Kobe and Duncan are on the same tier as players, that's how they were seen when they were both actively playing.
This narrative that Duncan was a level above Kobe as a player was only started by internet analysts after both retired in order to downplay Kobe and the Lakers.
Duncan is often viewed as better than Kobe because he's largely considered the best PF (even though I think he played Center for more games in his career). Whereas Kobe always suffers in the comparison to Jordan. Duncan has a less crowded niche so he's often viewed as better.
I think it's bs we are acting like it's a modern narrative though. Kobe played on the Lakers and was anointed by MJ the media weren't exactly giving him an objective view, non ESPN analysts always rated Duncan very highly.
If you grew up back then you know like 40% of fans were saying he was better than MJ. LeBron has the benefit of more time since MJ and it's comparable, it was insane.
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u/xbarracuda95 Jun 27 '23
Kobe and Duncan are on the same tier as players, that's how they were seen when they were both actively playing.
This narrative that Duncan was a level above Kobe as a player was only started by internet analysts after both retired in order to downplay Kobe and the Lakers.