LeBron James will turn 38 years old during the 2022-23 NBA season. Most players at this age are usually no longer considered among the best players in the league. However, LBJ has somehow managed to take extremely good care of his health, this has led to the King prolonging his time in the NBA.
Over the last decade or so, James has achieved a lot of success in the NBA. He achieved that by being a team player and making sure that he involved his teammates most of the time.
But before LBJ became the face of the league, that title belonged to the late Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. The Mamba was widely regarded as the best player in the league for what he achieved during the prime of his career.
If we compare Kobe and LeBron’s careers in the NBA, both have some pretty unbelievable accomplishments. The biggest difference between them is the way that they reached the status of becoming two of the best players the league has ever seen.
Dwight Howard Talks About The Differences Between Kobe Bryant And LeBron James
3x NBA Defensive Player of the Year award winner Dwight Howard had the opportunity to play with both LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. So he has a pretty good idea of what their mindsets are.
On that note, Howard recently appeared in an interview where he explained the differences between the personalities of LBJ and Kobe.
(Starts at 51:24):
“They’re two different people. I always felt like Kobe was like Batman and LeBron’s like Captain America, for real. LeBron always, he wants everybody to be around, saying he wanna have fun, he wanna dance before the games and put on his music. Kobe’s just locked in. He don’t say nothing. He got the basketball, and he dribbling the heavy ball before the game.”
The gist of what Howard said in the clip is that Kobe was someone who relied more on his abilities to succeed, just like DC superhero Batman. On the other hand, LBJ is someone who likes to involve everyone on a team and then lead them to victory, similar to MCU’s Captain America.