To be clear, no two people will have identical opinions of when a basketball game enters the proverbial game-on-the-line territory. So why do the numbers say otherwise? Or, more to the point, why do they suggest LeBron James, not Bryant, has performed better in the clutch recently? The hard data The Lakers star had a league-leading six game winners in the final 10 seconds of games in 2009-10, with his flair for the dramatic seemingly becoming a weekly fixture.īryant is, by all accounts, the player you want to have the ball when the game is on the line. Time and time again, we have witnessed Bryant's heroics at the end of games. Over the past few seasons, these labels have become synonymous with Kobe Bryant, the NBA's preeminent king of clutch. 1 overall pick.You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser Shouldn't the drop off in the Cavaliers win total clearly exemplify who the more valuable player is as well? The Cavs couldn't buy a win this season and ended up getting the No. LeBron has also done more with less and his overall career statistics are better than Kobe's. They clearly show that LeBron is better late than Kobe has been. On the other hand Dwyane Wade has a 37.5 field goal percentage in the same situation. In 5 in 5 situations (five minutes left with no team up by more than five), LeBron has a 47.3 field goal percentage. LeBron is actually pretty reliable late in games. But one can't call bash LeBron for not being a clutch player when he's the guy who hit big clutch shots against Boston and Chicago this year to lead them to the Finals. Kobe is probably the better NBA Finals player. It's true that LeBron has not played well in the Finals. So Kobe being the most amazing clutch player is actually a myth and LeBron being absolutely the worst clutch player of all time is also a myth. You don't think LeBron has had defenders in his face either in late game situations?Īnd in the playoffs, points out that Kobe is just 7 for 25 in the these situations (28 percent). "Oh, but Kobe has had multiple defenders on him during those shots." LeBron has made 33.3 of his shots in the same situation. Kobe Bryant has only made 36 of his 115 attempts in situations where the Lakers are trailing by one or two points, or tied, in the final 24 seconds of regular season and playoff games. As Henry Abbott of ESPN highlighted last year, Kobe is generally considered the king of clutch, but the numbers show otherwise. The game went to double overtime and LeBron singlehandedly won the game for the Cavs.Īnd even with this, people continue to say "don't ask LeBron to give you change for a dollar because he won't give you a fourth quarter back." People seem to forget LeBron's unbelievable performance against the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals when he scored the last 25 points in Game 5 at Detroit. It wasn't until Pau Gasol came to the Lakers when they finally bounced back. In fact, the year after Shaq left the Lakers didn't even make the playoffs. In the same year when Kobe had guys like Smush Parker, Luke Walton, and Lamar Odom as his supporting cast, the Lakers finished seventh in the West and failed to get out of the first round. On a team with Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, James led the Cavs to the Finals in 2007. LeBron needs a few to match Kobe's legacy but he doesn't need one to be considered the better player.Īnother advantage LeBron has over Kobe is that he was able to do more with less when they both had horrible teammates. So saying Kobe is better than LeBron right now in terms of championship rings is foolish. His Heat are now the league favorites.įinally, teams win championships, not players. In his first year with Miami without any chemistry with his teammates he was able to get the Heat passed Boston and Chicago. LeBron didn't have any rings up until he bolted to Miami largely because of his teammates. This may be true, but it is also important to see that LeBron finished second in the league last season in scoring despite having Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on his team. His numbers declined but he was still among the league leaders in points despite having more talent on his team.Īlso, if someone is going to argue that Kobe has five more rings than LeBron while saying the only reason why LeBron has better stats than Kobe because of the fact that Cleveland was a one-man show, then they are being hypocrites. One can argue that LeBron's numbers are better because it was pretty much a one-man show in Cleveland during his years with the Cavaliers. Only in turnovers does Kobe have the edge. So what do we make of these numbers?
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