re: Kobe Bryant Amazing last 3 minutes in his FINAL GAME (down by 10)

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Lebron's reign was what? 18 months? That's probably the shortest I can think of.

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Lebron has been widely acknowledged as the best player in the world since 2008-2009, and many would argue the year prior to that. He finished with the highest PER in the league for six consecutive years and finished in the top 2 for eight straight seasons. Other than his rookie season and last year(8th), he finished in the top 5 in PER in every season of his career. He ranked first in VORP from 2005-06 through 2012-13. He also won 4/5 MVP's, which should've been five straight, frankly. That's a stretch of individual dominance longer than anyone since Michael Jordan.

Kobe was the best player in the world from probably around 2005-2007. He was 3rd in VORP in 2007-08 at 5.98 (MVP season), only marginally better than Lebron's worst (5.93, last year)since his rookie season. Kobe's career defensive win shares is 50.66, compared to Lebron's 58.45. Kobe was a volume scorer that has never had a top PER 50 season in his entire career.

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Value over replacement player (VORP) score is a mathematical estimate that basketball analysts use to measure a player’s overall contribution to the team, measured against what a theoretical “replacement player” would provide. There’s a detailed explanation of VORP at Basketball-Reference.com. During his 20-year career, Kobe never topped the NBA in VORP — he never even came close.

Even in 2007 – 08, the season Bryant was named MVP, he still trailed LeBron James’ VORP. He came in 3rd place with a VORP score of 6.0, compared to James’ score of 10.1. James has topped the VORP leaderboard eight times during his career so far, and Michael Jordan did it seven times.

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Dirk and Dwight Howard were not the best players in the league in 2011.

An argument could be made for the rest though. Garnett was truly a great player back then.

Fitting way for Kobe to go out. He put the team on his back and willed them to a W. Haters gonna hate, but that was impressive for a 37 year old