Kobe Bryant or LeBron James?

The debate is an entertaining one, particularly given that there does not appear to be a right or even “most correct” answer. Perhaps this is because by wondering which is the better player, we are asking the most important question in entirely the wrong context.

Bryant is the better technician, possessing a game that flaunts amazing precision and execution. His countless hours in the gym have allowed him to reach the absolute pinnacle of what one can accomplish in basketball and his resume speaks for itself.

James is the perfect combination of raw dominance and extreme basketball IQ. His physical talents are without peer and he has now married them to a growing shrewdness and competitive fire. He is the perfect blend of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Moses Malone.

As players then, their levels of excellence are indistinguishable. Both dominate. Both share governance of the game’s highest thrown. Both are headed for sporting immortality.

The question then should not be who is better now, or even which will someday be considered the best player ever. The query that matters more is “Who is more meaningful?” Which one transcends the game, raises its abstract meaning, and injects it with universal significance?

Only one will be basketball’s patron saint, the sport’s eternal advocate. While Bryant will rightfully be canonized when his playing days are done, it is James that has already transcended to the metaphysical.

Each day of James’ present makes his future that much brighter. Moving like Neo in the Matrix, James continually resets and raises our expectations, which seems impossible. Somehow, as he realizes more of his potential, he concurrently expands our wildest hopes for where he might go and what is possible for the sport itself. He is the present and the future.

Paradoxically, Bryant is even more than that: he is at once the game’s present, future and past. At only 30, he already holds a place in the pantheon of roundball luminaries.

What’s more, while he is already promised immortality, his narrative hasn’t reached it apex. Theoretically, Bryant could continue to play for another decade, win several more championships, another MVP, and find recognition as the sport’s principal talent.

But he will never be its principal icon. There is a fundamental difference between being viewed as the game’s most gifted lion, and being revered as its guardian. Bryant possesses basketball genius which only a few others ever have previously known. But even as one of his greatest supporters, I am forced to concede that he does not have the messianic quality that Jordan had, and that James now has.

As is always the case, this owes more to fate and timing than any intrinsic quality of the players in question. Jordan reached the height of his powers on the heels of the league’s resurrection at the hands of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. He inherited an NBA landscape that lent itself to myth-building and worship.

The sport had already been rescued, meaning he merely needed to display his other-worldly talents to win the devotion of a world starving for a superman. This allowed us to build Michael Jordan the Legend out of Michael Jordan the Man.

By the time Bryant arrived on the national stage, the sporting world was giving Jordan a living eulogy; the last thing people wanted was someone threatening to replace the Chicagoan in their hearts and their history books that soon.

Where Jordan’s youthful brashness was seen as assertive and upbeat, Bryant’s was conceited and immodest. He dared to challenge the memory of Michael before Jordan’s game was even properly buried. This unnerved hoop fans everywhere and ensured that Bryant would never make basketball’s Mount Rushmore. No matter how transcendent his talents, or great his accomplishments, Bryant’s proximity to Jordan (in appearance, timeframe, and style of play) meant he would be an image of basketball dominance but never a symbol of its greater societal significance.

James however entered the public consciousness half a decade after Jordan had hit his last jumper with Chicago. James was never pushing Jordan aside: he represented a new era and a different generation of fans that had been bombarded with the efficient, hollow dominance of San Antonio. The Spurs refused to allow us to project abstract values on them and we needed a figure to cast theoretical philosophical ideas onto to give the game universal importance.

James’ rise came at a time when we wanted someone to make us reimagine what might be possible. Even when Bryant scored 50 points in umpteen straight games, or planted 81 in one night, he did so without the mystique of someone bigger than the game itself. Jordan had done that even if the individual feats he performed were actually less impressive than some of Bryant’s.

James’ genius is that he makes it appear as though his game has no ceiling, even though we know that is impossible. He is on par with Bryant as the game’s best player yet he still somehow has infinite potential to improve.

In the current public culture defined by hope, change, and the potential for a better tomorrow, the ideals we project onto James resonate well. Each time he has a triple-double or a timeless performance (like that against Boston two weeks ago) we see his infinite prospects and hope to renew our own.

Perhaps basketball dominance shouldn’t be the prerequisite for being a symbol popular importance, but it is. It takes on greater context because sports give us a frame of reference for the societal truths we must face with everyday.

From that viewpoint it is easy to see how James is the more meaningful of the two idols. Bryant has endured his own odyssey, a saga made him a champion and a conqueror.

James though, like Jordan before him, will deliver the game itself to a new height based on something beyond his play. His image is infused with the power of tomorrow. He is more of an intangible idea than Bryant.

Bryant’s gifts on the court are timeless but James’ limitless potential has the ability to radically redefine the league and beyond.

Photo Credit: ICON Sports Media