Kobe Bryant may finish his career as an all-time top 10 NBA player.Tim Duncan is already in the Top 10.It's easy to find offensive stats and argue about them. Let's talk about defense for a bit.Tim Duncan is the best interior defensive player of his era, and is on pace to finish his career as the best defensive player in NBA history. There are objective and subjective reasons to support this claim. Let's look at some numbers. Duncan has made first-team All-Defense six times. Here is the complete list of players that have more than 6: Michael Jordan (9), Gary Payton (9), Scottie Pippen (8), Bobby Jones (8), Dennis Rodman (7), Walt Frazier (7). That's it. There's only three others at 6 (Dennis Johnson, Kevin Garnett, Dave DeBusschere), and only 1 of them (KG) is active. Duncan has made either first- or second-team All-Defense nine times. Here is the complete list of players that have more than 9: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Scottie Pippen. Add Bobby Jones if you want to count his 2 ABA All-D awards. That's it. There's only four others at 9 (DJ, Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Payton), none of who are active. Duncan's defensive prowess elevated his team into a defensive dynasty unmatched since the merger. San Antonio's defensive rating (points against per 100 possessions, regardless of game pace) has been phenomenal since they drafted Duncan. Here's SAS's finishes in D-Rating with Duncan: 2nd, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 3rd, 1st, 1st, 1st. So, in the nine full seasons Duncan has been in the league, the Spurs have been the best defensive team for seven of them, and they have never been worse than third. While it is true that SAS has had no shortage of fine defensive players (David Robinson and Bruce Bowen have multiple All-D nods), the one on-court constant is Duncan. SAS's roster has completely turned over since they drafted Duncan. They were 1st in D-rating in Robinson's last season, and they were first in D-rating the year after. They were 1st in D-rating in Bowen's first year with SAS, and they were first in D-rating the year before. That last part notes an interesting footnote to Duncan's three titles - they aren't dependent on another player. Admiral was a huge part of SAS's titles in 1999 and 2003, and no one denies that. But Duncan won it all in 2005 without Robinson. In fact, Duncan is one of the few HOFers who have won a title without a HOF teammate*. Since the 3-point shot was added, only three teams have won it all with less than two HOFers - SAS in 2005 (Duncan), DET in 2004 (potentially the only NBA champion with no HOFers), and HOU in 1994 (Hakeem).All of that is Top 10 consideration. Make that defensive anchor a .505 shooting, 22-point scorer (24 PPG in the postseason) has him heading up the tier just below below the seven immortals. Kobe's got a long way to go to reach that territory.*Under current HOF voting rules, Manu Ginobili has a decent shot at the international wing of the HOF, but since his NBA career alone will not be enough, I excluded him from the discussion.
uncan has 3 championships as the pivotal player for his team.KobMe has 3 championships as a roleplayerAdvantage: Duncan
I don't necessarily agree with everything you've said, but this is exactly the sort of analysis I was hoping for.I'd dispute a few points -- Duncan was very instrumental at crunch times between 2003 and 2005 when the Spurs won 2 titles, so it's not like his entire career was defined in 2001 -- but I'd agree that Kobe probably cares more, albeit not by as much as you may claim.Also, you don't have to say "remember I love Duncan". You can criticize a player and say they're not the best and still think they're great. This is exactly why people legitimately criticizing Kobe being labeled as "haters" is incredibly irritating. 
FBGs hate Kobe and soon we'll have a "Tony Parker >>>> Kobe Bryant" thread.Way to 
