Kobe has accomplished more in his career. There's no way to compare them from that angle until both of their careers are over. This season? I guess you can compare the regular season, but the playoffs have barely started, and it's kinda hard comparing performances against teams so drastically different. (Utah vs. Houston) So Regular Season this year is what I'm going to go with. Well I'd take Roy over Kobe on the Blazers in a heart beat, but I also think the Lakers are better off with Kobe than they would be with Roy. Roy and the Blazers improved a lot more this year than the Lakers. The last 20 games or so they were playing at a rate that would have gotten them in the 60 win area if they'd been playing close to that all year. Because of that it's hard to judge the first two games these teams played head to head. In those games the Blazers looked young and nervous. By the second two games against the Lakers the whole team was firing on all cylinders, but the Lakers seem to have some problems in Portland. They are both money in the clutch. I'm not talking end of game stretches, Brandon is more willing to defer when his team mates have a better shot than him, and while he can take over a game often chooses to rely on his team-mates instead. Game winning shots I'd take Roy over Kobe all season long. It's probably because I've see all of the game winners Roy's made this year, the only miss I can think of was on the road in Cleveland on the 4th game in 5 nights after a few 40 min + games and Roy looked tired as hell. The most recent head to head Roy came out ahead down the stretch. He made shots and defended Kobe who jacked up misses that could have kept the Lakers in the game. Comparing them this season I'd say is a wash. If you just stuck them on any team I'd take Kobe on any of the bad teams because he's willing to jack up a lot of shots and he'll make a lot of them and get you more wins than Roy could. On a great team like for the U.S. Olympics? If they were selecting this year based only on this season performance I'd take Roy ahead of Kobe because he's the smarter player, just as if not more clutch, and he's more of a team player. It would be by a very narrow margin though. All this said the fact that we're comparing Roy to Kobe and not the other way around says a lot. In order to be considered one of the best you have to be really good for a long time, and produce big results. Kobe has, Roy has yet to have the chance. If Roy gets the Blazers out of the first round and gives the Lakers a run for their money with some big games I expect to see a lot more threads like this popping up. As far as a prediction for how good they'll be at the end of their careers? I think Roy's got a good shot if he wins as many championships as the Blazers have the potential to. But that's a big capitalized IF. Really that's what it'll come down to 20 years from now. If Kobe's got 3 rings and Roy has more, Roy's the better guy to build a team around (especially considering Shaq was the #1 option on those teams). Time will tell.
I have an idea, lets see how many rings without shaq each one of them has after they both retire... And so far, BR7 has yet to quit on his team because hes mad at his coach.
