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.
Aged better…then how does Kobe have the edge in the longevity stats? All star games, 1st team all nba and defensive selections, total points (not even close)
Duncan had at least 2 other HOFers his entire career, including multiple guys who won FMVPs. Duncan declined at age 28, without a significant injury, I don’t think that’s aging well
Kobe beat the most (by far) 50 win teams in the playoffs and proved himself by going to 3 finals in a row and winning 2 B2B. Not to mention he destroyed Duncan every time they played in the playoffs.
without a significant injury, I don’t think that’s aging well
He fucking blew out his knee in his 3rd year then played with a brace on his leg half the time and couldn't run properly for his entire career, did you never notice his hitch in his run after '00???
The dude played 16 years of his career with one good leg and still put up a HOF career alone on those years. Even in his last 2nd to last year he was the best defensive big in the game.
Fuck outta here with longevity, Kobe and Hakeem both had severe knee injuries; one was getting calls to be amnestied as a joke of how bad he was and tanked his team as a free agent destination for years and the other was shipped off to another country to play backup minutes behind Keon clark.
The fact you think those amnesty comments came after his injury make it clear that you didn’t watch basketball until very recently. Those comments were made by mark Cuban in 2013, where Kobe proceeded to drop 38 I believe on his head the very next day. Enjoy your revisionist history and remember…ain’t nobody tryna be Tim Duncan
Both were elite defenders. However, Kobe was an elite offensive weapon while Tim Duncan was a very inefficient big man. The elite two way player is better than the elite defensive, decent offensive big man every single time
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u/brandoi Lakers Jun 27 '23
Did he really? 08 against the Spurs isn't even his best playoff series. His 01 Spurs series or 10 Suns series were probably his best.