Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James: Which NBA Superstar Has Bigger Global Impact?

The battle between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James doesn't just take place on the court. It plays out on a global scale as each superstar attempts to assert himself as the largest basketball icon in the world.

Kobe became the most popular player on earth after Michael Jordan pulled the plug on his legendary basketball career, but LeBron has stepped forth as a willing and able challenger now that his career has progressed.

He's been the best player in the NBA for a while now. Has that been enough to push him past the Mamba?

There is no definitive answer to this question, so let's break down the argument for each superstar.

The Argument for Kobe

For a long time, Kobe has been one of the most popular athletes on a global scale. His high-scoring output and status as the superstar on one of the most well-known teams in the NBA has promoted his name among fanbases that exist outside the United States.

For proof, let's turn to jersey sales. Unfortunately, sales figures haven't come out for the entire 2012-13 season, but we still have access to Forbes' list from 2011-12.

First, the domestic sales:

1. Derrick Rose
2. Jeremy Lin
3. Kobe Bryant
4. LeBron James
5. Carmelo Anthony

And now, internationally:

1. Kobe Bryant
2. Derrick Rose
3. LeBron James
4. Kevin Garnett
5. Dwight Howard

In both cases, Kobe comes out ahead of LeBron.

While jersey sales are by no means the be-all and end-all, they're still quite telling. It takes an actual investment to purchase a jersey, and they're not exactly cheap for the average fan.

Kobe has also had the best-selling jersey in China for each of the last six seasons. The most populous country in the world has firmly embraced the Black Mamba, and that hasn't changed as the shooting guard has aged.

In fact, Kobe has a statue in Guangzhou.

Think about that for a second. Kobe has never played professional basketball in China. Hell, J.R. Smith spent more time doing so than Bryant did.

He wasn't born there, and it was Italy that he lived in growing up. There are literally no ties, but the country has still embraced Kobe like a second son. Just look at the type of crowds he drew while taking part in his eighth tour of China and making stops in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Xi’an and Shanghai as he promotes the KOBE 8 "Fireworks" and Dream Season V.

That's pretty much the definition of being a global icon.

The same story unfolds if you look at money, or even just applause.

According to USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt, it was Kobe who earned the loudest ovation at the London Olympics, just as he had in China years before. When Mohamed Hadidane, a member of Tunisia's national team, asked for an autograph at the latest Summer Olympics, it was Kobe he looked to.

Not LeBron.

It was also Kobe who topped the most recent list of top-earning NBA athletes, once again provided to us by Forbes. The Mamba made $53.2 million, beating out his Miami Heat counterpart by $4.2 million.

According to Kurt Badenhausen, also from Forbes, international endorsements are what push Kobe over the top (err...to the top?):

"

Bryant’s following has allowed him to amass an endorsement portfolio of global brands including Nike, Smart Car, Panini and Turkish Airlines that pay him $28 million annually. Factor in his league leading $25.2 million salary from the Lakers and Bryant is the NBA’s top-earning athlete at $53.2 million.

"

That's far different than LeBron's list of endorsements, the vast majority of which are local companies. Therein lies the main difference between the two.

Kobe may have ceded the popularity battle within the confines of the USA, but he's still the bigger icon outside the NBA's home country.

Does that matter, though?

The Argument for LeBron

By asking how much the rest of the world affects this contest, I'm not trying to be America-centric. Nothing could be further from the truth.

But the fact of the matter is that basketball is largely an American sport. It's the reason the vast majority of the Association is made up of American-born players and why the USA typically dominates all international competitions.

Other sports are more popular elsewhere, which makes popularity within the States matter more, even in a discussion about having a "global impact."

Take B/R's own recently launched UK edition, for example. Whereas the NBA is one of the main tabs in the U.S. version of our site, it gets a little bit trickier to access the main basketball page on the international version. To do so, you have to mouse over the "More" tab and then find the NBA, conveniently listed under "U.S. Sports."

That's why there can still be an argument for James.

If we're only talking about the rest of the world, he pales in comparison to the Lakers 2-guard. But we're not discussing just the other countries; the USA is part of the overall picture, and it makes up a large portion.

During the middle of the 2012-13 season, Jeff Zillgitt announced that Carmelo Anthony had passed LeBron—who reigned from April 2012 to November 2012—as the owner of the best-selling jersey in the States. But LeBron was still No. 2, and Kobe was down at No. 4.

An ESPN poll in late July also revealed that the reigning MVP had become the most popular player in the league. As written by Darren Rovell:

"

Nearly 13 percent (12.9) of NBA fans said James was their favorite player this season, allowing him to best Kobe Bryant (12.5) for the first time since the 2008-09 season. That was the only other season when James passed the Los Angeles Lakers star, the top pick by fans for five of six years from 2006-07 to 2011-12.

"

Interesting, right?

But as is always the case with polls, you have to consider the methodology and figure out whether any selection bias exists. In this situation, it most certainly does:

"

The ESPN Sports Poll is conducted via telephone 350 days per year among a random national sample of Americans age 12 and older, including landline and cell phone-only respondents, and English and Spanish language interviews. Sports Poll has interviewed more than 400,000 Americans since 1994. In this study, 6,221 interviews were included from the first day of the NBA regular season through the last day of the NBA Finals.

"

There are quite a few problems with this.

1. ESPN only interviewed people in two languages, which isn't exactly an accurate representation of the entire world by any stretch of the imagination.
2. ESPN only interviewed Americans, then decided to call LeBron the most popular player in the NBA. As we've noted, Americans make up the majority of basketball fans, but certainly not the entire population of them.
3. 6,221 interviews? Seriously? That's all they're going to look at? The Sacramento Kings had the lowest attendance figures in 2012-13, and they still averaged 13,749 people per game.

You can take away a bit of information from ESPN's poll, but it by no means says what it claims to. LeBron is incredibly popular among the sample represented here. But did ESPN get lucky? Is the Heat star still the most popular player overall, even if that's not actually shown by the poll?

Here's one more telling set of numbers: 133,000,000 and 72,100,000.

Those are the number of results that come up when you type the two stars' names into Google. LeBron has almost twice as many hits.

It just goes to show that LeBron really has taken over as the more popular player, largely because of his impact within the country. Kobe certainly makes a bigger impact around the rest of the globe, but "global impact" includes the country in which the NBA actually takes place.

And within that country, LeBron is the King.