ReturnOfTheRAT
Member
Steve Nash has TWO. lol
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On Friday Timmy D and Kobe play for the 78th time, who has had the better career?
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Steve Nash has TWO. lol
Lone_Prodigy
Member
To me, Kobe seems like a one-man show. He's immensely talented, sure, but has difficulty playing with others.
Duncan seems more like the consummate teammate. He may not be as flashy or game-breaking, but he makes his teammates around him better.
Duncan seems more like the consummate teammate. He may not be as flashy or game-breaking, but he makes his teammates around him better.
John Bender
Banned
Duncan is the better player.
Boombloxer
Member
Pass the pipe.
When both teams were contending the Spurs never repeated, and consistenly lost against the Lakers in the playoffs. Kobe.
Boombloxer
Member
in a starting 5, who beats out Duncan at PF? There's only one player who some would pick over Kobe.
ryutaro's mama
Member
Salty Phoenix appears.
You forgot to name drop LeBron though.
Kobe may have quit on the Lakers once in Phoenix...your boy LeBron quit on an entire city.
An entire city.
I say no one. Because I'm putting KAJ at center.
I think pf is the least important position on the court though. Wings now being the most important and C being, historically, where you can gain the most edge.
Ziltoidia 9
Member
If I could pick one to have on my team as a rookie, I would go with Duncan. He is much easier to build a team around and is a more vital role.
Kobe on the other hand, was deadly for a long stretch in the 2000s, but I really don't think he fills a vital role anymore. Duncan has proven his ability to adjust to teams and ageing, drama-free and a very decent guy.
Definitely would take Duncan over Kobe, and think he will be looked back on as a better and more accomplished.
Kobe on the other hand, was deadly for a long stretch in the 2000s, but I really don't think he fills a vital role anymore. Duncan has proven his ability to adjust to teams and ageing, drama-free and a very decent guy.
Definitely would take Duncan over Kobe, and think he will be looked back on as a better and more accomplished.
turnbuckle
Member
Duncan, better team career
Kobe, better individual career
Player that most improved their respective team's chances of success? Duncan, by a long shot.
Player more exciting to watch? Kobe by a long shot.
Kobe, better individual career
Player that most improved their respective team's chances of success? Duncan, by a long shot.
Player more exciting to watch? Kobe by a long shot.
curlyfriski
Banned
PF is way more important defensively.
Anyways the distinction is sport of silly because Duncan has been indistinguishable from a center for much of his career.
Patrick Bateman
Member
Kobe has the nicer shoes.
ryutaro's mama
Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0HtbJFEzJM
How soon they forget.
Oh btw, 5pur5 got the broom that year too.
#shaqcarriedkobe
The Maverick
Member
Kobe is not in my top ten. I think Duncan is the best PF to ever play, and I have him ranked higher all time.
But this question says more about the person answering than anything.
Not sure if serious? Barkley carried the Suns to the NBA finals. Malone, Garnett, Nowitzki, Hayes, McHale (maybe) were the best players on their team. Kemp, Webber, Gasol, Rodman were all excellent. I think you'll find as many PFs in the top 50 players of all time as any other position.
ryutaro's mama
Member
LOL
Apparently, you don't watch basketball
TP was the best in 2007
Kawhi was the clear best player last year.
Good try though.
Strange how no one brings that up.
After 99 Kobe pretty much always owned the Spurs in the playoffs. He was their kryptonite more than any other player I can think of (maybe Dirk comes closest after Kobe).
Anyone who watched those games could see that Kobe was the difference. He would go on scoring runs or would make plays that would change the game.
Did the Spurs beat the Lakers in a series other than 2003 after 1999 (before that the Spurs and everyone else had swept the Lakers)?
ryutaro's mama
Member
They swept Dwight Howard's Lakers.
Got damn kobe and Shaq were so good that year.
They both average 30 points and I think combined 30 rebounds. :lol
Diprosalic
Banned
Timmy and it's not even that close.
With the Spurs dying of old age and injuries this year the title seems up for grabs and I am very interested to see how Harden and Dwight do in the playoffs this year.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Guys who have difficulty playing with others don't win 5 titles. That stuff is an overblown narrative.
That said, as much of a Laker/Kobe fan as I am I probably would rate Duncan higher. His consistency is amazing.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
LOL
Apparently, you don't watch basketball
TP was the best in 2007
Kawhi was the clear best player last year.
Good try though.
And Danny Green was the best player in the series against the Heat. I mean, there aren't people who honestly think either is a top 10 player right now, are there?
It depends who retires first. Both are first ballot HOFs.
I don't like what you have become!
I think Kobe was the better player and usually had his way with the Spurs.
I would say Duncan played for the better organization.
They both played for two of the best coaches of all time so that is pretty even, except Duncan lucked out there in that he is still playing for Pop. Kobe had some stinker coaches in there like a drunken Rudy T and a over the hill Mr. Pringles.
ryutaro's mama
Member
I think this is a legit debate and to be honest, no matter who you choose, career-wise, you are correct. They are both special players and Pop and Timmy are the only rivals I respect and don't actively hate on or wish ill will towards.
Oh yeah and fuck the Celtics, Pissed-Ons and Sons for all time. Any year.
The Spurs have actually done pretty well even when Duncan was not playing. While he is still a good player he can't play very many minutes any longer. This Spurs team is more about the genius of their GM and coach who have built something special.
Diprosalic
Banned
if you only count the last three games of the entire season.
You got to give the players a ton of credit for buying into the system and not complaining about playing time, shots etc.
And none of those guys were considered great winners outside McHale. None of those guys were head and shoulders above their teamates when they won championships, in most cases never being the best player on a championship team. Only one definitely say that is Dirk and that was one year.
Now compare that to center where you had Russell, Shaq, Hakeem, Kareem.
PG where you have Magic Johnson, Thomas and Frazier.
SG you have Michael and Kobe after Shaq.
SF you have Bird and Lebron.
These are all guys IMO you can definitely say we're the driving forces behind championships where I don't think you see that argument very often for power forwards.
(And yeah before anyone comments, I realize everyone listed here had a great deal of help)
Ninja Scooter
Member
It's hard not to marvel at Duncan, even though the rest of the Spurs can go fuck off. It's close, they are easily the two best players of there generation though, I think we can all agree on that, just like Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen were of the generation before them, and Bird and Magic before that.
Never repeated? That really matters when Duncan has more FMVPs and MVPs? Pass the pipe indeed.
Spurs also swept the Lakers, and sorry those early 00's Spurs were not on the same level as the Shaq era Lakers. They were transitioning from a broken down David Robinson and did not have a big 3, meanwhile by comparison the Lakers were stacked with talent including a better coach and a blank check.
Same deal after the Pau Gasol trade: the entire western conference bitched at that trade because it put the Lakers on another tier, meanwhile Spurs were using Kurt thomas, Antonio Mcdyess, and Matt Bonner with a hobbled Duncan during the Gasol era.
If fans are implying that Duncan had a better team throughout his career, I simply cannot agree, it goes in cycles.
If you break it down they probably had a similar amount of championship caliber squads, but I would take a prime Shaq and Co. over Duncan's 03 and 99 squad run for sure, and probably more.
Yeah it is a special team.
I give most of the credit to Pop because I am not sure any other coach in the league could pull that off. With Phil gone he seems head and shoulders above everyone else. Best run team in the NBA.
But yeah the players also get a ton of credit. They have to buy in and execute and they certainly have the past 3 years.
ryutaro's mama
Member
Are you gonna try and argue that Tim Duncan has been the best player on the 5pur5 in recent years?
I thought we were friends and you go and say something ridiculous like that and lose all of your hard earned internet credibility.
Did you start doing drugs and forget about the greatest player of the 90s?
Pippen won 6 titles with a solid supporting cast so he is in the discussion, but how the fuck could you forget and disrespect Ced like that?
WascallyWabbit
Member
Interesting to see all these people saying who's a better player when the question is who had a better career.
It's gotta be Timmy, consistently winning 50+ games a season, same amount of rings, and got to play with the same coach and infrastructure his entire career
It's gotta be Timmy, consistently winning 50+ games a season, same amount of rings, and got to play with the same coach and infrastructure his entire career
He leads by example on the bench when he is not playing 15 minutes a game or skipping all 7 back to backs (which the Spurs will win half of anyways).
What does that have to do with anything?
curlyfriski
Banned
KG gets screwed in these conversations because he had the misfortune to be drafted by an incompetent organization.
ryutaro's mama
Member
Stop right there.
Shaq wasn't the one abusing the 5pur5 in the WCFs. All the people that give Shaq credit for the 3 championships focus on him destroying Rik Smits, Dikembe and whoever the Nets rolled out in the Finals and say he carried the Lakers to all those championships.
Shaq did what the most dominant big man in the game was supposed to do in the Finals: abuse centers that had no business being on the court with him. Those years, anyone could tell you, the Finals was won out West. The hardest test was out West.
Kings, 5pur5...that was the Lakers' biggest opponents...and guess who was abusing those two teams in those series...
Don't take my word for it. Go to YT. It's open 24 hours a day.
Other people on that particular short list: Michael Jordan, Kareem.
Diprosalic
Banned
debatable but he had the arguably better season and clearly better playoffs bar the last 3 games which netted Kawhi the well deserved FMVP honours.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Cedric's skills are greater than basketball. Have you seen his rap video for the classic "Flow On"? To pigeonhole him as just a "great basketball player" would be an insult. Like calling Prince just a "great musician".
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