LeBron James is the complete offensive package, there is almost nothing on that end of the floor that he cannot do. James is an incredible scorer, even though he’s not often mentioned among the best thanks to some poor shooting percentages here and there. Nobody can deny his insane playmaking ability though, as Bron is simply on another level when it comes to his ability to create opportunities for his teammates.
A player he often earned comparisons to was Kobe Bryant, especially earlier in LeBron’s career when Bryant was still healthy and dominant. Kobe is remembered as arguably the best pure scorer that this league has seen. But a lot of that was thanks to Bryant taking it upon himself to take the shots and make things happen for the Lakers by himself, possibly why he doesn’t compare that well to LeBron James in clutch situations like Game 7s.
So whenever Bron and Kobe were compared, the one thing that hasn’t been said too often is that Bryant knew how to involve his teammates better than LeBron. Trust Dennis Rodman to say it though, speaking on an episode of Judge Pirro in 2009, he gave his slightly wild take on the Kobe-LeBron debate.
“Kobe has become the Michael Jordan of this era because he’s very smart. He knows how to score, he knows how to do certain things. LeBron is more of a, ‘Here I come watch out.’ He’s not gifted enough, as far, knowing how to bring his other players in with him and Kobe has figured that out.”
Obviously, when comparing two great players of this caliber, opinions tend to vary but even if it may have been a valid sentiment back in the days that Kobe was winning championships with the Lakers and LeBron was shaping up to leave Cleveland, it hasn’t really aged all that well. In any case, it’s quite tough to pick between Kobe and LeBron, and there is probably no objectively right answer to that question either.
