LeBron James or Kobe Bryant…Why Not Both?

 

Kobe vs. LeBron has become the new Brady vs. Manning.

In the early part of the '00's, Brady had the rings, but Manning had that stats. Then Manning won a ring, and the consensus seemed to be that Manning was the better of the two. Enter Randy Moss into the equation, and Tom Brady sets the NFL record for touchdown passes (passing Manning's mark) while leading the Patriots to 16-0 regular season. Unfortunately Brady's knee got torn up during the first game of the next season and Manning won his third MVP award. The next season Manning won his second consecutive MVP and led the Colts to a 14-0 start, and a Super Bowl appearance. Manning was again the victor in the Brady-Manning duel.

We overreact to bad games by great players. Manning threw the game losing pick right into Tracy Porter's hands, and kick started the "Manning is a choker" arguments up again. LeBron put up a 15 point stinker at home in the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Boston Celtics, and initiated the same the thing for himself.

Meanwhile, Kobe's Lakers were on their way to the Western Conference Finals after sweeping the banged up Utah Jazz, and then behind a great Kobe performance, finished off the Suns to make their third NBA Finals in three seasons.

This seemed to validate the argument that Kobe Bryant was better than LeBron James. But again, sports fans are some of the most short sighted, irrational people in the world sometimes. Can we really totally disregard the past two regular seasons that were owned by LeBron, and the past two landslide MVP award races?

At the same time, Kobe has had great regular seasons the past two years as well, along with winning a title, and his first Finals MVP.

In short, Kobe has been the playoff MVP of the past two season, and LeBron has been the regular season MVP. But which one is the better individual player?

Let's break it down

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