If the majority of people can honestly say that for their careers, Kobe is definitively better than Tim, then we can start arguing about whether Kobe ranks higher than players who are obviously better than Duncan. I'm not saying who has had the better career, just who has been the better player over the course of their careers. There are plenty of extenuating circumstances that Kobe fans can bring up to defend Bryant against Duncan's awards.
You can measure it by skills, by achievements, whatever works for your argument, but it ought to have some sort of statistical, theoritical, or at least defensible back-up that Kobe Bryant since he started playing in the league in 1997 to today is definitely better than Tim Duncan since he started in 1998 to today.
Once we've got Timmy down we can start to tackle how much better Kobe is than Wilt, Shaq, Magic, Larry, Jordan, Hakeem, and anyone else who someone might rank higher than Duncan.
But some people don't get concepts like a player being worth more than his stats (which is a major reason people diss Steve Nash, but that's another topic).
Tim Duncan has been better than Kobe for their entire careers. Of course, that could change as Tim begins to decline, but at this point, Kobe has never been better than Duncan.
I'll take Tim any day of the week to start my franchise over Kobe. I mean, who would not take a fundamentally solid big man who gets huge numbers and doesn't have a huge ego, just a passion to win, to take a chucker with a huge ego? Duncan has led his teams to the ring, while Shaq took Kobe to his rings. Duncan any day of the week. Why? Tim is a better player, an actual leader, will step back for his team mates to get shots, and really works with his team, while Kobe is not the better player, leadership is questionable, and will take shots away from his team mates as opposed to give it to them.
As for currently, Kobe is the best in the league IMO. But taking in career accomplishments, Duncan has won three finals MVP and two reg season MVPs...Kobe needs some of that to be ranked higher than him on the greatest of all time list.
You can argue that as an individual player, skill-wise..that Kobe is better but that would be more of an opinion...especially that one is a big man and the other is a guard.
TO be top 10 on the GOAT list, you have to win as the main man. bottom line
Last edited by hotsizzle : 04-02-2007 at 03:44 PM.
You can argue that as an individual player, skill-wise..that Kobe is better
Easily, and it would actually be dificult to argue against that. What makes Duncan the better overall player is his intelligence, decision-making, leadership, and the mere fact that he's a bigman.
Even if Kobe won a championship this year, he would still never be better than Duncan. Duncan has dominated the league since he arrived, and has never been part of a losing team. He has more MVP's than Kobe, 3 finals MVP's, countless all-NBA first teams, and 3 rings as the main man. Duncan always elevates his game in the postseason, and puts up ridiculous stats, while Kobe chokes away 3-1 series leads. Duncan is a winner, without Shaq, Kobe is a loser.
Duncan is an all around player with exceptional skills for his position. His range in uncanny for a big man, and his posts moves have been up there with the likes of Shaq during his career. His defensive play is also why year after year the Spurs are a top defensive team in the league.
Kobe has done nothing worthy of being in the same sentence as Duncan, since Shaq left, and he was exposed as a poor leader and a selfish player.
Kobe Bryant or Tim Duncan: Who's better?
