Due to injury, I feel like T-Mac has been really underrated in terms of how much talent he actually had. Recently I suggested to a friend I'd prefer T-Mac over Kobe in their prime if injuries weren't a factor, and he scoffed at me. So here's a question for y'all:

If you could pick Kobe or T-Mac in their prime, without injuries being a concern, who would you choose, and why?

For me, I think T-Mac had superior individual talent and team impact. He was a much more skilled all around player and could impact the game in many more ways than Kobe. The one thing Kobe has on T-Mac is more championships, but T-Mac was never surrounded by the talent Kobe was - quite frankly, not many players have been blessed like Kobe. Many people point to T-Mac's failures of not making it past the first round despite having a prime Yao, but Yao wasn't exactly a model of health, either. Furthermore, for two consecutive postseasons, the Rockets were paired against one of their worst matchups in the Utah Jazz. Most importantly, for a good deal of his tenure on the Rockets, T-Mac dealt with back issues that severely limited his explosiveness and athleticism.