LeBron and Kobe: By the numbers
LeBron James passed Kobe Bryant for third all time in career regular-season points Saturday, doing it in Bryant's hometown of Philadelphia.
James surpassed Bryant's mark in 104 fewer career games than the Los Angeles Lakers legend, and in 871 fewer minutes played. But the stat that sticks out is the number of shots each player took to reach their marks: LeBron has taken 1,862 fewer of them during his career, which is almost the same number of field-goal attempts Bryant took over the course of the 2002-03 season.
| LeBron James | Kobe Bryant | |
|---|---|---|
| GP | 1242 | 1346 |
| MIN | 47766 | 48637 |
| FGA | 24338 | 26200 |
| FG% | 50.4 | 44.7 |
| PTS | 33655 | 33643 |
| PPG | 27.1 | 25 |
Given LeBron's superior rebounding and assist numbers, the only major statistical category that Bryant is besting James in right now is in free-throw percentage - 83.7% versus 73.5%. But in terms of advanced statistics, history favors LeBron as well.
| LeBron James | Kobe Bryant | |
|---|---|---|
| TS% | 58.6 | 55 |
| PER | 27.5 | 22.9 |
| VORP | 134 | 72.1 |
However, in regards to the purple and gold, Bryant recorded all his stats with L.A., while the Lakers are LeBron's third NBA team. That's why Kobe remains the club's runaway all-time leader in franchise points, with over 8,000 more than second-place Jerry West.
In terms of postseason play, James has scored 1,271 more playoff points than Bryant did, albeit in 19 more games. Yet the argument that most Kobe stans will fall back on is that Bryant retired with five championship rings in seven NBA Finals tries, while LeBron currently has three wins in nine appearances.
-Stats courtesy Basketball-Reference