A shame, that's ignoring the real time used by LeBron to play the way he does.

Dwyer was pumping up LeBron for his 38 PPG against the Magic, while completely ignoring Kobe's 30 PER (and excellent D on Melo once Ariza was exposed) to Bron's 29 PER. He wrote this article "what a bad man!" (something like that), completely clueless of the nuances of the series and of Bryant. No such praise was heaped on Bryant, Kelly's lists are awful.

The reason you should get heat Neil, is because 28 PER combined with Kobe's durability that year in 05-06 is almost unheard of. Not to mention that Kobe dribbles the ball less per possession (see 82games.com) than LeBron which I'll get into later. Also when you play with someone like Shaq in his prime, you're going to defer. Not sure numbers are completely relevant for Kobe he's definitely underrated. He's also played in a better era than Jordan perimeter wise. 1986-87 Jordan who averaged 37 PPG on a 56 TS% (almost 30 PER), would not have as high a PER now imo, and Kobe pace adjusted does best him in various stats if I am correct.

Dwyer ranked Dirk above Shaq in one of his other lists. Sorry that's a joke. The top players of this decade are Kobe/Shaq/Duncan. And Duncan has played 34 minutes a game and cooled off over the last few years (from about 28 years old to now).

Defensively, 82games.com doesn't really show Kobe being a poor defender. He consistently guards positions at a high level, such as this past season where he had better defensive PER than Wade. Even if Kobe's defense is overrated I am not sure that there's been enough evidence to show Snow, whatever are better defensively. Kobe's durability should also factor into him being a top 10 defender, not just how effective one is per minute.

And Shaq was Kobe's second fiddle in the 00-01 playoffs, at least according to Win Shares. Haha. :] Kobe has had more Win Shares than Shaq various times, and just won a title with Pau Gasol and a squad less talented than Michael Jordan's supporting cast.

My problem with Dwyer is that he contradicts himself. Dirk had one of the best seasons in 05-06? higher Per than Kobe? Well what about Per value? Hollinger doesn't just take into account PER, there really was no reason to rank Dirk as high as he does. I get a Texas bias when I read some of that trash.

Lastly LeBron actually leads the league in shots taken between 16-24 seconds into the shot clock. Half of his shots come in that period, far more than any other elite player in this league. While his team may be moving at a slower pace, I'm not sure he actually time uses up less time than Kobe to move the way he does. PER is not perfect in that sense and does not take that into account, Kobe fits better onto winning teams (I calculated something like, Kobe using ~16.2 seconds LeBron at ~17.5 seconds per possession last year. Something in that range, that certainly could make up the difference in pace if that value is close. Just watching LeBron play I could always tell that he needs more time than anyone else to play the way he does and accumulate those assists).

Oh and Kobe's post-season Win Shares in 2009 were top 5 of all time. If I remember correctly, he's the one with 30 PER against the Nuggets, 27.5 PER against the Magic. While LeBron padded against the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks with an injured Joe Johnson (and to a lesser extent Al Horford).

Can you really defend putting KG, LeBron and Dirk over Shaq? Really?

Scott Skiles over Pat Riley, Larry Brown and Jerry Sloan???!!!! Please don't post any of that nonsense on this blog anymore.