THE WORLD'S TWO BEST, THE OLYMPIC QUALIFIER, AND THE BRONZE

A coworker and I were talking and the issue of LeBron James surfaced. Now LeBron James gives great highlight. I’ll be the first to admit he can dunk with the best of them and is an extremely gifted passer, but he’s no Kobe Bryant. Now the question posed to me was: “If you were starting a franchise today, who would you take? Kobe or LeBron? Now, I would have to really be an idiot to pass on the marketing dollars and the “butt’s in seat” aspect of King James. But the more practical answer is age. LeBron is six years younger than Kobe, thus he would be the logical choice. That being said, Kobe Bryant’s GAME, is light years ahead of LeBron James’. I said it before, and I’ll say it again, Kobe Bryant is the BEST all around basketball player in the world. What defines all around? Well, all around consists of DEFENSE, shooting ability, passing ability, free throw ability, and over all scoring ability. Nobody or better yet, no guard except MIKE has ever been able to dominate a game like Kobe. Now I was never a Kobe Bryant fan, until people started hating him. To tell you a little about myself real quick, I like the Florida Gators (because everyone else likes FSU) and I like Duke Basketball (because EVERYONE loves UNC). Now back to regularly scheduled program…Shaq is great, and he was the force behind the Lakers’ championships, however, he was not the scoring force. Shaq wasn’t who you wanted on the free throw line AT ALL in the fourth quarter. If I’m not mistaking, but I believe Kobe (a guard now) drew a double team and threw the Ally to Shaq to seal the deal of championship number two. But back to the subject matter at hand. I conceded to my coworker, it would probably be wise to take LeBron on the potential factor alone, but he went as far to say that Dwayne Wade and LeBron are the two best players in the world, he lost me. Now let me get me this straight. These two were on an OLYMPIC QUALIFIER team with other NBA players and couldn’t beat Spain or Argentina. Do you realize that you could fit 5 Argentina’s in the state of Texas? Anyway, these two are the greatest players, yet when the Spaniards went zone, so went the Olympic teams OLYMPIC QUALIFIER Gold Medal. Two of the best players, matter of fact these two best players in the world couldn’t do better than a bronze medal? Of course not…My Co-worker like many other fans, watches highlights of these guys and declare them all exalted. Kobe Bryant would have shot the lights out of the place. The Europeans (to their credit) sagged in the zone and made Wade and LeBron shoot over them instead of drive through them. The Americans were peppered with offensive foul calls because they could recognize and adapt to a sagging zone. Coach K even brought in Jim Boeheim to teach these guys the zone. But I digress. You can’t sag on Kobe Bryant. He’ll miss a few sure…but he’ll make more. Michael Redd and Ray Allen are the shooters of the NBA are just that…shooter’s. Kobe Bryant gets to the rack just as much as Wade and Bryant if not more, but has a rock solid jumper and creates points off his defense enough to possess the leagues most deadly game. On top of that, he sticks big time shots to break the back of the competition. Now Kobe didn’t win without Shaq and Michael never won without Pippen. So it’s fair to say that Kobe does need a sidekick, and he like LeBron will get a reputable one. That time will come for Kobe when Chris Paul gets a max deal from the Lakers, and they package Lamar Odom, Jordan Farmar, and Andrew Bynum to whoever’s taken. OH fucking yeah I almost forgot… Kobe hit for 81 when his team needed it. 81! 21 three’s! Are you kidding me? Wade nor James couldn’t hit a dominant college team for 81 points. You can’t get 81 or 69 (MIKE’s MAX) with out hitting three’s. Getting to the lane and going to the free throw line or Sports Center dunks just won’t get you 81. So LeBron is the future, and he might get to Kobe or MIKE, so if I was starting a franchise, I’d take LeBron unless I had Greg Oden (smirk)….Lastly, here’s the Thomas Report’s 2008 projected Olympic starting roster. Buy you some of this!

G- Chris Paul
G- Kobe Bryant
F- LeBron James
F- Amare Stodamire
C- Dwight Howard