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I think it’s about time that this comparison be put to bed.
While the Michael Jordan/LeBron James debate will likely continue for the coming years, there is one debate, that when you really look at it, isn’t much of a debate at all.
Who’s better: Kobe Bryant or LeBron James?
From 2006 to present day, this has been a question that divides the NBA faithful down the middle. One player was an offensive assassin, who modelled his game almost exactly after Air Jordan himself. The other was a physical specimen the like we had never seen before, who’s all-around play is a perfect marriage of Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.
But when you break down each player, there really isn’t much comparison. The numbers indicate that LeBron James is quite clearly the better player. In fact, outside of the “Kobe has more rings” argument, what evidence is there that Bryant was the better basketball player? Well, there isn’t really any evidence. So if that is the case, why to this day does the argument still rage on?
I have my theories on that, and we’ll get to it, but for now let’s dive into the numbers and take a look at a head to head comparison between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
Round 1: Statistics
When comparing the stat-line of these players, I often here his fans complain that Kobe didn’t get the minutes that LeBron received in his rookie season. I’ve also heard that Kobe had a few seasons at the end of his career where his numbers were below-peak, and this is a fair complaint. Therefore, I have taken each player’s ten best seasons and compared them to each other.
Below are the average stat-lines of both players for each of their 10 best regular seasons in the NBA:
From looking at the stats above it makes the comparison between players pretty one-sided, especially when you look at the advanced statistics. LeBron has a significant advantage in PER (Player Efficiency Rating) which is regarded as one of the best single statistical measures of a player’s overall contribution. He has also accumulated a lot more Win Shares throughout his best seasons, showing that he has had a bigger hand in racking up team wins.
Also, considering Bryant’s reputation as a scorer, it’s quite shocking to see that he only averaged 0.5 more PPG than LeBron. This is especially surprising when you look at their shooting percentages. LeBron scored at a much higher efficiency from everywhere on the court except the free throw line (he even had a higher 3-point percentage).
Statistically, during the regular season, Kobe Bryant just doesn’t hold up to LeBron James and it’s not even close. LeBron dominated almost every category.
Now, a lot of Kobe fans will make the argument that Kobe wasn’t a regular reason kind of guy, what mattered most to Kobe were the playoffs. Kobe would save his best basketball for the postseason, and that’s what makes him “clutch” and a 5-time champion. Well, let’s look at the same statistics for each of their 10 best postseasons:
Again, Kobe Bryant just doesn’t hold up in comparison. Although Kobe has 5 rings in his 7 finals performances, LeBron James consistently puts up far better production in the postseason.
The gap in PER grows even larger when you compare their top 10 post-season runs. And out of 18 statistical categories LeBron wins in 14 of them, and most of them are not even close. There are huge differences in RPG, APG, FG%, PER, Box Plus/Minus, Win Shares, Offensive Rating and Defensive Rating.
Then look at the 4 categories where Bryant has a lead and you see that three of them are almost a tie. He scored 0.7 PPG more, he had 0.2 less TOPG, and his 3P% was 0.7% higher.
Again, this is comparing both players 10 best seasons. There is no age bias, there is no team bias. If we were to compare their 5 best seasons, the gap is even larger. Peak LeBron James is significantly outperforms than peak Kobe. For example, the best regular season PER that Kobe recorded in his career was 28.0 in the 2005/2006 season. LeBron James has recorded a PER higher than 28.0 in seven different seasons, with his highest PER being 31.7 in 08/09. The greatest playoff PER Kobe recorded was 26.8 in 09. LeBron James has recorded a playoff PER higher than 26.8 six different times, with his highest being 37.4 in 2009.
These are massive gaps between the two players, and I don’t see how anyone can’t acknowledge LeBron’s dominance here.
WINNER: LeBron James
Round 2: Individual Accolades
Now this comparison is a little tricky, especially when it comes to all-star and all-NBA awards, and the reason is simply because Kobe has played 7 more seasons than LeBron. With that being said we’re going to do our best here.
Below is a list of each player’s individual accomplishments to date. LeBron is represented in Cavalier Wine and Kobe is represented by Laker Gold:
So, from the graph above we can see that Kobe Bryant has a clear advantage in the All-NBA and All-Star selections, but he’s been playing for seven additional seasons. I think it’s fair to give Kobe the advantage here, but also mention that it is likely that LeBron will catch up over the next few years.
In saying that, although he has played in league for a shorter period of time, LeBron again has the advantage in the significant awards (MVP, Finals MVP, etc.). The interesting fact here is that it is quite possible that LeBron adds an MVP or Finals MVP to his resume. So from that standpoint, it’s clear that again Kobe doesn’t hold up to LeBron.
WINNER: LeBron James
Round 3: Post-Season/Championships
I’m going to assume that this was the round Kobe fans have waiting for.
Yes, Kobe Bryant has won 5 NBA championships, and yes, LeBron James has only won 3. This is a frustrating point for me because, as a rational human being, I understand that the circumstances different players face throughout their career has just as much impact as their actual talent.
For example, Kobe Bryant was coached by Phil Jackson for all 5 of the seasons in which he won an NBA championship. He also had the luxury of playing alongside Shaquille O’Neal. So why don’t we take that into consideration?
LeBron has never played for a great coach. Mike Brown for example, has had two head coaching stints since his run with LeBron in Cleveland, each lasting one year before he was fired. Then he moved to Miami and played for Erik Spoelstra, a man whose playoff winning percentage is 42% when he isn’t coaching LeBron James. Upon his return to Cleveland, he was coached by David Blatt who was a disaster from day one.
Then there is the argument that LeBron has lost too many times in the NBA Finals – another ridiculous argument. Would you seriously rather have your team eliminated in the first round or miss the playoffs entirely, than make it all the way to the Finals? Do you honestly think someone who is eliminated in the early rounds had a more successful season than those who were eliminated in the final round? The answer is no – so why do we hold LeBron’s Finals record against him?
The man has been to the Finals 7 times in 13 seasons. Okay, he lost 4 times, but would it have been better had he lost earlier? And just look at some of the teams he managed to drag to the Finals with him. The 2007 Cavaliers are arguably the least talented team to ever make it that far in the playoffs, so it was no wonder they lost to the San Antonio Spurs. The next best player on that team was Larry Hughes, who averaged 11 PPG throughout the playoffs that year.
In the 2014 Finals, LeBron James was the only Miami Heat player that bothered to show up to play. Just look at the averages for each of the Miami ‘Big Three’ throughout the championship round:
LeBron’s numbers are outrageous, but his teammates gave him nothing to work with – the result was an embarrassing defeat in 5 games. I have to ask, when did Shaquille O’Neal ever average 15 PPG on 43% shooting in the NBA Finals?
In 2015, the second and third best players on LeBron’s Cavaliers were out with injuries. Yet LeBron somehow managed to take the 67-win Warriors to 6 games before eventually being overwhelmed. But again, why would we ever hold that against him? He was almost awarded Finals MVP, being only the second player in NBA history to win while on the losing team.
Kobe on the other hand has a record of 5-2. Yes, he won more Finals series, but he had much better teammates around him. That’s not even the most annoying part of this comparison. In his prime, Kobe Bryant was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round twice! In the 2006 and 2007 season, Kobe Bryant was bounced in the first round of the playoffs. In fact, in 2005 the Lakers (led by Bryant) missed the playoffs entirely! Why don’t we consider this to be much worse than losing in the Finals? LeBron James has NEVER lost in the first round and excluding his first two seasons in the league, he has won a playoff series in every year of his career.
I don’t understand why this is even an argument. The guy lost in the finals because he beat 3 other teams to get there, by himself. When Kobe was on a team with similar talent, he was eliminated from the first round twice, and on one occasion, missed the playoffs altogether.
Again, they have played in the NBA Finals 7 times each. So just for fun, let’s compare each player’s stat-line from their games in the NBA Finals:
At this point it really shouldn’t be a surprise, but again, according to the stats LeBron has played at a higher level in the NBA Finals than Bryant. So much for LeBron choking on the big stage; although Kobe is known as a clutch performer, his numbers from his Finals performances don’t back that up.
If you were just to look at the stat-lines you would assume LeBron James would be the player with a big-game reputation, but for some reason that’s not the case; which leads me to my next point.
WINNER: LeBron James
Round 4: Clutch Performances
Okay, so this is the last section of the comparison, and it is supposedly a strength of Kobe’s AND LeBron’s biggest weakness. So once again, let’s take a detailed look at how each player performs in the clutch.
For starters, let’s define what clutch time is. For the sake of this article, let’s say that clutch shots are taken to tie the game or take the lead, with 30 seconds (or less) left in the fourth quarter or overtime.
So with that out of the way, let’s look at every season between 2003/2004 (LeBron’s rookie season) and 2015/2016 (Kobe’s final season).
As we all know, the level of pressure that players face during regular season clutch time is different than in the postseason, so I think it’s fair to separate them from each other. First we’ll look at how each player performs in the clutch during the regular season:
As you can see, the players perform almost identically during regular season clutch moments, something that defies the reputation that both players have earned over their careers.
Even though LeBron actually holds a slight edge, he has become infamous for coming up short in big moments, “choking” and not to be trusted with the game on the line. This couldn’t be any more opposite to the reputation Kobe Bryant has earned over his career. He is actually revered for his clutch shooting.
To get a more comprehensive understanding of which player performs better, let’s look at how each player has performed during clutch playoff moments:
If a Martian came to Earth and we asked him to look at the above stats, there’s no doubt that he’d say LeBron James was more clutch than Kobe Bryant. But for some reason, we’ve been programmed to believe Kobe Bryant is the more clutch player. LeBron shoots 10% better on clutch shots in pressure situations than Kobe Bryant has, and that’s a massive discrepancy given how small the sample size is.
So why do we think LeBron is such a “choke-artist” in the clutch? Well, I might know why…
When compiling the research for this article, I noticed one particularly bad year for LeBron’s shooting in the clutch, 2010/2011. This was the season LeBron moved to Miami and was under the most media scrutiny of his career. Due to his poor performance that year, coupled with the fact that the media wanted to hate LeBron and the Heat so much, it could be possible that the media narrative of LeBron’s poor clutch began here and simply followed him throughout his career.
For the record, in 2010/2011, he shot 1-8 in the regular season and 1-2 in the playoffs.
(If you don’t believe the above statistics, simply head to Basketball Reference’s Shot Finder and do the research yourself. They make it quite easy to compile data).
WINNER: LeBron James
The Verdict
Sorry Kobe fans. Numbers rarely lie. After seeing the above information, I think even the most diehard Kobe fans have to at least reconsider what they believe.
There is just NO evidence whatsoever that Kobe Bryant was a better basketball player than LeBron James.
LeBron dominates almost every single statistical category. His PER, which is supposedly the best statistical measure of a player’s performance, is head and shoulders higher than Kobe’s. He has won more individual accolades such as the Regular Season and Finals MVP trophy and he has performed better in the NBA playoffs and NBA Finals by a large margin.
The only argument left in Kobe’s favor is the 5-3 advantage in championship rings. But, who knows, maybe LeBron will win that argument yet.
WINNER: LeBron James (T.K.O.)
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