Kobe's team better than LeBron's ... and that's it
Berger: Showtime or go time?
ORLANDO, Fla. -- I've seen Kobe Bryant make shots that nobody else in basketball can make. I've seen him produce the best six-minute stretch of individuality of this season. And I've seen his team move within one inevitable victory of the 2009 NBA championship.
So I've seen Kobe Bryant establish himself, over LeBron James, as the best player in the game today?
|
|
| Olympic teammates LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have disparate supporting casts back home. (Getty Images) |
You haven't, either.
And don't give me the "ring's the thing" argument. The championship ring is everything in the team argument, but this isn't the team argument. This isn't Kobe-and-Lakers vs. LeBron-and-Cavaliers. This is Kobe vs. LeBron. And the championship ring is next to nothing in the individual comparison.
• NBA Finals: Lakers 3, Magic 1
If you disagree, fine. But if you disagree, we're going to need to change our argument -- because it's not Kobe vs. LeBron.
It's Kobe vs. Robert Horry.
Kobe has all the individual stuff -- the scoring titles, the MVP's -- over Horry, whose career scoring average was 7.0 ppg. And Kobe is about to win his fourth ring.
But Horry has seven.
So Horry wins. He's better.
No, he's not. Horry doesn't win that argument. But you lose this one, if you're trying to use the oncoming ring on Kobe's finger as your final argument that Kobe trumps LeBron.
Kobe's team trumps LeBron's team, but I knew that a month ago. Even wrote it. Because it's not exactly rocket science. Kobe has the vastly superior supporting cast. Much as I'm turned off by Pau Gasol -- I don't like his body, I don't like his body language, I don't like his beard -- Gasol is head and shoulders (if he had shoulders) above any of LeBron's teammates in Cleveland.
Tell me. Who is LeBron's version of Gasol?
Hell, who is LeBron's version of Horry?
These NBA Finals have shown just how much of a team game basketball is. The Lakers won Game 4 because Derek Fisher hit the two biggest shots of the night. Fisher is a tough, inspirational player, but in basketball terms he's one-dimensional. He can shoot. That's all he can do. And that makes him a role player, probably the sixth-best player on the Lakers.
The Cavaliers have something like a Derek Fisher, too. His name is Mo Williams. Only he's the Cavs' second-best player. And he's not as clutch as Derek Fisher.
Media accounts in Cleveland are debating whether Cavs coach Mike Brown is in danger of losing his job. As if what happened against Orlando in the Eastern Conference finals, a 4-2 series win for the Magic, was Brown's fault.
Look, Brown doesn't do a whole lot for me. He's a nice guy, humble. He has a gross habit of making spitty noises when he speaks -- could someone please give the man a glass of water before he sits behind a microphone? -- but he's as much of a "coach" in the NBA as anyone else. He convinces his team to play hard on defense. He rolls the ball onto the floor for offense.
The problem in Cleveland is the front office. Seven weeks ago when I walked into Quicken Loans Arena for the first time this season, for Cleveland's playoff opener against Detroit, I was excited about Cleveland. The Cavs had won 66 games in the regular season, most in the NBA. Apparently the Cavaliers had surrounded LeBron with a fitting supporting cast. That was exciting. So let me see it and ... ick. That's the supporting cast? Those guys?
That was my initial response. Malcolm Gladwell was right in Blink -- initial responses tend to be correct ones. The point being, that if anyone in Cleveland is guilty of not taking full advantage of the wonders of LeBron James, that person is Cavs GM Danny Ferry. Not Cavs coach Mike Brown.
The Lakers have put much better talent around Kobe. Lamar Odom is the most irritating player in the NBA, so gifted but childishly inconsistent -- the John Daly of the NBA -- but he would be the second-best player in Cleveland by a long, long margin. And he doesn't even start for the Lakers.
Trevor Ariza would be the second-best player for Cleveland.
Pau Gasol would be the second-best player for Cleveland.
The Andrew Bynum that was playing earlier this season, before his injury, would be the second-best player for Cleveland.
So don't tell me that Kobe is better than LeBron because Kobe's team is winning the NBA title, and beating the same Orlando team that eliminated LeBron's team.
But also, don't misconstrue this as a shot at Orlando for making it past Cleveland and "ruining" the Kobe-LeBron NBA Finals. The Magic didn't ruin anything. Truth is, the Magic saved us.
Saved us from having to watch that bad group of gunk Cleveland puts on the floor next to the best player in basketball.
