See, that's fair enough, that's how you view things.
Me? I can't judge his first 17 years, off his final 2 when the Lakers are stealthily tanking to protect their lottery pick. I can rip/blame him about his contract, and have done so, but he also did take almost 10 million less this year, and the Lakers (wisely) didn't spend on second-third tier players to be "better" and finish as the 8-9-10 seed. They offered to the elites, they declined, so they kept their money. Which is how it should be done. Adding 1-2 extra mid level players doesn't do anything for them long term except keep them in mediocrity. A place we don't belong.
So I am angry about his deal as a whole, but the Lakers org played it right once Melo and Bron said no. They set up a tank, to keep their top 5 pick, and rebuild with that piece + Randle.
That doesn't take away from the fact that Kobe went to the Finals 7 times in 11 years, or that Kobe's team beat Duncan's team 4 out of 5 times from 2000-08 in the playoffs.
Sure, Duncan won last year, and did so with the same coach, and the same 2 other HOFers around him for over a decade, but Duncan has also stopped being a full time player back in like 2009-10 when Pop started giving him games off, playing him 29 minutes a night, etc. Kobe was going 44-47 minutes a night all the way up til the game he blew his achilles. And even now, in year 19, he played 40 minutes last night, in the second of a back to back, in November.
Duncan has already sat out 1 game (11 games into the season) and had a 25 and 16 minute night. Duncan's "high" the last few years is 33.6 in 2008-09.
Kobe this year is at 35.4
6 game year last year
38.6
38.5
33.9
38.8
36.1 2008-09
Duncan
30.9
29.2
30.1
28.2
28.4
31.3
33.6
And that doesn't even count the games that Duncan has sat out, just because.
So to me, add all that up, beating Duncan 4 times in 5 playoffs, 7 finals in 11 years, and playing a ridiculous amount of games/minutes, every night, for 18 seasons, while the other guy plays half the game, rests multiple games a year, and because he has a great coach and strong team around him, gets to shine again 7 years after his last Finals, I don't put much stock in that compared to when both were in their primes workin. That's just the way I view it tho. Both are HOFers, both are Top 10, I just have one in front of the other, but I don't have a problem with those who have it the other way.
