Kobe's Lakers v. LeBron's Cavs

Actually, isn't the debate Kobe w/Cleveland vs. LeBron w/L.A.?? I only mentioned Jordan for a second in my answer.
But I do agree with Doc. All of these "who's better than who" arguments are faulty. You can twist stats and other variables any way you want to reach whatever predetermined conclusion you want to reach.
But, that didn't stop me from rambling earlier, so what the fuck do I know.

 

OK, take the words "hell of a lot" out. It's still less. The Bulls having Granville Waiters, Dave Corzine, Rory Sparrow and Sedale Threatt means I win the argument.

 

Then I guess we'll leave it at agree to disagree, but I might stick in a parting response to that. 1) Sparrow and Threatt were actually fairly decent guards who had long careers and we're only little used backups on that Bulls team, yet I'd still probably take either of em over Smush Parker, LA's STARTING PG; 2) as painful as Corzine was to watch, he was still a better option at center than Turiaf or Kwame. And, again, I'm confident there's little doubt which of those rosters 99% of hoops experts would judge as having "less" talent. I have no defense to Granville Waiters, however, you got me on that one.

 

All I know is that when Eric Snow sees substantial minutes for your team, something is wrong. Are they worse than Kobe's cast? I haven't seen enough of LA to know.

 

OK calm down. Yes LeBron was uncanny the other night. But the greatest of all time? Please. Let the brother when a championship first before you annoint him as the "greatest of all time".

 

Yeah, that was the Eric Snow of many moons ago... Nothing against the guy, but teams don't even pretend to guard him when he's on the court.

 

That was also Eric Snow carried by Allen Iverson all the way to the finals.

 

Cavs are the No. 2 seed, they did win 50 games. Eric Snow has averaged 6.5 minutes this series. Not exactly "substantial".

 

Better supporting cast: Lakers, barely. Odom's the big reason. Hell, Maurice Evans might start on the Cavs over Pavlovic. If you want to add in the Phil Jackson vs. Mike Brown factor, it's LA, easily.

Right now, I'd rather have LeBron on my team, since he's the most complete player, but Kobe's the better scorer. BUT, if LeBron can keep his jumper as consistent as it was last night - on the road, against the second best defense in the NBA, when the rest of his team treated the rock like a hot potato - it won't even be close.

LeBron's bigger, faster, and stronger than Kobe and Jordan. I believe by the time he's about 28, LeBron will be the best player in NBA history. My guess is by that point, it'll be: LeBron, Jordan, Russell.

If I'm starting a team right now, my order of players wanted is: LeBron, Duncan, Greg Oden, Kobe.

 

No one in the universe can keep a jumper at the level LeBron had it going for him last night. It was insane. It's not like his jumpers weren't defended, they were, and well. It was just an other-worldly shooting performance.

 

How did Wilt do head-to-head against Russell? Stats wise, it went to Wilt. But wins and rings?

http://www.nba.com/encyclopedia/ryan_rivalries.html

Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain went at each other—are you ready?—142 times during the 10 years of their rivalry. Russell's Celtics won 85 while Wilt, who was with the Warriors, 76ers and Lakers during that period, was on the winning side 57 times. And that average of more than 14 meetings a year was only during the regular season and playoffs. They also played in many exhibitions against each other.

But Russell had the ultimate trump card. He wound up on the winning side more often than not. In the 10 years in question, Russell won nine championships to Wilt's one. The argument will rage on forever: Did Wilt just not know how to win, or did he lack the supporting cast that Russell enjoyed?

Take the night he scored the 62. The Celtics won the game, 145-136. The Celtics led by 31 in the fourth quarter. Wilt scored 42 in the second half, but his team was never in the game. Russell fans say that was an all-too-familiar scenario when these two played, especially in the first five or six years of their duels.

 

AM - Guess we'll just have to see. Saturday expect LeBron to have about 10 at the half, Pistons by three-ish .. and then midway through the 3rd qtr, I expect LeBron to take over. The real question is what the Pistons will do. Hack-a-LeBron? Run two guys at him and make a rookie (Gibson) or a dinosaur (Donyell) beat you?