As a LeBron James fan, it’s been a rough summer. The critics, the analysis, the Comic Sans font, the old heads. Pretty much, the guy has seen his image go from Barack in ’08 to Kat Stacks in 2010 in one offseason. Throughout the summer, I’ve found myself in a countless number of debates defending LBJ and the fact he’s still arguably the best player on the planet. That’s about the time when the wolves come out in defense of Kobe Bryant.

They know what it’s like to have their favorite player be “Public A*shole #1.” They have no remorse for buddy (LeBron) and have no problem whatsoever reminding me that Kobe has five rings and is roughly 100 games away from his sixth. Fair enough, but what about one-on-one? In terms of pride and basketball, that’s what it all boils down to. Kobe’s cerebral assassin mentality or LeBron’s sheer God-given physical prowess?

If you missed it over the weekend, Kobe Bryant made international headlines when he basically drew a line in the sand in his “rivalry” with LeBron James that has really been more media hype that anything else. The Lakers are in London to play the Wolves in today’s preseason opener, and on Saturday Kobe was at a kick-off event for the London School of Basketball.

The first set of numbers you see above is the stat line of LeBron James during the 2009-10 regular season—the back-to-back league MVP. The second stat line is that of Kobe Bryant. The purpose of this article is not to say Kobe is a bad player.