Before getting to the final boss that is Michael Jordan in an all-time great player debate, current players must first get past Kobe Bryant. There are legions of Bryant fans that insist his five rings and statistical prowess over a 20 year career makes him the closest modern era player to Jordan.
Where LeBron James supporters tend to point to his incredible all-around productivity and efficiency, Kobe fans will point to the counting stats and their ultimate trump card of five rings being more than three. At this point, both sides of the LeBron vs. Kobe debate are so entrenched that nothing short of two or three more championship wins by LeBron will make either side budge on their opinions.
With NBA 2K18 introducing all-time teams for all 30 franchises, we get to see how the game would rate some NBA legends in their primes. For Kobe Bryant, his prime years earn him a 98 rating, the highest of any player past or present we’ve seen released.
https://twitter.com/NBA2K/status/900432478439055360
For comparison, James is currently a 97, the highest rated current player and vintage Dwyane Wade earned a 97 overall for the Heat’s all-time team. The question will be where James is rated on the Heat’s team, because most everyone can agree that James’ peak years came from 2012-2014 when he was the most dominant basketball force on the planet. However, James is coming off of his third best season of his incredible career, so it’s not as though there’s much reason to say he’s not still near the peak of his powers.
James’ 26.4 points per game last season is within 1 ppg of every season he spent in Miami, and he posted career highs in rebounds (8.6) and assists (8.7) per game last year, all while putting up his third most efficient shooting season of his career. In short, LeBron James in 2016-17 was pretty much prime LeBron James.
I wouldn’t be surprised if James’ rating on the all-time Heat team ends up being a 98, matching Bryant’s rating on the Lakers all-time squad, but for now it appears that 2K has weighed in on the seemingly never ending debate with a slight lean to Kobe.
