Monday, September 2, 2013

Dwyane Wade vs Kobe Bryant (The Twitter Debate)




Before I get into the whole premise of this article let me just first start off by saying that this is not to slander or discredit the knowledge of these basketball fans. In fact I would appreciate if you guys followed everyone of these people on Twitter. The whole point of this post is to help you guys better understand what it is I am referring to in my video up top. With that said, several weeks ago Court Vision asked the following question down below and you can clearly see my answers.

The question of top 5 shooting guards was on display in a public forum (Twitter). So my top 5 Consist of the following as you can see in my Tweet above.

1. Michael Jordan
2. Dwyane Wade
3.Kobe Bryant
4.Reggie Miller
5.George Gervin




Minutes after posting my tweet answering the question many people attacked my list with a bunch of tweets about how Kobe is better then Dwyane Wade but gave me no concrete facts. After I stated that Wade is a more efficient player then Kobe, Court Vision even said that FG percentage isn't everything when it comes to determining how great a player is. He is right but it is certainly the foundation in which we judge how great a player, which is exactly the reason Michael Jordan is held in such a high regard 





While I continued to get many more tweets which lacked any kind of facts or logic to back up the opinion the Kobe is a better shooting guard than Dwyane Wade, I pulled an article from ESPN's John Hollinger which ranked the greatest NBA Finals performances ever. The article was basically a guide or reference if you will of how great certain players played on the games biggest stage. In the 2006 NBA Finals vs Dallas, Dwyane Wade put the Heat on his back from a 2-0 deficit to their 1st ever NBA Title. His statistical averages were beyond crazy.

Dwyane Wade's 2006 Finals Statistics
34.7 PPG 7.8 Rebounds 3.8 Assists 46 FG% 33.8 PER (Highest In NBA Finals History)


So think about that for a second this guy is a 6'4 shooting guard and averaged 7.8 rebounds a game in the NBA Finals. He leads his team to a championship down 2-0 to a very good Dallas team lead by Dirk Nowitzki. To top it all off in the process of doing that he averages just under 35 points per game and collects the highest player efficiency rating at 33.8 in Finals history. Kobe Bryant NEVER played at that level on the biggest stage in basketball. To make matters worse Kobe Bryant isn't even in the top 10 all-time statistically as far as finals performances go, Wade has 2 top 10 performances (2006,2011).   


I then posed the challenge of to any Kobe/Laker fans to debate me on why Kobe is better then Wade using facts and it didn't happen.




One of the funnier responses basically said Kobe was better than Wade based solely on the fact that he gets comparisons to Michael Jordan and Dwyane Wade doesn’t. That’s because Kobe plays offense like him to a degree. Kobe has never been a shutdown defender and most likely will never win defensive player of the year. The premise of that statement is nonsense.



So after that I was tweeted a picture placing Wade and Kobe's accomplishments next to each other. Keep in mind that Kobe has played in the league 7 seasons longer then Wade and the accolades were still close (which was sad by the way). Wade has done more in his 10 years then Kobe has in 17, its about number of seasons not accolades. Again this comes back to efficiency and in terms of making all-star teams and the playoffs in that department Wade is more efficient than Kobe as All NBA Talk says down below.



A new Kobe supporter decided to join the conversation and asked if I was serious about my pick of Wade over Kobe Bryant, of course I told him yes and backed it up with facts as you can see down below.

Real acknowledges real as you can see down in he tweet below!



In a very empty statement I get another opinion on from what I think is Kobe supporter.



One last opinion based statement.



Had to let my followers know its love and that I love talking basketball with them at the end of the day.






I know many would beg to differ on my opinion on the NBA's top 5 shooting guards but I feel like Wade is better then Kobe. He has accomplished as much in a decade as Kobe has in 17 seasons and has been more efficient as far as shot made along with displaying a better shot selection. As a basketball player you need to have a great since of self and stay within yourself while not trying to do that. Wade does that, Kobe doesn’t which explains why he is a more efficient player than Bryant. If you disagree with me feel free to tweet me @Thatboybtaylor or @Truschoolsports.


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2 comments:

  1. FujiSeptember 2, 2013 at 4:08 AM

    First off... I'm a huge Kobe fan and he's definitely my favorite current player.

    Secondly... I have no doubt in my mind that you know your basketball and respect your opinion. In fact... the past few years I've sort of fallen out of touch with basketball, so I'd trust your basketball knowledge over mine nine times out of ten.

    With that being said... this is one of those 10% moments. I don't have too much time, so I'll skip the 411 that I could research on Basketball Reference or ESPN. Instead... I'll go with the opinions of experts, basketball analysts, and former players. I've never once heard any of them say that Wade is better than Kobe. I'm not saying somebody hasn't mentioned it... but I'm saying I've never heard them say it.

    On the flip side... I've heard it on multiple occasions that Kobe is one of the 10 best players to ever play the game... but have never heard Wade's name mentioned. I'm sure every basketball fan has taken part in a Kobe/Jordan comparison discussion (no... I don't think Kobe is in Jordan's league... but people debate it all of the time). But you just don't hear about Wade being compared to Jordan... or at least I haven't. And if there are people out there making that comparison... they've probably debated Kobe as well.

    Now if the argument is whether or not Wade is better than Kobe right now... I might agree. Kobe is in the twilight of his career and Wade is over 3 years younger than him... so I'd hope his legs are fresher and he's better.

    But if we're comparing overall careers, there's no comparison. Kobe's longevity and overall numbers (not averages) far exceed Wade's (don't even need to look this up).

    And if we're speculating on who will have the better career between the two of them... I'm still going to stick with Kobe.

    Now as soon as columnists, players, analysts, etc start saying that Wade is the 2nd best shooting guard in NBA history... then I'll consider changing my opinion.

    Man... it's way past my bedtime. And I still have 12 to 15 blogs to read. Ttyl bro!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brendan TaylorSeptember 9, 2013 at 3:53 AM

    Wade will never gets his proper due from analysts or columnists for the simple fact that Lebron James is on his team. The fact of the matter is statistically speaking he his more efficient then Kobe as well as more efficient in ALL of his NBA Finals peformances.Kobe and Jordan is only a comparison for the simple fact of his ring count, playing style and overall demeanor as a person is very similiar to Jordan. They may say he is a top 10 player but they can't prove it because once it gets to stats then they will see he just dosen't measure up. Dwyane wade is a much more versatile player then Kobe. Bryant has 7 seasons on Wade so of course his numbers are better as far as totals go.

    Thanks for reading though Fuji alaways love seeing your comments!

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