Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James

This article first appeared on NBA Gauntlet on 8/18/08. Kobe is leading the poll 145-142. Doberman vs. King James Kobe Bryant and LeBron James routinely factor into the discussion every season as MVP candidates. Each year, they have among the highest scoring averages, PERs, Win Shares, and any other metric commonly used to determine the best basketball player. Last year, LeBron flirted with a triple-double for the season, but slowed down a bit as the season progressed. Even so, he still ended up with numbers that would often win the MVP. Unfortunately for him, many players had compelling arguments for the MVP award. The highest rated by many metrics were Kobe and LeBron. Kobe: 28.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 5.4 APG LeBron: 30 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 7.2 APG ESPN conducted a poll and determined LeBron should win, but in actual results, he came in fourth. Kobe won, followed by Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett, James, and Dwight Howard. How can this be justified? Kobe was the best player on the second ... (link)