They're nearly six years apart in age, they don't play the same position exactly and they play against each other only twice a year.
Yet Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are heading to the point where they are becoming connected in our sports consciousness. Just as the 1950s gave us Mays or Mantle, the '60s gave us Wilt or Russell, the '70s gave us Ali or Frazier, the '80s gave us Magic or Bird and the '90s gave us Emmitt or Barry Sanders, we now have Kobe or LeBron.
Few things are better in sports than a rivalry . . . or the perception of one. Kobe vs. LeBron certainly isn't a full-blown rivalry, and the desperate desire for it to become one is something we, the sports consumers, are likely far more interested in than either of them.
Nevertheless, you can't walk into a sports bar or barbershop or any clearinghouse for basketball discussion this time of year and not hear it:
If you were starting a team, who would you take, Kobe or LeBron?
And we're not taking each as a rookie out of high school; we're starting with each player as he is right this minute, with everything we know now. Kobe, 27, has three championship rings but is starting over after a very public divorce (from Shaq, silly). And LeBron, 21, is two games into his first playoff series with no history but certainly no baggage.
It's a difficult choice, isn't it?
All of the aforementioned are tough because the competitors are so undeniably great. But I don't get stuck for long. Give me Mays (perhaps the greatest player ever), Russell (more rings than anybody in any sport) over Wilt, who still is the greatest athletic marvel ever, Ali, Magic and Emmitt. And if we run this back to the 1940s, and offer up Joe DiMaggio vs. Ted Williams, I'm taking the Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived, despite all of DiMaggio's World Series rings.
Kobe vs. LeBron doesn't have that cachet and may never. But it's starting to sizzle. They are two of the most publicized athletes of this new century. They've come into our living rooms, through news or endorsements, for years now which means they are immediately recognizable. While Steve Nash reportedly will win the MVP award, Kobe and LeBron will almost certainly finish second and third. Both are leading their teams in playoff series that are tied at a game apiece, and both are expected (and paid) to lead their teams to championships.
So the question, rephrased a bit, is which player is best suited to do that, to lead his franchise to a championship.
And I'll admit it — I'm stuck.
Philosophically, I prefer players who involve their teammates, who are as inclusive in their approach as is humanly possible. While I believe that Michael Jordan, in this modern era of basketball, is the game's greatest player, if you ask me whether I would start a team with Magic or Jordan, I would answer "Magic" as often as not.
LeBron is the closest thing the game has to Magic. His triple-double Saturday in his playoff debut was the first time a player has done that since . . . Magic, in 1980. His teammates don't just love playing with him, they treasure it. The only thing better than the way he demonstrates how much he trusts his teammates, none of whom is a superstar, is the way they burn to justify his faith. What more could you ask in a team game?
The former greats who this season criticized LeBron for passing off to open teammates in the final seconds of close games were dead-wrong.
The great player is expected to make the play, not necessarily the shot.
And because LeBron stayed true to his philosophy of how to play and trusted Flip Murray, Donyell Marshall and Eric Snow to make not just big shots, but game-winners, the Cavaliers have no adjustments to make when it comes to how to play the game. What we don't know about LeBron is how he will respond to hard playoff fouls and heartbreaking playoff defeats, which are sure to come. We haven't seen him in Game 7s yet, or road playoff games, or games where he's sick or injured. But . . . so far, everything we've asked to see from this kid, now that he's taken his team to the playoffs, he's done remarkably. The most hyped high school athlete ever to play a team sport has not just met the hype; he has exceeded it.
In fact, the most impressive thing Kobe has done in his post-Shaq era is play more like LeBron in the Lakers' first-round series against the Suns. And that's why if I had to field a team tonight I would take Kobe over LeBron. There is a big asterisk by my selection. I'm taking Kobe, but only if he's coached by Phil Jackson.
Despite Jackson's very public scorching of Kobe two years ago in the coach's book about the 2004 Lakers season, the two have worked together as they never did during the championship years. Kobe has been anything but uncoachable, as Jackson felt was the case three and four years ago.
It's Jackson who got Jordan, five years into his career, to embrace and even trust his Bulls teammates back when the frustration in Chicago was high and Jordan was thought by many to be a player who would never move beyond being a virtuoso soloist. And it's Jackson who has gotten Kobe, after the Lakers missed the playoffs last year without Coach Zen, to take a big step toward embracing and trusting his teammates. Oh, this is still a work in progress. We know that look around here, the one where Kobe rolls his eyes because Kwame Brown has dropped a pass that should have led to a dunk but instead results in a turnover.
But Kobe is playing so much under control now, even if he's biting his lip while doing so. He's being so much more supportive of his teammates, so much more patient.
As my friend J.A. Adande pointed out in a column in the Los Angeles Times, when Bryant was at his best, in 2001 and 2002 (the Lakers last two championship runs), it wasn't because he was scoring 81 points or 62 in three quarters. He averaged 22.5 shots per game in those two playoffs. And in this series with the Suns, now tied 1-1, Kobe is averaging 22.5 shots per game. It's funny how much better John Paxson and Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant became when Jordan gave them the ball without frowning. And it's funny how much better Lamar Odom and Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic have become now that Kobe is giving them the ball.
Kobe has always had the game and always had the will. He's the most willful player since Jordan, and nearly as unstoppable, especially when it comes to scoring. Kobe is the best defensive player in the Suns-Lakers series. He dominated the glass for one critical stretch of Game 2. We've not yet seen that same ornery willfulness from young LeBron, though he'll need to demonstrate it if the Cavaliers are to get past the Wizards. The problem for Kobe was he had never been a leader.
He never had to be earlier in his career, not with Jackson and Shaq on board with a bunch of pros like Grant, Brian Shaw, Ron Harper and Rick Fox. Kobe's failure to lead was the red flag.
Players evolve. And while Bryant, 10 years into his career, is nearly as good as he's going to be as a basketball player, James isn't within 100 miles of maxing out. The discussion of Kobe or LeBron could be quite different in two years than it is today, which is probably why this particular rivalry will hang around indefinitely.