lackadaisical defender to a menacing stopper.  He is blocking shots from behind in an intimidating and jaw dropping manner on a regular basis.  He is matching up on the opponents best offensive threat nightly and practically shutting them down.  Not only does he guard the four, he also checks point guards and even centers.  Against Toronto he was going against Jermaine O'Neal in the second half and locking him down.

LeBron James has a tendancy to take bad shots.  He falls in love with the three point shot too often.  His free throw shooting is improved but it is not where he wants it to be.  There are elements of his game that need work.  But any day of the week, and any part of the world against any team, I'd prefer having LeBron James on my team than Kobe Bryant.