It's Time for Kobe Bryant to Top LeBron

Filed under: Cavaliers, Celtics, Lakers, NBA Playoffs

With all due respect to every metric ever invented, and Pau Gasol -- who does make a slight bit of difference -- these Finals will be the great reckoning we've all waited for.



Don't get me wrong, Celtics-Lakers will be a fantastic series, one team and one star hitting their stride like never before at just the right time. Typing that sentence almost left me breathless, though maybe in a melodramatic kind of way. Regardless, even if this is the match-up everyone with fat wallets wants to see (so they'll get fatter), it also happens to be the best of all possible battles. Los Suns were the sentimental favorites and the Magic, some vague symbol of truth and justice.



When the smoke cleared, though, Boston and Los Angeles were the two teams carrying themselves like prospective champions. What's more, it's a rematch of the 2008 Finals that left the Lakers humiliated and Kobe Bryant licking his wounds, to such a degree that pride seemed irrelevant. Bryant has four rings; if the last one was the most important, as it proved he could stand without Shaquille O'Neal, a 2010 championship would show he could topple adversity and cast off another set of demons.



Pardon me, I got sidetracked. Next week, we'll find out who the NBA's best player is: Kobe or LeBron James. It's abstruse to put it this way, since we're not getting the head-to-head meeting that all of last season anticipated. Generally, it's bunk to talk "who's better, who's best" with regard to individual players unless they have kicked each other in the face and one has walked out the victor.



But the narrative is just right. LeBron was flummoxed, maybe even give the emperor's new clothes treatment, by a resurgent Celtics team. Now, Kobe, who has history here, has a chance to show what he can do against Boston.

 

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Full story at http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/05/30/its-time-for-kobe-bryant-to-top-lebron-james/