Magic: Kobe is better than Pierce

Glad to see the completely 'unbiased' view of Magic. LOL

What makes a player better than another player is my question? On the lakers I believe the floor leader is Derek Fisher, in and outside the court, the player with the most skill is Kobe. I feel that leadership is chosen by the players that they follow. The best player should be the overall leader. The lead guard makes everyone better. Is that right Mr. Johnson or should I say Magic.

Opinions are like a$$holes-everyone has them. Sure Kobe's a great player, sure he can score lots of points. But P-Double is the better man. Paul has been through so much in his career/life. Lakers fans will argue well Kobe almost went to jail for rape...blah-blah-blah. Well P2 was stabbed mulitple times and almost died, spent a few seasons with the Celts when they were at their worst but didn't cry pubicly, does alot for his community, shall I go on...? So Magic, have another biscuit and shut the hell up!

Magic is absolutely right. Paul Pierce is a great player but no where near the greatness of Kobe Bryant. To even have that conversation is asinine. Paul Pierce has a long way to go to even compare himself to Kobe. Keep on working Paul.

Kobe is th best closer in the game. Just look at the way he closed out the Celtics in the Finals. And look at all the championships he's won without Shaq. And he is such a classy ambassador for the league. Hey Magic, put down the popcorn and get your head out of your backside. Pierce is the man!

who cares....the celtics are better than the lakers, that is all that matters.

as a bostonian...I have to say that Kobe is more talented, but Pierce is a better teammate

Sean are you nuts? I know you aren't going there about the League's Ambassador. What, you think Pierce is better, throwing up Gang signs?

Here is one more evidence why Kobe is waaay better than Paul Pierce...lets see. Paul Pierce had the Celtics to himself at one time for what, three seasons? Never once did he lead them to the playoffs in the Eastern Conference...THE LEASTERN CONFERENCE. KOBE BRYANT in 2 out of his 3 years without Shaq led the Lakers to the playoffs in the Western Conference. Paul Pierce and Walker couldn't beat J-Kidd and the Nets, Lakers swept them.

And by the way Magic'sWiltedJohnson re-read what you wrote and by calling Paul Pierce P-Double shows YOUR bias toward Pierce. I don't see Pierce donating millions overseas, I don't see Pierce pouring in help or speaking out about the atrocities in Darfur, I don't see Pierce funding an annual summer travel abroad program for high school students in hopes of making them aware of the bigger world around them. I don't see Pierce a global Ambassador who speaks and understands Italian and Spanish along with his English. Kobe is one of the more Globally-literate NBA superstars in the league, even more so than Michael Jordan.

Yah Kobe won three titles with Shaq but Shaq needed a player like Kobe to help him win, he went to Miami and got a player like that in Wade so stopp feeding yourselves that lie.

While with Paul Pierce it took two ADDITIONAL All-Stars (Who themselves had very good teams assembled around them but failed miserably) to help him win one, yah, compare that to Kobe, yah...that is certainly legit when you think the Hawks brought them to 7 games, so did the Pistons and the weak Laker defense who coughed up a game brought them to 6.

They barely got it done to win the Championship, Paul Pierce reminds me of John McCain barely passing through Naval Academy (not to take away from what happened to him and his stature in history, I'm talking about McCain the student, not McCain the hero). A better comparison would be Bush barely making it into the White House (Thank you Supreme Court for that unconstitutional timeout on America's Democracy). And BTW Magic'sWiltedJohnson you want to get low by bringing up Kobe's rape case? How about this: "P2" got stabbed yes, but I am willing to bet if he learned to keep his mouth shut and his behind out of the place and time then he would have been "stab-less" you don't really know what went on. Oh by the way, you are the only one here obsessive enough with Magic's HIV-infected reproductive organ to name yourself based on what you say it looks like (wilted). You must be disappointed about Proposition 8...be not dismayed ignoramus, Massachusetts and Connecticut still grant key rights to keepers of the rainbow. Your world isn't over...but your idiotic rants are, so long as I am here.

Pierce is a top talent but he didn't make any noise in the playoffs since 2002 with Antoine Walker until two potential Hall of Famers arrived on the team. SO STFU CELDICKS FANS

Kobe is head and shoulders above the rest of the league. No one posses the array of shots he has in arsenal. No one is more clutch. No one is more driven like him.

Pierce is a top talent but he didn't make any noise in the playoffs since 2002 with Antoine Walker until two potential Hall of Famers arrived on the team.
Kobe is head and shoulders above the rest of the league. No one posses the array of shots he has in arsenal. No one is more clutch. No one is more driven like him.

How many times did Pierce miss the playoffs? How many Lottery picks have the celtics had? How can you argue that Kobe hasn't won a ring without Shaq when Pierce hasn't won anything until KG and Ray Allen came? The Celtics TEAM beat The Lakers. The Celtics TEAM Defense neutralized Kobe. I'm not saying all Celtics fans do this, But it seems like whenever this conversation comes up.. They bring up one situation where Pierce outperformed Kobe. Or even better, that one of the interviewers brought up Pierce scoring 22 in the 4th quarter recently... Uhh who has the record for most points in a quarter? Who single handedly outscored a really good Mavericks team in 3 quarters? The Celtics had the better team, but talent wise.. this isnt even a debate

Let Kobe be "the best player in the NBA". He has one fatal flaw that will ruin him forever: He's a bad teammate. Now that he's the alpha dog and not Shaq, the Lakers will forever be bridesmaids with him on the team. It's all good now, with them being 7-1 and the good times are rolling. When it comes playoff time, we'll see the blatant quitting on his team that we saw in Game 6 of the finals.

I hear a lot of anger and bigotry being tossed around. I'm a Celtics fan from the early seventies. And I think Paul Pierce is one of the best Celtics. You can't or it isn't fair to compair Paul and Kobe. Two different players, two different positions and they both mean so much to their respective teams. Yes, Kobe is a fantastic player. No one can take that away from him, accept Michael Jordan (who's game Kobe patent his game after) As you all know...Paul Pierce is the TRUTH! but, can you say he is better than Larry Bird? One might even argue that point. All we should do is Just enjoy the game of Basketball and continue to root for our teams!

Kobe is the best player in the league. Pierce is also great, but there's a reason why most NBA players agree that Kobe is it. Swap Kobe and Pierce (Kobe to Celts and Pierce to Lakes). I guarantee you that anyone with ANY basketball knowledge would agree that a Celtics team with Kobe in it, would be scarier. A lot more so.

Kobe is the more talented individual but Pierce is the better teammate and leader in my book. They're both excellent "lead by example" players, just different styles.

Joe:
You may be right, but Pierce had Kobe crying like someone stole his lunch last year in the finals. Kobe didnt make any noise unless he had Shaq.....Then when Shaq left, he didnt make any noise again until hey added Gasol. For those years Kobe didnt have Shaq, he took them to the playoffs, but remember his supporting cast was better than Pierce has EVER had until they brought in KG and Allen. I do agree that Kobe is a better PLAYER than Pierce. However I bet if you asked around the league who most would want as a team mate, they would pick Pierce. Kobe treats his teammates like crap.....you saw it last year in the finals when he yelled at the bench, and you could see Farmer rolling his eyes at Kobe. Thats not exactly what I would call respect.

Don't even compare Bryant to Pierce. Kobe will finish a legend while Paul will finish as a great player.

I'm just amazed at Kobe's reputation how arrogantly needs to be defended every time...
I think, for being considered the best player, you need to play both offense and defense. All right, I admit that Kobe's offense accomplish the first requirement. What about his defense!?
He logged All Defensive First Team 6 times, Second Team 2 times.
But please, on what ground? Obviously, the voters, NBA head coaches are lot smarter than me, but you know, only seeing is believing. And I haven't seen Kobe playing defense, other than the Olympics maybe.
Please, just choose a random game. I did it, after waching ESPN's latest interview, where he stated that defense is the most important for him. I've choose the game versus Dallas. Shut everyone off, just concentrate on Kobe's defense. As always, he has to guard the opponent's offensive threat. Gerald Green. (who was released from the high-flying Wolves last year. But you can choose others: James Posey/Bruce Bowen/Raja Bell...) He is always standing on the weak side. I mean: standing still. Neither helping in on penetrations, nor rushing out to contest the 3 pointer. I've counted 3 occasions when he contested his opponent's shot. Out of the 70-80 defensive possessions he was unfortunately forced to play. I mean, please compare his defense to Eddie House's defense, who's defense is obviously laugther, even Eddie is way more energetic on defense.
Well, Kobe catches 1.5 lazy passes per game (as he is on the weak side, again...), and whenever he gets a block, it is automatically on the highlights. I don't think that makes him a good defender. I'm sure he could do better than that.
Once again, what was his defensive task on the Finals? To let Rondo shoot jump shots. That's hell of a job for an 8 time all-defensive team member. And remember, from the best living coach on earth. I quote him on olympic defense: "If you can get Kobe to play defense like that, we'll win a championship."
So dear Kobe Fans, please, would somebody explain me where's Kobe's defense?

Well said bad. I've always thought that Kobe's defense was a joke. No one can really argue about his offensive skills but this reputation on defense doesn't hold water.
There's also something to be said about attitude and Kobe's has always been poor.

Please...Pierce the best player in the NBA??? Outside of Boston, his name is never, ever mentioned alongside Kobe or LeBron. Face it, the talk about Pierce being the best started with Pierce himself. You're puffing some bad herb if you think there's a comparison.

Well, bad, it's obvious your tag comes from the adjective describing your reasoning: Kobe has been highly rated by not only sportswriters--but the players in the game. I don't think they're apt to hype his reputation.
What a boob. Oops, new name.

How can you just choose a random game and base your whole statement on that? Kobe's been more of a roamer on defense since Phil came back. The Kobe/Shaq days, Kobe DID play really good defense. Watch those tapes. I DO think that he gets All Defense awards based on reputation now. His on-ball defense definitely lacks at times and he doesn't need to guard the best player on a team every time.. because of Ariza.

And that Dallas game is really a bad example. Gerald green was starting in place of Josh Howard.. Kobe most likely would have been guarding Josh Howard if he played. You want Kobe to guard the best player on the mavs? He's supposed to guard Dirk? And before you bring up Stephen Jackson guarding Dirk... Think about the match ups? Jackson or Pietrus HAD to guard Dirk.

Paul Pierce has led the Celtics to MORE LOTTERY PICKS than Playoff Births since the Antoine Walker days... and that's in a weaker conference. The Celtics teams were less talented than the post shaq laker days? Oh really.... Uhh didn't that talent land you KG?

All right, I don't know where did I say he should guard Dirk... I just love to see him playing defense on anyone. And I never mentioned Pierce or KG, just concentrate on the subject: Kobe's defense.
I've watched the Pistons game. Kobe did play some defense finally. Man, he just banged Rip out of the floor with the ball at one time... and I counted another 3 good defensive sequence. Unfortunately, something (fatigue I think) forced him miss 18 shots. But sorry, I've missing the subject again, just on defense (not even the score). My question is: if he CAN play defense (and I think he really can), why is he drifting always OFF the ball to the weak side.
Somebody said not too long ago to his coach that he wants to guard the opponent's best. (Sorry, my memory is rusty a little bit ;-) ) So where is this mentality in Kobe?
Oh, I've forget to mention that Ariza is my favourite player in the Lakers, I root for him really. I enjoy his energy so much.
By the way, Green scored 17 points in 25 minutes, but it is really not about Dallas. And again, I was just curious after that interview. I will watch those tapes definitely, whenever i will have more time to analyze Kobe's defense.
Highlander, why should I borrow other's opinion? Just open your eyes, and watch Kobe.

Bad you're an idiot. Comparing Eddie House's defense to one of the best wing defenders of this decade???? Check 82games.com. Kobe defense is allowing opposing SG's to avg a terrible 8.1 PER. BEST PER ALLOWED IN THE WHOLE LEAGUE...that's what being a shut down defender would do. It helps that the team as a whole has improved defensively ofcourse. Anyways, he's a better lockdown and it's not even close.. Pierce on the other hand is allowing opposing SFs to avg above avg 17.6 PER. defender than Pierce. Have you ever heard pierce being compared to MJ? NEVER... There's a reason.

Look at Pierce's teammates, KG and Ray Allen, two super stars!
Kobe's teammates? Not comparable with KG.

KB is a better player than PP

kobe has always been the best player.. you know that one.. just because paul pierce won the 2008 Champion doesn't mean he is the best player today.. always remember he won 3 championships!

even michael jordan says that kobe is the best player in the world.

on his best day, pierce is not as good as kobe. and he never will be.