Kobe gets ridiculously overrated. He was arguably the top player in the league for a couple seasons but it was never undisputed. He should never be in the conversation for GOAT with 1 MVP. Jordan, Wilt, KAJ, LeBron, sure. Never Kobe.
The main arguments that people toss out to put Kobe over LeBron is rings (team accomplishment) and clutch shots (false).
Game-tying/go-ahead field goals with under 10 seconds left in the postseason:
Michael Jordan: 7/15 (47%)
Kobe Bryant: 5/22 (23%)
LeBron James: 12/23 (52%)
I think most know deep inside LeBron was a better player. But the fact that Kobe won 5 titles and LeBron choked with the 2011 Heat was the main argument for Kobe > Lebron at the time. No one thought he was top 3 GOAT after 2011.
The arguments I can see are LeBron needing superteams to win championships even if they may be wrong. He also played in a
very weak Eastern Conference while the NBA playoffs in the West were tougher than whoever came out of the East most of the time during Kobe's years.
LeBron is 11-9 vs 50+ win teams in his playoff career while Kobe is 25-10. Kobe went through hell in the West while LeBron went to LeBronto for the latter part of his Cavs tenure. That's the only argument I can see for Kobe.
For me, I liked Kobe's pleasing playing style but acknowledge LeBron is easily the better player. The post-up and fadeaway were GOAT moves. No one yells LeBron while shooting into a trash can.
It's like hockey fans that are convinced Pavel Bure is one of the GOAT due to his flare. demeanor and playstyle, except Kobe is a 100000000x better than Bure was at their respective sports and won everything there was to win.
