Quote:I am not understanding your logic because Kobe got the Lakers to the finals two years without Shaq and won.


Once again, I am not taking anything away from Shaq because he was one of the last true centers the NBA has had and I feel lucky having gotten to watch him live in Orlando all those years when he was still breaking rims.


Having said that, if you use the old "if you were starting a team from scratch, who would you build around" argument, small forward/shooting guard is way more essential to a teams success than center play, so in their primes, I am going Kobe all day over Shaq.


During his prime years, I never even liked Kobe, but respected his game. Outside MJ, I have never seen a guy who could create his own shot better than Kobe. He hardly ever relied on complicated offensive sets and 5 pick and rolls to get his shot. A rarity in today's NBA.

Its not that hard to understand. 1999-2002 Kobe is not that same Kobe as 2008-2010 Kobe. Nowadays yes center is less important but if you were put back in 1999 and told to pick either 1999-2002 Shaq or Kobe from the same era who do you pick? The answer is Shaq everytime,you don't win a championship without him during that time period.

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