Lebron is a talented player no doubt, however I just can't put him over Kobe. It's hard to say who's "better" because it's kind of apples and oranges because they don't play the same position and they have different roles on their teams. People get caught up with Lebron's stats vs Kobe's championships. I think it's more complex than that.

Kobe's stats are hurt but the fact that he didn't start until his 3rd year. Not that he couldn't have started but with Shaq there the Lakers could afford to be cautious with him. Kobe has done some amazing things scoring the ball in his career. 81 points in one game? Not even Jordan came close to that. 81 is more impressive to me that Wilt's 100 because Wilt was 5 feet from the hoop most of the time. Kobe is a perimiter player and he was hitting shots from way deep. Another time he hit 12 threes in one game including 9 in a row. That's still the record as far as I know. If Kobe was always on a team full of scrubs like he was in 2005-2007 you would see his career scoring numbers being off the charts. Even still he may retire as the all time points leader.

Kobe by anyone's definition is a better defender that Lebron from end to end. Lebron's blocks are impressive but they don't impact the game as much as Kobe locking guys down. He's made some clutch defensive plays in the postseason too. For as physically dominant as Lebron is, he should rebound a lot better than he does. If he can't get 10 reounds a game something is wrong.

Lebron is a great passer and he'll get you 2 or 3 more assists than Kobe in a game. However, the triangle offense is not a traditional inside-out offense. The ball has to move all to create opportunities and Phil Jackson encourages Kobe to get the "hockey assists" for than regular assists. Lebrons assists are dribble drive, 1 pass, shot. He essentially plays 1 on 5 most of the time. He creates all of the scoring opportunties himself.

One player can not win a championship by himself however it's very impressive that Kobe was able to be a dominant and important peice to the 2000,2001, and 2002 champions then rebuild from the gutter and win back to backs again. He still might not be done. I'n my opion Lebron's image is going to take a hit if he doesn't win a championship in Cleveland and then splits to a loaded team with two or three max salary players. It will be viewed as him failing to win as the main man. Kobe is most certainly the main man in LA even with a talented guy like Pau on the team.

I'm sorry this is so long and it could have been a lot longer. By the way Magic Johnson won 2 out of 3 championships against Boston. He did not lose to Boston twice as someone posted here earlier.