Well basketball season is underway and that means the defending champion Miami Heat will be playing the Boston Celtics at home.  While the new Western Conference front-runner, the Los Angeles Lakers, will be playing at home against the Dallas Mavericks.  Unless the Lakers collapse there’s a high likelihood that there’s going to be a LeBron/Kobe Finals match-up.

A lot of you probably expected me to post this.  I’m a little biased and I’m a LeBron fan, but right now there’s no question that he’s the best player in the game.  Besides King James is royalty, what is Kobe the king of?  Not passing the ball?!

Right now Kobe fans are reading this and they’re probably playing the Kobe has more rings than LeBron card.  Well I do agree that this is the case, but do rings really make a player better than another.  Bill Russell has more rings than Michael Jordan, but does that make him any better, of course not.  MJ was the best that ever played the game, so you can’t say that someone who has won more rings than someone is better than that person.

Let’s also look at how Kobe won his rings.  Kobe had to piggyback off of Shaq to get his first three, and it was only until the Lakers traded for Pau Gasol that he was able to win his last two.  Before the Lakers got Gasol they were practically First-Round fodder every time.  LeBron on a limited Cavaliers team was able to lead his team to a Finals appearance and two straight 60-win seasons before he left in free agency in Miami to get his first ring.  I guarantee that Kobe couldn’t do that on his own.

Now I’m not trying to trash Kobe here.  I think he’s a great player, and definitely a first ballot Hall-of-Famer.  It’s just that LeBron does things better than he does.  LeBron has three M-V-P’s and Kobe has one.  The M-V-P is the mark of how good and dominant a player is, and LeBron has won it three out of the last four seasons.  That clearly shows that right now he’s the better player.

Let’s also look at the super-team Kobe has assembled.  Let’s see, Gasol, Artest (I won’t ever call him World Peace), Nash, and Howard.  This sounds familiar…OH YAH!  Didn’t Kobe, Shaq, Gary Payton, and Karl Malone all decide to join the same team once.  Didn’t they not even make the playoffs…that’s right they didn’t.  In fact the year before that they lost to the Detroit Pistons in the Finals.

How did LeBron do against the Pistons?!  Do you remember Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals?  I sure as heck do.  He singlehandedly annihilated that team.  He was playing at a god-like level that day against superior competition.  Did Kobe ever play against superior competition?  NO!  He was never outmatched because he had someone that was always there to help him.  When LeBron played the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2008 he fought a scrubby Cavaliers squad to Game 7 against that super team and almost beat them.  When the Celtics went to play Kobe in the Finals, Kobe played possum.  LeBron is better simply because he took an inferior group of guys and made them play at a championship-like level.

Another thing to think about, when they make GOAT (Greatest of All-Time) comparisons, they always compare LeBron to MJ and it never is LeBron to Kobe.  That should tell you something right there.

Kobe also never had to deal with the scrutiny LeBron did.  When LeBron left Cleveland it seemed that the entire world was out to get him.  With Kobe he was hated briefly in 2002 after he raped someone at a hotel in Colorado.  Rape is a felony people, leaving a team isn’t.

Now on a side note I’ll admit that I’m a Heat fan and that I’m going to talk my fair share of trash and say a couple snarky things that fans of other teams probably wouldn’t say.  Laker fans are different though.  They will spit out barbs even when their team is 1-10 and they’re down by 55 points in the third quarter.  If you beat my team, I’ll shut up.  Guess that says something about their fans.

So in conclusion any way you look at it LeBron is better than Kobe.  This regular season will be interesting, but come Finals time if these two teams meet the Heat are going to win it in six, and I’m being generous.

LeBron is better than Kobe, period!

And in all honesty it’s not even close!

HOHOHO!