Ken Berger

What kind of stupid question is this??  "Question: Does this mean that Kobe Bryant 's 61-point performance Monday night at MSG was better than LeBron's because LeBron didn't have a triple-double?"  Who cares, they are both great players, and they both become ball hogs when they get big numbers in their brains--Kobe denies that, but come on!  Kobe found out Lebron reached 12000 points at a younger age (NBA games wise age) than him so he had to prove how great he was in the biggest media town in the world.  Don't get me wrong, Kobe is a great player, but Lebron out stats him in most categories.

So Berger writes a dumb question---there is no answer to that question.  Time will tell.  Lebron will be MVP this year, but Kobe will try like hell to steal if from him.

Have a nice day,

The....Browns Town Clown

Ill give you credit that it LBJ's performance was better.  I definately wouldnt say alot better. They are both phenominal athletes thats will go down in history...

Well kobe and lebron played great, but it want to see the total score of the big three tonight. three good players make a better team than one great player.

When i saw this, I just knew that i would see this on your blog later...just knew it.

Can always count on you Berger to deliver the important news to us.

BOTH were fantastic, obviously, and by statistics alone you'd want 52-9-11 over 61-0-3...having seen both, though, Kobe's performance was flat out amazing that night, being well defended and torching them anyway, doing what his team needed for that win.  LeBron being one rebound short doesn't bother me at all, but I'd go Kobe on this one.

Sorry -- LeBron had 72 (not 71, as I said above) PTS+REB+AST.

This is too bad, but necessary, especially LeBron's 10th (now 9th) rebound was stupid -- off his own miss with 2 seconds left.

However, while the loss of a rebound will historically/numerically diminish this performance, it should not in any other way. He still had 71 PTS+REB+AST. That is incredible. He still had a hand in 74 out of his team's 108 points. That is more incredible.

It drives me insane when it is argued Kobe's effort was better:

-LeBron had 9 fewer points against 8 more assists and 9 more rebounds. I would argue it's a little more difficult to score a boatload of points when you're also rebounding and creating opportunities for your teammates.

-LeBron's team won by 3 -- i.e., the Cavs actually needed every bit of his output. Some "analysts" actually used this fact to support their Kobe arguments. HUH? Let me get this straight -- carrying the team to victory is less impressive than coasting? Sorry, no.

-Another asinine argument: Kobe's 61 were much more impressive than LeBron's 52 because of the nature of Kobe's shots (contested, low percentage). Notwithstanding the fact that, again, LeBron's +17 in rebounds/assists totals would have compensated for this deficiency, let's consider why LeBron's shots were generally of a higher percentage...Maybe because his skill and size in the lane makes him impossible to stop, once he's started toward the hoop.

LeBron's performance wasn't just better -- it was a LOT better.

Go Cavs. (By the way, I live in St. Louis. I am only a Cavs fan because of LeBron. So there's no Cavs bias here. Maybe LeBron bias, though...)

Well pointwise if you think like hockey... goals and assists count as points scored... Kobe had 61 points plus 3 assists or 6 points total 67 pts.  LeBron 52 points plus 11 assists or 22 points minimum equals 74 points.  So Kobe was a part of 67 out of 126 points 53% of the team total.  While LeBron was a part of 74 out of 107 or 69% of the team total. Now I didn't even take into account assists that were on 3 pointers or and 1's but I don't think that in Kobe's 3 assists he would have more that LeBron had in his 11.

If I was just going by the numbers somebody that accounted for nearly 70% of his teams points while grabbing 9 boards might have had a slightly better game that somebody that only accounts for nearly 55% with no boards.  But what do I know?

Kobe's will be remembered longer because he broke Jordan's and King's records in the same night.

LBJ's feat was more complete. but Kobe's will be remembered longer, no question.