NBA Who's had the greater career: Kobe or Duncan?

Whos Greater?


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    36
  • Poll closed .

Maestro84

Registered User
May 3, 2018
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Toronto
Both are probably in most ppl's top 10 NBA players of all time, and they also happened to play in the same era.
Both had very long successful careers with one franchise and have both won 5 rings but which player has had the better career?

IMO, Kobe was easily the more exciting player to watch, however, style has nothing to do with this convo and if we're basing this off stats, accolades, team value, big game prowess, who's a better teammate, who was more efficient, who I'd rather start a franchise around, etc. than Duncan in my opinion was the superior player.

Pros for Kobe:
Better scorer
Higher Peak
Leads the H2H against Duncan's Spurs in playoffs
One more All-NBA First Team
More All-Star Games (I don't put much into this one though as Kobe was clearly not an all star calibre player between 2014-2016, as well as 1998)
2 scoring titles
1 more Finals appearance

Pros for Duncan:
More League MVP's
More Finals MVP's
Rookie of the Year
Greater Longevity from start to finish (Kobe's early and final years were less than stellar)
More All-NBA Defensive Teams and was the superior defender
Higher PER in both reg season and playoffs
Higher Win Shares in both reg season and playoffs
Higher VORP in both reg season and playoffs
Higher TS% in both reg season and playoffs
Higher +/- in both reg season and playoffs
Was the best player in 3 or 4 of the 5 Spurs titles (Kobe was only the best in 2 of them at best)
Better clutch player (in the playoffs, elimination games, game 7's, NBA Finals, NBA Finals game 7's, and in the final 30 secs to 5 mins)
Better teammate to play/coach and a better franchise builder
Never missed the playoffs in 19 seasons or had a season winning less than 60% of games
More regular season and playoff games won
Better NBA Finals conversion (same # of finals games won despite playing in one less finals)


Even:
Same # of All-NBA teams and NBA 1st Defensive teams
Both won 5 rings
Supporting cast was pretty similar for both
Similar competition
Both had legendary coaches
 
Last edited:

Terry Yake

Registered User
Aug 5, 2013
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you can't really compare them as players due to their size/position differences

career wise, duncan was definitely more consistent while kobe had the much higher peak. the fact that kobe only won 1 MVP is a travesty. he should have won 3 in a row from 06-08. guy single-handedly took lakers teams with chris mihm and smush parker as starters to the playoffs and didn't get any recognition for it

both are easily top 10 players
 

Voight

#winning
Feb 8, 2012
40,347
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Mulberry Street
You could argue Duncan had a supporting cast -- Kobe had Shaq & Gasol but both times he didn't have a 3rd star like how TD had Parker/Ginobli for the majority of his career (tho he did win one title without them).

Their both top 10 and loyal guys. For those who want to try and rag on Kobe for wanting leave during the mid 2000's you need to realize he is one of the most competitive people on this planet and couldn't stand the losing nor the disorganization.
 

JackSlater

Registered User
Apr 27, 2010
18,041
12,661
Bryant is definitely not in my top ten, Duncan I'm not sure about. For one game I'm not sure who I would opt for, but I would build a franchise around Duncan.
 

Il Mediano

Registered User
Feb 24, 2018
1,837
690
Better career? I dunno, not something I'm interesting in debating -- far too arbitrary and accolades based.

Duncan was the better player , though. No question.
 

Cassano

Registered User
Aug 31, 2013
25,610
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GTA
you can't really compare them as players due to their size/position differences

career wise, duncan was definitely more consistent while kobe had the much higher peak. the fact that kobe only won 1 MVP is a travesty. he should have won 3 in a row from 06-08. guy single-handedly took lakers teams with chris mihm and smush parker as starters to the playoffs and didn't get any recognition for it

both are easily top 10 players
I like Kobe, but the 1 he did get should've gone to CP3
 

Ivan13

Not posting anymore
May 3, 2011
26,141
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Zagreb, Croatia
The thing with Duncan is that unlike Kobe he didn't chase records and he played on a team that pretty much played the epitome of team basketball on the offensive side of things. As for the peak, Kobe did score more, but looking at that 2nd ring Tim won, he had 25 points, 15.5 boards, 5.3 assits, 3.3 blocks on 53% shooting. His performances against Lakers, Mavs and especially Nets (triple double in the clincher, two blocks shy of the quadruple double) have been immense.
 
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Maestro84

Registered User
May 3, 2018
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Toronto
The thing with Duncan is that unlike Kobe he didn't chase records and he played on a team that pretty much played the epitome of team basketball on the offensive side of things. As for the peak, Kobe did score more, but looking at that 2nd ring Tim won, he had 25 points, 15.5 boards, 5.3 assits, 3.3 blocks on 53% shooting. His performances against Lakers, Mavs and especially Nets (triple double in the clincher, two blocks shy of the quadruple double) have been immense.
Duncan's peak is quite underrated tbh. Tim's win shares and VORP in his two MVP seasons (2002 and 2003) were both higher than any season of Kobe. Duncan's MVP Win Shares were also higher than Kobe's. Additionally, Duncan was an automatic 23 points-12 rebounds-4 assists-3 blocks type of player for the first like 10 years of his career, which needless to say is crazy good. Also, as you mentioned above, Duncan never really went out of his way to stuff his stat sheet either, he just seemed to put up stats like this naturally, which makes it even more impressive. His clutch play is also overlooked too as his numbers always rise come playoff time, game 7's and elimination games, and besides the 2013 finals when Tim missed the layup against Battier late in gm.7 (even though Tim had been great the whole game and series), I've never truly seen a time where the Spurs lost mostly due to Duncan's performance. He just always seemed to hold up his end of the bargain when it mattered the most whether the Spurs won or lost
 
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Cassano

Registered User
Aug 31, 2013
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HEBgImk.jpg


Puts it into perspective...
 

Terry Yake

Registered User
Aug 5, 2013
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duncan never had to carry a team by himself. he always had an excellent surrounding cast

kobe did it for 2 seasons while putting up absolutely insane numbers. people forget that 06 lakers team was one win away from beating the suns in round 1 before tim thomas happened
 
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Aladyyn

they praying for the death of a rockstar
Apr 6, 2015
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duncan never had to carry a team by himself. he always had an excellent surrounding cast

kobe did it for 2 seasons while putting up absolutely insane numbers. people forget that 06 lakers team was one win away from beating the suns in round 1 before tim thomas happened
LOL
63c4b534a0.png

58 wins

d73fbb8436.png

60 wins and a title
 
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Terry Yake

Registered User
Aug 5, 2013
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oh yeah, the teams you bring up compare to the mid 2000s lakers teams with chris mihm and smush parker

good one
 
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