Great friends off the court, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have had some great duels on the NBA floor. But who of the two legends would win their 1-vs-1? The Black Mamba had delivered a strong opinion on the question in 2010.
October 2, 2010. Crowned with his 5th NBA championship, and his 2nd Finals MVP award, Kobe Bryant arrives in London a few days before the NBA season resumes. The purpose of his arrival in the English capital? The inauguration of the London School of Basketball, sponsored by its equipment manufacturer Nike.
Welcomed as the star he was in the building, the Mamba visited the facilities, obviously signed dozens of autographs and took a few photos, then answered questions from journalists present on site. One of them was about a potential one-on-one between him … and LeBron James.
The King had just been elected for the second year in a row MVP, and was therefore unquestionably the best player in the league at the time with Kobe. The question was therefore enough to make you think, but did not prevent the Lakers’ icon to offer an answer without any hesitation.
I would win! That’s what I do. One-on-one is easy for me. I grew up doing one-on-ones. That’s my thing. LeBron is more of a Magic Johnson, a great passer with a more complete game. I’m a one-on-one player, it’s ingrained in me. I would win against him in my sleep.
The physical power of LeBron and his size advantage over his elder brother would not have allowed him to have the advantage in this dream duel according to Bryant. When we know the confidence in him that the latter could have, we are not surprised at all by this point of view. Unfortunately, we will never know if his reasoning was right.
