Wade vs Kobe so far this year

[LA_Showtime]

Kobe is as entertaining as they come. Enormous EXPLOSIONS in the regular season against ass quality defenses and sh1t box teams. He even plays fairly well in the playoffs when going against average to below average teams and defenses, IE Suns, Jazz, Nuggets, etc. With the few exceptions, like say his series against the Spurs in 2008 (which while very good, wasn't totally dominating either) ... his game is so jump shot happy, there is no way he can produce and impact the game all around long enough to be as good of a playoff and Finals perforer that Wade has become. Kobe always shoots his wad in like meaningless regular season games. He's had some good playoff runs, but he is by no means someone who takes his game to another level in the playoffs. Wade is that guy. Because Wade doesn't settle for jumpers 24/7. It's funny, his best playoff run, and some argue even his best season was 2008. Where he let the game come to him, attacked, and didn't TRY and put up huge scoring numbers all the time.

Uh, what? There's more to playing well than scoring, and Kobe, especially during the first three-peat and the 08 season did a great job managing the game and getting teammates involved.

People act like the Kobe we've seen for the past two years is the type of player he's been throughout his career. Simply not true.

[Dragonyeuw]

Can you imagine if PRIME Kobe lost in the finals against a 1-star team with a PRIME LeBron and a PRIME Bosh as his 2nd and 3rd options?

His legacy would never recover in the eyes of many people.

Yet, when Wade looses under the same circumstances he gets a free pass...?

Probably because Kobe historically is held to a higher standard. Which is why things like 6/24, losing to the Pistons in 04 and 08 are brought up when people are making arguments against him, because he's at the stage where he's being compared to Jordan, Bird, Magic, etc etc. So what he does, or doesn't do, will be scrutinized to a much higher level.