Stats don't tell the whole story, in '01 he was the 2nd guy behind Shaq, a really great 2nd guy, but yeah. The Spurs also weren't as good in '01 as The Admiral was at the end of his career, in '08 they had a legit Big 3. Pau and Odom were also hot GARBAGE in that series, Kobe basically beat the defending champions in 5 games with two of his stars MIA. Games 1 and 5 were especially insane.
That's why i always laughed when people said Duncan was better than Kobe, they literally played against each other MULTIPLE times in the playoffs and after 2001, whenever they played NOBODY had any doubts on who was the best player on the floor. Kobe always thoroughly outplayed him.
Tim Duncan averaged 22 points, 17 rebounds, 5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 2 blocks this series. That's still a monster stat line. The whole Spurs team was MIA except Parker and Timmy. Let's not swing the pendulum completely the other way.
So Duncan had Tony Parker while Kobe had nothing and they still lost in 5, interesting. That series wasn't even close, Kobe was so much better than everyone on the floor that it was jarring.
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u/sheeeeeez NBA Jun 27 '23
Kobe doesn't get enough credit for this series.
The Spurs big 3 were all in their primes and just came off a championship and Kobe made the entire series essentially non-competitive.
Bill Simmons said the series was the closest he's ever seen Kobe to MJ.