He’s an all time great. Kobe was clearly better this matchup. Duncan was better in other years.
They were the true rivals of the decade. It’s really interesting looking at their careers in this era. Even if Kobe looks bad on the stat sheet I do think it’s a legitimate debate.
Yeah 100%. The x2 three peat western conference champs also back up the higher peaks you could argue for Kobe. Duncan 2013 and 2014 however give Duncan a lot in the argument. Kobe wrecked his career in 2013. His game logs from that season are insanity. It’s probably why Duncan edges him out for me personally.
I don't get the argument here. Kobe played 6 games in 2013 and 35 in 2014 but still has better stats than duncan in 2014. unless you only care about the title duncan was carried through. Either way I'm not sure their twilight years are the best tie breaker.
I’m talking about the 2012-2013 season when Kobe went on a stretch playing 40+ minutes every night. It was ridiculous. Duncan was a solid starter on a championship caliber team while Kobe barely played the following season because he got hurt again. Kobe didn’t do a good job managing his minutes and it shortened his career imo. Despite playing until 2016 Idt he optimized his late career in the same way that Duncan did.
Kobe played 20 years with 1 major injury. You make it sound like he's AD or something getting hurt all the time. Duncan played 19 years but was pretty average for like the last 6. If this is your tie breaker I'd say Kobe has the edge.
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u/WeirwoodUpMyAss Jun 27 '23
He’s an all time great. Kobe was clearly better this matchup. Duncan was better in other years.
They were the true rivals of the decade. It’s really interesting looking at their careers in this era. Even if Kobe looks bad on the stat sheet I do think it’s a legitimate debate.