Lebron’s First Years in the NBA Better Than Bryant's

Kobe Bryant is having the best season of his career, leading his new three—7' footer death squad to a championship contention.

LeBron James is also having the best season of his career, leading more of a dead squad to playoffs dreams.  Both are widely regarded as the untouchable, two best players in the league.  

The debate is passionate. If you read the dozens of articles regarding the subject.  Should Kobe win the MVP award?  To be honest I wouldn’t be outraged if it happened to be the case. But when it comes to the best career start, I’ll take LeBron over Kobe (and by far) for what he’s accomplished so far.   

Don’t get me wrong, Kobe Bryant is a unique player, one who will leave his print on NBA’s history like few players ever did.  At age 30, he’s got three rings and hundreds of incredible plays you can watch over and over again on YouTube. When he’s on a roll he’s the closest thing there is-or ever was-to basketball perfection (let’s pretend for a second that MJ never existed).

Hey, here’s a guy who once scored 55 points in a half, scored 40 nine straight times, 63 points seating out in the fourth, was the youngest to reach 10000 points up until a few weeks ago… (feel free to think about any other great achievements he’s accomplished); 

Nevertheless, with all the talk there is about his great play over the last few years (and to which I mostly agree), I still think that if you take a look at his entire (great) career   LeBron is way ahead so far in terms of maturity, leadership and revealed genius. 

If I were to put on my Kobe-hater Halloween costume, for just a moment, I’d say that Kobe is a 45 percent all-time shooter (not great), 34 percent all-time three-point shooter (not good), spent his first two young years in the NBA learning how to become a basketball genius, averaging just 12 points a game. 

He heated it up in his third season but still missed 32 games due to injury. We tend to forget his last second air balls during some playoff games in his younger days or his 40+ shot attempts in some games.

For a very long time Kobe was feared by opponents for his great plays but also by his coaches for some of his ill-advised and sometimes selfish decisions. His polemical and again selfish behavior could have been voiced over in Spanish for a Mexican Telenovela.

Whether it’s been Shaq, Phil Jackson, his teammates, or the Lakers president many feuds have surrounded his heated and self centered personality.  Some people say that he reacts like that because he hates losing and will do anything to better his team. Maybe so.

LeBron feels the same about winning but shows it differently, more quietly and maybe more efficiently. Kobe’s a winner so far this season but has been a frustrated first round playoff series loser for several years, not a long time  ago.  Still, over the years he gradually but surely walked up the ladder of brilliance.

What has he become? Nothing less than a historical player who’s now well equipped to pursue a great career. Nevertheless, as great as Kobe has become, LeBron will surpass him by far if it’s not already done, oops dare I say it.    

When it comes to trajectory and future potential, LeBron James gets the winning statue, by a 1000 votes to 1. Unlike Kobe, James’s impact on the league has been of tremendous proportions in a very short time and there seems to be no limit as to what he can become or accomplish in the next few years, a time when Kobe’s star will be starting to fade.  

All the new qualities we now find in Kobe Bryant such as leadership, unselfishness and brilliant play are precisely the qualities which have been characterizing LeBron James’s game since he first set a foot on an NBA court at age 18. His maturity and future potential are maybe unparalleled in the history of the NBA, much better than Kobe at the same age.

The scary aspect of his personality is his willingness to get better not only as an individual player but also as a teammate. It took 10 years for Kobe to really get it. LeBron was born with it.  Some critics will remember the four-game sweep in the finals but not the fact that a 22-year old boy-wonder put a mediocre team on his shoulders en route to the final stage of the basketball season. 

Kobe was in the finals at that same age also but not to take away his credit, it’s nice to have a 28-year old Shaq by your side.  Just ask yourself this question. Would you take a 23-year old Kobe over a 23-year old James to start up a new franchise?  Both of these incredible players are having the best year of their career, but one is 30 and the other 23. Easier now, which one do you pick?