Luka’s Corner

I will be writing every once in a while in response to a basketball blog on the web. If there is an issue some blogger has already written about, I will either criticize their view or agree with it. This is the first edition of "Blogging Wars".

Unfortunately, there has been more debate about whether LeBron James is better than Kobe Bryant than there has been about the US team’s success so far in the Olympics. According to David Friedman in a recent article, Kobe Bryant is by far the better player between him and "King James". I completely disagree:

Let us start with statistics. Friedman wrote that LBJ established himself as the second best player in the league during the regular season (in terms of stats).  He also added that LeBron will never be as great as Kobe until he improves his outside shot and that his "low shooting percentages and high turnover rates" hold him back in this discussion. First of all, in terms of three-point percentage, Kobe has an advantage over LeBron from downtown (36% to 31.5%), but, more importantly, LeBron actually has an advantage in overall FG% (48% to 46%). So, despite James’ weaker outside shooting, he is so much better than Bryant from inside the arc that his long-range shot barely even matters.

Friedman peeped at the regular season stat sheets with a completely biased eye. He rightly stated that LeBron commits more turnovers than Kobe (0.3 more turnovers), but he failed to state how the assist numbers stack up. LeBron James averaged a staggering 7.2 APG in 07-08, compared to 5.4 APG for Kobe Bryant. This is nearly two assists more! Now, to refute Friedman’s criticism of LeBron’s turnovers, two more assists by LeBron with his 0.3 increase in turnovers gives him more than a 4-1 assist to turnover ratio in this regard. Now, you would think that less assists for Kobe Bryant would mean an increase in points, but LeBron James leads him in PPG by 1.7 as well. So much for the greatest scorer in the world…

David Friedman also goes into great length describing how much better Kobe played in the postseason than LeBron in 2008, but that argument has one major flaw. That flaw is the supporting cast of the Los Angeles Lakers compared to that of the Cleveland Cavaliers. It is an accepted truth that defenses zone in during the Playoffs, focusing even more on the superstar and making life even more difficult for him, whether it be Kobe Bryant or LeBron James or Paul Pierce. Considering this, how can we sit and argue about how "poorly" LBJ played in the postseason when he had Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, and Anderson Varejao receiving the ball? Kobe Bryant, on the other hand, had Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol on the receiving end. As Skip Bayless of ESPN says, "Are you kidding me?" Who would you rather have catch your pass, an Anderson Varejao or a Pau Gasol?

All of this arguing about Bryant and James will have to wait for next postseason because Mo Williams of the Milwaukee Bucks recently joined the Cavaliers. Now we can legitimately have a competition where the two superstars have almost equal supporting casts. And, if it turns out that Kobe Bryant actually does perform better than LeBron James, I will be the first to admit that I was wrong and David Friedman was right. But, for now, I stand firm.