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LeBron James didn’t come through to deliver a No. 23 vs. No. 24 matchup in the NBA Finals, but Kobe Bryant continues to do his part and has the Lakers up 2-0 on the Orlando Magic, the team that outplayed and dethroned James and the Cleveland Cavs to win the Eastern Conference.
Bryant scored 29 points and made a fade-away jumper over Hedo Turkoglu for the Lakers’ go-ahead lead in a 101-96 overtime victory on Sunday to follow up on his 40-point Jordan-esque performance in a 25-point rout of the Magic in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Highlights from NBA Finals Game 2:

The best-of-seven championship series moves from Disney Land to Disney World when L.A. travels to Orlando for Games 3, 4 and 5, if necessary.
If Bryant delivers the Lakers’ 15th NBA title, he would likely be the NBA Finals MVP, which coupled with his fourth NBA championship ring, carries a lot more weight than James’ regular-season NBA MVP trophy. It also would be Bryant’s first NBA title without the help of Shaquille O’Neal.

Here’s Nike’s puppet commercial of Kobe holding his three rings over LeBron’s head:

Former Lakers general manager Jerry West may want to retract his earlier claim that LeBron is greater than Kobe when it’s Bryant who is leading his team on the game’s biggest stage for the second year in a row and a chance at another ring while James waits ‘til next season to try again for his first ring.

Here’s video of Kobe’s and LeBron’s opinion of each other:

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye

Former Lakers general manager Jerry West injected himself into the debate of who is better: current NBA MVP LeBron James or last year’s MVP Kobe Bryant.
And West surprisingly switched sides and went with James, the former No. 1 overall pick out of a Cleveland high school. West brought Bryant to Los Angeles in 1996 after trading Vlade Divac to Charlotte for the Philadelphia high school standout.
West is credited for assembling the Lakers’ four NBA championship teams in the 1980s and the franchise’s three consecutive NBA champions from 2000-2002. The 70-year-old former All-NBA guard and former Lakers coach said that James can be “the greatest player ever to play the game”, even greater than Michael Jordan.
“LeBron James will do the same type of things because he’s getting better,” said West, now GM of the Memphis Grizzles. “He’s a much more effective shooter. When he’s making his shots from the outside, you can’t play him. He’s just too big, too strong, too quick. And he has incredible body control.”
But whoa, whoa, whoa.
Better than Jordan, who has won six NBA championships? And Bryant, who has three league championship rings?
Now, LeBron is a better team player than Kobe, and the 24-year-old Cleveland forward has better career averages in points, rebounds, assists and steals, but King James can’t be crowned until he’s won a NBA championship like the 30-year-old Bryant, who won three NBA titles a couple months before his 24th birthday.
First, LeBron has to lead the Cavs past Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals that begins tonight. The Magic won the regular season series 2-1 and “beat the hell” out of Cleveland, according to James’ teammate Zydrunas Ilgauskas, in Orlando’s 116-87 home romp for the Cavs’ worst loss this season. But Cleveland, which posted the NBA’s best record this season, swept its first two playoff opponents to bring an 8-0 postseason record into the conference finals against Orlando, and James deserves most of the credit. He is averaging a playoff-best 32.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists.
Bryant has averaged 28.4 points, five rebounds and 4.5 assists in 13 playoff games, including a 40-point effort Tuesday to help the Lakers to a 105-103 come-from-behind victory against Denver to open the Western Conference Finals.
Kobe and LeBron can settle the debate on the court if they deliver a Lakers-Cavs NBA Finals.
And if it comes down to the game-winning shot, who would West rather have the ball?
“If I had to have somebody make a last-second shot, it would be Kobe Bryant,” West said. “But…….. I do think LeBron has surpassed Kobe as a player.”
James has to get the Cavs past the Magic for a chance to close the case.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye