I gotta say. You LOVE bringing numbers into this.
We're on page 29 and I hadn't brought career stats into the picture once until that dumbass Kobestan claimed Kobe had better stats.
But yeah, I do prefer numbers because numbers are OBJECTIVE. Kobestans think that Kobe deserved to be an All-Star starter in 1998, how can their opinion ever be taken seriously without objective numbers to back it up?
But not only that, you had the audacity to state "Kobe has a small lead in assists, but Duncan has a large in blocks between the 2". How is one a small lead But the other is a large lead when the stat difference is EXACTLY THE SAME????? 1.7 difference in assists favoring Kobe and 1.7 blocks favoring Duncan
You can't be that dumb. Just bow out of the conversation breh.
Let me ask you this - do you think a big man contributing 1.7 extra blocks/game to his team, in a vacuum, is the equivilent of a guard contributing 1.7 extra assists/game? A 1.7 block/game difference can be the difference between a bad defender and a DPOY. Whereas a 1.7 assist/game difference is meh.
Think of it this way - since TD was drafted in 1997, his 2.2 career blocks/game is just behind AD's career 2.3 blocks/game for the most ANYONE drafted since then has averaged. And AD had the advantage of playing in the faster era. While Kobe's 4.7 assists/game isn't impressive at all, the gap between LeBron and Kobe on assists is almost twice as large as the gap between Kobe and Duncan.
If a player scores 19ppg on 50% shooting AND won 5 championships as the main guy, then who the hell else was picking up the slack...
In the title years Duncan generally scored more, in the playoffs and especially Finals. And Duncan scored efficiently plus got a ton of offensive boards, which gave his teammates lots of extra possessions to get theirs. He wasn't a ballhog taking up all the shots. For the most part, those teams ran through Duncan with his gravity creating opportunities for everyone else. Until 2005 the team didn't have enough independent creating talent to even score any other way.
Here is his main run where he picked up 4 of his titles:
1999: Duncan averaged 23ppg on 16 shots in the playoffs. No one else averaged more than 16ppg.
2001: Duncan averaged 24ppg on 19 shots in the playoffs. No one else averaged more than 16ppg.
2002: Duncan averaged 28ppg on 20 shots in the playoffs. No one else averaged more than 15ppg.
2003: Duncan averaged 25ppg on 17 shots in the playoffs. No one else averaged more than 14ppg.
2004: Duncan averaged 22ppg on 16 shots in the playoffs. No one else averaged more than 18ppg.
2005: Duncan averaged 24ppg on 18 shots in the playoffs. Ginobli averaged 20ppg and Parker 17ppg.
2006: Duncan averaged 26ppg on 16 shots in the playoffs. Parker averaged 21ppg and Ginobli 13ppg.
2007: Duncan averaged 22ppg on 17 shots in the playoffs. Parker averaged 20ppg and Ginobli 18ppg.
leave it to everyone here and they would say Duncan was an unstoppable winner. If that's the case, he damn sure should've been able to outscore Kobe for his career just off sheer efficiency and being the #1 option.
Duncan's prime scoring years were 1998-2009, especially the stretch from 1999-2007 when he averaged 22-28ppg in every playoff run and led his team to 4 titles. And incredibly he did it without ever taking more than 20 shots/game and regularly averaging 3-4 offensive rebounds a game, meaning his teammate had a TON of chances to get themselves on the scoreboard, even if it was just scrubs who weren't going to score unless they were open.
In the 2008-09 season Duncan began wearing his knee brace full time because his knee injuries were getting so bad. As a result Pop began load managing his minutes during the regular season and pftem running the team through Parker, which decreased his career ppg a lot. However he still showed out in the playoffs, averaging 16-20ppg every postseason from 2009 to 2015 except when he played hurt against Memphis in 2011.
Duncan wasn't concerned with his regular season #'s. Duncan usually took fewer shots and sat earlier against the easy teams, he often would score just 10-12ppg in blowouts, but then come back and drop 30 when he was needed. That's why all his best ppg were against his best opponents. 32ppg against the Mavs in '06. 29ppg against the Lakers in '99. 29ppg against the Lakers in '02. 28ppg against the Lakers in '03. 28ppg against the Mavs in '03. 27ppg against the Knicks in the '99 Finals. 27ppg against the Suns in '05. 27ppg against the Mavs in '01. 27ppg against the Suns in '07. Even in his late years he scored 30 and 24 in Games 6/7 against the Heat in the '13 Finals and 27 in Game 7 against the Clippers in '15.
None of those were gimme series. The tough series were the ones where Duncan showed out. He didn't spend a career ball-hogging and stat-chasing during regular seasons and easy sweeps in order to impress his superficial fans. That sort of play was for other players.