![]() Part of that may be the result of Bryant demanding 40-plus minutes per game until his Achilles gave out at age 34, but still.ĭuncan won the first of his five titles in 1999, sweeping the Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers in those Western Conference finals, and his last in 2014, when injuries cost Bryant all but six games and marked the beginning of the end of his career. Your mileage may vary on whether you prefer the natural-born scorer to the natural-born leader, but the argument here comes down to this: Duncan was more relevant in the NBA as a winner - and more important to his team’s relevancy - for a longer period of time than Bryant. (Yahoo Sports graphic by Amber Matsumoto) ![]() Those teams mostly featured Hall of Famers-in-waiting Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker while spanning the tenures of David Robinson and Kawhi Leonard. The Spurs won at least 50 games every year, save for the lockout-shortened 1999 campaign, when Duncan won the first of five titles. In those 18 seasons, Duncan averaged 19.5 points (50.6 FG%, 69.6 FT%), 11 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.9 steals/blocks per game, finishing top-five in MVP voting nine times and winning twice. It’s hard to argue that you’re not still in your prime when you’re still making All-NBA rosters, which means Duncan’s lasted from his rookie season in 1997-98 to his penultimate campaign in 2014-15, which respectively coincided with the first and last of his 15 All-Defensive honors. Still, he garnered MVP votes four more times and won a title in 2014. The end of Duncan’s prime is difficult to peg, since his minutes per game dipped below 30 and his statistical averages followed suit in 2009-10. Kobe captured MVP honors in 2008 and finished top five in the voting 11 times. The Los Angeles Lakers reached the playoffs in all but one of those seasons, between Bryant’s pairings with future Hall of Famers Shaquille O’Neal and Pau Gasol that resulted in five titles. In that span, Bryant averaged 27.8 points (45.5 FG%, 33.6 FT%, 84.0 FT%), 5.7 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 2.1 combined blocks/steals. That prime ran for 14 seasons, until he tore his Achilles on April 12, 2013. ![]() We might start Bryant’s prime in 1997-98, when at 19 years old he became the youngest All-Star in history and finished second in the Sixth Man of the Year race, but he really became Kobe Freaking Bryant two years later, when he first averaged more than 20 points per game and was the second-best player on a championship team.
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