Interesting discussion JD and I respectfully share a different viewpoint. For my part, Lebron James is the best basketball player the universe has ever created. Please hear me out.
Lebron has 3x as many MVP’s and by the time he got his second MVP he had played in the league half as long as Kobe and yet had twice as many MVPs. He brought a weak Cleveland team to the finals in 2007 (I believe) with Moe Williams as his side kick; a guy who comes of the bench for the 6th seeded Clippers even after Billups went down. If memory serves, when Kobe didn’t have help (between Shaq and Gasol) he wanted to be traded and I think they missed the playoffs both years or got booted in first round???? Last game Kobe had 44 points and 0 assists, that is crazy, ecspecaily when you consider he has 14-feet of championship center in the paint. It is not my intention to take one game out of context but it has been a consistent theme that the higher his usage rate the worse off the team seems to be. He is also overrated as a closer (their have been studies actually) and If he was that great of a closer they would have extended the OKC series as they had late leads more than once. True, he has 5 rings but only 2 finals mvps. He wasn’t even the best player on his team half the time when they won the championship?
In conclusion, although you prosecute your case well JD, I don’t think it can be successfully argued that Kobe is the better all around player; the stats and the eye-test clearly point to Lebron.