Champs...
You talking about that 2011 playoff run, specifically against the Mavericks....yea, I dont know what was going on with him that entire year
I'm a Kobe fan, but this is INACCURATE AF.
Kobe had three games where he played poorly, one of them being the final game. Game 6 is overlooked too, with Kobe going 9 for 19 and 1 of 4 from three in an UGLY game where the Celtics couldn't score 70 points.
That Laker team was perfect-- Artest, Odom, and Pau gave the Lakers great minutes in that Finals. Pau scored 130 points BY HIMSELF in that series, good for 19 PPG and 12 RPG. Not a single Celtic scored that much in that series-- PAU GASOL OUTSCORED PAUL PIERCE IN A SEVEN GAME SERIES.
Stop downplaying Kobe's help-- the nikka had HELP. Artest is literally the reason the Lakers won Game 7-- if he didn't explode for 20 points in that game, we'd be talking bout the Cs playing for their 19th title right now.
Y'all love to sit here and pretend Kobe beat that Celtics team by himself, forgetting how that series actually went, to take some weird ass shots at LeBron.
LeBron didn't BARELY beat that Celtics team when he finally got help-- he buried them bytches in FIVE games with stat totals in wins that looked like this:
22/6/5
35/2/7
35/3/14
33/4/7
LeBron has played better against that Celtics team than Kobe ever has; the only reason the Lakers beat them and the Cavs didn't, was because Kobe had help and LeBron didn't.
These all facts.
First it was has Dame surpassed Steph, now its are we sure he is even better than peak Dwade?
You continue to show you dont know shyt about hoops
Stephs peak is just as good as anybody that has walked through this league outside maybe Michael Jeffrey Jordan
That's not how this works, what the fukkSorry, if you replaced steph with a prime kobe (28) on this same team, this series would have been over by now.
Kobe beat 3 hall of famers on the same team (kevin, Paul, ray) celtics team
Incomparison to this team with just Tatum an brown and smart an curry has his hands full...even though he's playing with 2 other hall of famers (clay, draymond) an future all star (poole) and yet this series is tied 2-2
If kobe never played defense and just focused on offense, his numbers would far more ridiculous
...
What all of you are missing about kobe's peak is that we really never got to see his full peak cause he played with shaq
The prime peak that people evaluate kobe is 29-31, which is still saying alot if you consider most peak primes are around 26-29 years old, then you start to slowly go downhill athletically out your prime from 30-33 years old.
Kobe peek prime was 2004-2007 which only ones of those he had a decent team an lost in the finals, the rest of those years, his team was trash in a ultra competitive west, phil and shaq gone, the coach they had retired in the middle of season, his second best player was Lamar odom followed by kame brown
By the time lakers rebuilt that team to championship level Kobe was 29.
Look at competition in the west at the time Kobe went to three straight finals
Tim, Parker, Ginobili spurs
Anthony, Iverson-nuggets
Nowitzki-kid-mavericks
Nash, Stoudemire, diaw-sun's
All these team had more talented team then the lakers besides Mavericks
With steph this is completely different, during the first for warrior championship runs they undisputed had the best team, most talented roster in the league which really how they beat lebron.
Even this year the warriors have most talented roster in league, leads to more 1 on 1 defense which clay, curry all benifit from
Kobe routinely on a night in night basis faced double, triple teams, there's a reason why Kobe is called the best difficult shot maker
Steph playing along side clay who is arguably the second to 4th greatest shooter of all time, and Durant who is a top 15 great of all time allowed steph to play free of double teams, even now with clay and poole, teams can't collapse on steph cause the others will make them pay.
The only time steph an Kobe had a equal playing field is when Kobe had shaq and you seen those results 3 peat champs...
Steph's GOAT season was 2016 and one of the greatest single-season peaks ever but don't give much credence to single season peaks because "peak" to me isn't about what you did in one year, it's how long you sustained your highest level of play over a half-decade. Admittedly that's a personal choice, each season is different from the next and a variety of factors go into why one season was more productive than another...
The sustainability of a 5-year peak though is more relevant to me on how long a guy held his highest level of play...
If you want to go single season there's more competition for him than just Mike, but I'll spin back to that later...
Steph absolutely had one of the highest peaks ever (2014-19), but you're trolling saying it was only Mike. His peak was around the same level as Peak Russell (1959-64), Peak Moses (1978-83), Peak Dream (1992-97);
and Peak Steph was clearly at least one level (or more) below Peak Wilt (1963-68), Peak Kareem (1972-77), Peak Bird (1983-88), Peak Magic (1985-90), Peak Mike (1987-92), Peak Shaq (1999-04), Peak Duncan (2000-05), and Peak LeBron (2009-14)...
For the record, I don't start grading players on a historical level before they hit their 10th season, so I haven't made it to Giannis until this time next year, but I'm pretty confident in saying Steph's peak isn't a level above Peak Giannis...
One of the greatest compliments you can give Steph is that as a 6'2 point, without explosive athleticism, a high end evaluation gives him one of the 10 highest peaks ever, and even on the low end its still a Top 15 peak easily. Honestly this is an argument for him as a Top 10 GOAT (not a particularly strong one to me, but you can make the argument that he should be Top 10 because he had a Top 10 peak at best). This carries a ton of weight...
At the same time, you gotta be objective to the guys before him. There's a minimum of 8 guys (again excepting Giannis who may be a 9th one) who pretty clearly peaked higher than Steph. Let's not shyt on other guys, Steph shooting the ball greater than anyone ever is what produced an All-Time peak but every single one of these guys were doing some facet(s) of basketball at am extraordinarily, uniquely high level---->Steph's primary facet happened to be shooting...
Other guys did other skills at the same degree or even higher....
That's not how this works, what the fukk
You're hypothetically replacing a Y13, age 34 Steph with a younger version of Kobe----->Y11, age 28?
The comp would be how would a Y13 (2009) or age 34 (2013) Kobe fair with this Warriors team around him. Y13 Kobe has a case on this squad, that was still Kobe within his 5-year peak and one of his best seasons (certainly his best Finals)...
stfu should have been three
This happened lolSorry, if you replaced steph with a prime kobe (28) on this same team, this series would have been over by now.
Kobe beat 3 hall of famers on the same team (kevin, Paul, ray) celtics team
Incomparison to this team with just Tatum an brown and smart an curry has his hands full...even though he's playing with 2 other hall of famers (clay, draymond) an future all star (poole) and yet this series is tied 2-2
If kobe never played defense and just focused on offense, his numbers would far more ridiculous
Tim duncan was only a top player for 3 of those championships
