Commentary: In Kobe vs. LeBron, the final verdict reads...

By Prem Ramkumar     3/19/09 7:00pm

When I told my friends about writing a column to determine the best player in the NBA, they all threatened to write letters to the Thresher office to complain about my tremendous bias. True, I am a diehard Lakers fan; I was born and raised in Los Angeles. However, I am first and foremost an NBA fan, so I would rather be true to the game by making an unbiased assessment of the basketball titans of today. The argument boils down to LeBron James, a.k.a. "The Chosen One," and Kobe Bryant, a.k.a. "Black Mamba." (Sorry D-Wade, but you've fallen down more times than you've gotten up.)

First, a couple stipulations: I will not bother considering hypotheticals or arguments beginning with, "If LeBron continues to improve at this rate.." Likewise, this is not a popularity contest. If it were, it would go to Kobe hands down, as he has more jersey sales overall than any other player. And while most contend that the only people who will defend Kobe to the death are Lakers fans, this statement is not true, for Kobe has received more MVP chants in foreign arenas than any other active player in the NBA, including Boston and New York. In a recent poll by ESPN, 51 percent of America said that Kobe is the best player in the NBA while 48 percent chose LeBron.

There are three main angles from which to approach this. The first is to ask, "With whom would you start a franchise today?" This is easy for me: LeBron. He is so young, so talented, so freakishly athletic to say otherwise. At only 24 years old, he already has the experience of leading a team to the NBA finals. His athleticism is unparalleled, from his speed to his strength to his vertical jump. His Magic Johnson-like court vision is unnecessarily mature for his position at small forward. Furthermore, he has not sustained any serious injuries to have me worried as a general manager.

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Kobe, on the other hand, is 30 years old and will give you only three to four more years of being able to take over a game and dominate the scoreboard. Sure, Michael Jordan secured three of his six championships after the age of 30, and when it's all said and done, the best player between Kobe and LeBron will have the most rings. Right now, Kobe has three rings in his 12 seasons, but he had a dominant big man in Shaq by his side for all of them. LeBron, however, has yet to play with another superstar on his squad or with Kobe's veteran experience. Thus, direct comparisons between championships is not quite fair. Nevertheless, despite Kobe's attributes, youth and long-term security is what I would want my franchise built around.

Another way to approach the matter at hand is to ask, "Who would you rather have the ball at the end of a game?" Another no-brainer. Kobe is by far the most effective finisher. Time after time, he has dominated the last six minutes of a game by nailing clutch fade-away 18-footers and cold-blooded three-pointers. In six years, LeBron has only managed to hit five game-winning shots, whereas Kobe in this same period hit 17 in far more intense situations.

Finally, the overall skill sets of the individuals must be considered alongside the other factors. Kobe is without a doubt the superior shooter and his ability to get to the hoop nimbly is matched and only slightly bested by LeBron. Their styles of getting to the hoop on the offensive end are different, but they both can drive to the hoop at will. The nod goes to LeBron in rebounding due to size and position. The ball-handling skills of Kobe are superior, whereas LeBron does a better job of finding his teammates by dropping dimes.

Defensively, Kobe made two All- Defensive Second Team and one All-Defensive First Team in the first five years of his career, compared to LeBron's zero, proving that Kobe is a better lock-down defender. Today, both have become fantastic leaders, something that could not have been readily said about Kobe in the past. As far as work ethic and intensity, Kobe, according to a players' poll, is the one of the fiercest players in the league.

This year there were already several notable moments involving this pair. Most will cite the recent massacres at Madison Square Garden by Kobe and LeBron, saying that the 52-point, 11-assist and nine-rebound performance by LeBron was far more impressive than Kobe's 61-point, three-assist performance. But what most people overlook is that Kobe's position is shooting guard, where his role is to be an offensive striker; LeBron's size and position mandate that he rebounds and muscles the offense. When LeBron attracts the attention, his adept passing out of double-teams allows him to put up the ridiculous numbers. In addition, Kobe had to prove to his team in just 37 minutes against the Knicks - compared to LeBron's 44 - that they would be just fine with center Andrew Bynum going down the previous game.

In their most recent head-to-head matchup, Kobe and the Lakers were victorious in an away game without Bynum. With an under-the-weather Kobe guarding LeBron for the entire 35 minutes he played, LeBron, interestingly, had an "off" shooting night, as ESPN reported, going 5-20 from the field. But in the 13 minutes Kobe was on the bench and not guarding LeBron, "The Chosen One" made four of his five field goals. Kobe is a highly-underrated defensive player and he stole the night despite being ill. LeBron's defense is highly overrated because he has flashes of outstanding blocks that climb to the top of SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays, misleading lay viewers; he does not do the dirty work like traditional, hardworking defenders like Bruce Bowen or Ron Artest or, yes, Kobe.

Despite LeBron's youth and seemingly limitless ceiling, Kobe is the today's best player in the NBA for his ability to close games, play equal, if not better, defense than LeBron, score effortlessly in so many different ways and match the killer instinct and work ethic only before seen in Jordan.

Prem Ramkumar is a Jones College freshman.

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