Originally posted by AmpLee:
Anyone who watched the game instead of typing up numbers into a statistics engine knows that Kobe made life so much easier on his teammates with all the attention he drew. This whole pointing to stats is void of context. Kobe's teams won championships because teams gameplanned and threw so many resources to stop him that anyone he played with got easy and ample opportunities. The evidence is in the numbers of the guys who clearly had their best seasons playing around Bryant. It's not a coincidence. And the reason you don't see that evidence show up in the statistics for Kobe (ie high assist totals) is because the majority of his passes went to guys who were in position to get an assist (ie the hockey assist). Kobe was most selfish when he padded his assist totals during times that people complained that he shot too much as he became more ball dominant and played outside of the offense in order to get those numbers. Not saying that Kobe couldn't have been a bit less selfish, but his selfishness is what allowed other guys to play so well. Of course, there's no statistic for that.
Do you mean Gasol? Gasol just had one of the best seasons of his career statistically playing on the Bulls even though he's well past his prime. He spent his prime on the Lakers (27 to 33 - big men tend to develop a little later). Shaq was dominant before coming to LA and spent his entire prime in Los Angeles.
Some of Kobe's other teammates haven't done well adjusting to playing with Kobe (Lin, Artest, Howard). Rick Fox's numbers were almost identical on the Celtics and Lakers.
Odom and Bynum may have benefited, but it's hard to tell because Odom spent his entire prime in LA after coming off a good season in Miami and Bynum was devastated by injuries after he left. There's definitely not the strong evidence you seem to think exists that Kobe makes his teammates better.
Kobe's definitely not the first person that comes into my mind when I think of players who make their teammates better. I love shooters who command attention from defenses, but Kobe was so ball dominant at times in his career that his teammates weren't always engaged on offense which transferred over to defense in some cases. Part of the greatness of Lebron is that he keeps his teammates engaged and is able to carry bad teams to the playoffs (and Finals). Kobe wins when he has great teammates (had some of the best frontcourts in the league most of his career with Shaq and then Bynum/Gasol/Odom and a great defender in Artest).
