Pierce is not better than Kobe! Period!

[Roy Hobbs]

If I'm not mistaken Kobe has never made it out of first round without shaq except this past season when Paul outplayed him anyway.  Please explain to me how that is better than Boston going to ECF in 2002 with Tony Battie at Starting center.  I'm going to have to disagree with the premise that Kobe has done more with less.  In fact IMO it's just opposite.

Kobe has missed the playoffs once in his career, and the Lakers have only finished below .500 once since he's been there.  He made the playoffs the past two seasons prior to this one, despite having nobody on his team who scored more than 16 points per game.  Lamar Odom has been the definition of "mediocre" in his Lakers career, and that was Kobe's second best teammate for most of the post-Shaq years.  Despite those teams losing in the first round, the Suns team they lost to (and took to seven games one year) was much better than any of the competition the Celtics faced in their run to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Paul's teams have missed the playoffs five times, and prior to this season, he had advanced out of the first round only twice.  His second most talented teammate -- Antoine -- was better than Odom in his prime.  While Paul advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, that was during a time when the Eastern Conference was extraordinarily weak. 

Kobe has had more success in his career, and even when you discount the Shaq years, it's clear to me that Kobe had the Lakers at a higher level than Paul did the Celtics.

[Champzilla]

In the summer of 2003, the sheriff's office of Eagle, Colorado arrested Kobe Bryant in connection with an investigation of a sexual assault complaint filed by 19-year old hotel employee Katelyn Faber. Bryant had checked into The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera hotel in Eagle, Colorado in advance of undergoing knee surgery nearby. Faber accused Bryant of raping her in his hotel room the night before Bryant was to have the procedure.

This man should not be in the NBA, PERIOD.

[GreenPride]

Who is this Kobe character everybody here keeps talking about???

[ChampKind]

In the summer of 2003, the sheriff's office of Eagle, Colorado arrested Kobe Bryant in connection with an investigation of a sexual assault complaint filed by 19-year old hotel employee Katelyn Faber. Bryant had checked into The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera hotel in Eagle, Colorado in advance of undergoing knee surgery nearby. Faber accused Bryant of raping her in his hotel room the night before Bryant was to have the procedure.

This man should not be in the NBA, PERIOD.

That has nothing to do with his basketball abilities, which is what we're arguing.  I don't like Kobe on a personal level, but this is irrelevant in this topic. 

[acieEarl]

In the summer of 2003, the sheriff's office of Eagle, Colorado arrested Kobe Bryant in connection with an investigation of a sexual assault complaint filed by 19-year old hotel employee Katelyn Faber. Bryant had checked into The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera hotel in Eagle, Colorado in advance of undergoing knee surgery nearby. Faber accused Bryant of raping her in his hotel room the night before Bryant was to have the procedure.

This man should not be in the NBA, PERIOD.

Kobe is defiantly one up on Pierce on rape charges.

[JSD]

*Yeah Kobe stinks!




*This is a shameless attempt at downgrading Kobe so he falls to me with the 4th pick in the Celticsblog draft

[crownsy]

I think Kobe is a better player than Paul.  He's certainly more talented.

I think Paul outperformed Kobe in the playoffs, but Kobe has more of a track record of doing more with less.

I would much rather have Paul on my team, though.  He's a better person, and a better teammate.

right, this was what i was saying in my post, i understand and 100% agree with pierce being the better teamate and person, and wouldn't want kobe on my team for any reason, but the ones im refering to with blinders are those that argue pierce is better than kobe on a SKILL WISE level(which some do, and is ludacris, Kobe is more talanted, it doesn't make him better)

[BballTim]

The biggest difference and the biggest reason why the Celtics won is because of KG which by the way, was the anchor of the defense.  It was team defense that stopped Kobe not Pierce..lol.  How can you guys say that Pierce stopped Kobe?

  Just curious, but who did Kobe stop in the playoffs? Because it sure wasn't Pierce or Allen, who also had a shot at finals MVP.

  And if Kobe's head and shoulders better than Paul, why didn't he outplay Pierce in the finals, even after Paul hurt his knee? Before the series people were comparing Kobe to Jordan. How many opponents outplayed Jordan in the finals?

[crownsy]

In the summer of 2003, the sheriff's office of Eagle, Colorado arrested Kobe Bryant in connection with an investigation of a sexual assault complaint filed by 19-year old hotel employee Katelyn Faber. Bryant had checked into The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera hotel in Eagle, Colorado in advance of undergoing knee surgery nearby. Faber accused Bryant of raping her in his hotel room the night before Bryant was to have the procedure.

This man should not be in the NBA, PERIOD.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/5861379/

I belive the man wasen't convicted. I know we all love to just assume we know everythign about every case, and we're all air tight on our opinions, but i like to stick to that whole antiquated "innocent until proven guilty" thing, and he wasen't.

Doesn't change the fact he's a scumbag, and i belive he did settle the civil trial, but i just hate whenever this self rightous attitude comes out with regardes to cases where people wern't actually convicted of anything. We don't know what went on (though sicne then its come out that while he stepped over the line, she didn't exactly go up thier in the "pure as the driven snow" motif people like to put her in) and never will thanks to her not testifing.

sorry, not a personal thing with champ at all, and as i said, i agree he's a bad person, but i don't know, this whole "well, even though he/she wasen't convicted weall know what really happened" attitude rubs me the wrong way, no matter who its directed at. doubly so in a case where the accuser dropped a trail she wasen't apperntly convinced she could win, if she belived she had him in some sort of air tight case, she would have pushed the criminal case and the civil.

rant /off

[ACF]

The biggest difference and the biggest reason why the Celtics won is because of KG which by the way, was the anchor of the defense.  It was team defense that stopped Kobe not Pierce..lol.  How can you guys say that Pierce stopped Kobe?

  Just curious, but who did Kobe stop in the playoffs? Because it sure wasn't Pierce or Allen, who also had a shot at finals MVP.

  And if Kobe's head and shoulders better than Paul, why didn't he outplay Pierce in the finals, even after Paul hurt his knee? Before the series people were comparing Kobe to Jordan. How many opponents outplayed Jordan in the finals?

[fan4life]

I could easily be here commenting on Pierce throwing up gang signs and calling him a thug but I realize how ridiculous that argument is.  Should that tarnish what Pierce has accomplished?  No!  We all know how media generated those reports are. 

But, back to Pierce, he is no Kobe.  Just like I could never say that Kobe is MJ, Pierce is no Kobe.  For the exact same reasons.  You can say whatever you want about Kobe but Pierce has done this for one year.  He was awesome.  I respected his grit and heart.  But just as much as Shaq helped Kobe, KG and Allen helped Pierce.  Pierce has just done this once.   

[Champzilla]

Fan4life, are you comparing KOBE's rape charge to PP throwing up gang signs, which really weren't gang signs? Thats kinda messed up man, I know you trying to be funny but thats just wrong.

[BballTim]

I could easily be here commenting on Pierce throwing up gang signs and calling him a thug but I realize how ridiculous that argument is.  Should that tarnish what Pierce has accomplished?  No!  We all know how media generated those reports are. 

But, back to Pierce, he is no Kobe.  Just like I could never say that Kobe is MJ, Pierce is no Kobe.  For the exact same reasons.  You can say whatever you want about Kobe but Pierce has done this for one year.  He was awesome.  I respected his grit and heart.  But just as much as Shaq helped Kobe, KG and Allen helped Pierce.  Pierce has just done this once.   

  We got it. Kobe's better because he spent more years playing with Shaq than Pierce has spent playing with KG.

  But the fact remains that Kobe, at the height of his career, got outplayed in the nba finals by someone that he's supposed to be clearly superior to. That kind of thing shouldn't happen.

[crownsy]

I could easily be here commenting on Pierce throwing up gang signs and calling him a thug but I realize how ridiculous that argument is.  Should that tarnish what Pierce has accomplished?  No!  We all know how media generated those reports are. 

But, back to Pierce, he is no Kobe.  Just like I could never say that Kobe is MJ, Pierce is no Kobe.  For the exact same reasons.  You can say whatever you want about Kobe but Pierce has done this for one year.  He was awesome.  I respected his grit and heart.  But just as much as Shaq helped Kobe, KG and Allen helped Pierce.  Pierce has just done this once.   

right, we get your stance on the matter. i'm sure paul will be content with the whole larry o'brien trophy thing over knowing that a lakers fan still doesn't think he's better than kobe. 

[GreenPride]

I can't say one is better than the other as i think they have a different style of ballgame.  To me it's like saying Kareem was a better player than Bob Cousy.