Is it The Kobe Bryant Era, or the Tim Duncan Era?

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The one word that The Informer kept coming back to while watching the San Antonio Spurs win the 2014 NBA Finals on Sunday night was legacy.

The Informer kept thinking of Tim Duncan’s legacy now that he added a fifth ring, Greg Popovich’s legacy after becoming just the fifth coach in NBA history to win a title five times –joining Phil Jackson (11x), Red Auerbach (10x), Pat Riley (5x) and John Kundla (5x). The Informer also thought about Kawhi Leonard adding to his building legacy by becoming the youngest Finals MVP since 1982 Magic Johnson, Manu Ginobiliand Tony Parker adding to their legacy of being the most successful foreign players of all time, LeBron James posting a 2-3 Finals record – and a 1-2 record against Duncan – onto his always talked about legacy.

But mostly, The Informer was thinking about the fact that Duncan’s legacy moving forward may very well be that for the past 17 years of basketball this has been his era –not Kobe Bryant’s.

Now, as much as The Informer wants to talk about the all-around greatness of the Spurs and how they dominated the Miami Heat, today The Informer feels like he needs to give all of his focus on that last sentence. He wants to dig deep into the stats and try and figure out whose era we are watching.

Does it belong to the ultimate gunner (Kobe), or the ultimate teammate (Duncan)?

You may remember The Informer mentioned on the “Best Damn Podcast Ever” that he has been dreading this topic since the beginning of the Finals, but now that the cards are all on the table and Duncan has tied Kobe with five rings, the discussion needs to be had.

So with that in mind, let’s break this thing down.

(The Informer note – As most of you know The Informer is an unbiased “Kobe homer”, but he promises this article is going to be subjective and not one-sided. Trust me, watching the great Tim Duncan these past few months has opened my eyes. The dude is one of the all-time greatest players and deserves to be in any and every conversation as to who is the best of this generation. )

Pros for the Tim Duncan-era:

First and foremost, the guy is the ultimate winner. Did you know that in 17 seasons Duncan has never missed the playoffs? In fact, the only time his team did not win at least 50 games was the strike shortened season of 1999 when only 50 total games were played (you may also remember 1999 as the year Duncan won his first NBA Finals MVP, so the lack of 50 wins is kind of a wash).

As for accolades; Duncan is a 5x champion; 3x Finals MVP; 2x regular season MVP; 14x NBA All-Star; 8x All-Defensive first team; 1999 Rookie of the Year; and he and Kareem Abdul-Jabbarare the only players in NBA history to have at least 24,900 points with 13,900 rebounds, 3,800 assists and 2,700 blocks.

Finally, Duncan has led the Spurs to the Conference Finals nine times (most of any star player besides Magic Johnson in the past 35 years) and has reached the NBA Finals six different times (5-1 record) while playing in at least 65 games every season except the two strike shortened years of 1999 and 2011.

By all accounts Duncan has been one of the most consistent great players to ever play the game. He has the stats, the rings and the accolades to back up any “this is the Duncan-era” argument.

Pros for the Kobe Bryant-era:

Played in the Finals seven times (5-2 record); 2x Finals MVP; 15x All-Star; 11x All-NBA first team; 9x All-Defensive first team; 2x NBA scoring champion; 1x regular season MVP (Kobe should have also won the award in 2006 when he averaged 35ppg while carrying the corpse of Kwame Brown to the playoffs).

Furthermore, Kobe scored 81 points in a game (non Wilt NBA record); has five 60-point games; once averaged 40ppg for an entire month (February 2003); scored 40 points in nine straight games and 50 points in four straight games (both non Wilt NBA scoring records); became just the second person since 1980 to average 35ppg for an entire season (joining 1987 Michael Jordan); made the playoffs in 16 of his 18 seasons (the only time the Lakers did not make the playoffs was 2004-05 and 2013-14; both seasons when Kobe Bryant was injured); he is the fourth leading scorer in NBA history; he is 4-2 against the Spurs in the playoffs since Duncan joined the NBA (and last year when the Spurs beat the Lakers Kobe did not play in the series, so technically he is 4-1 versus Duncan in the playoffs); and he is the greatest basketball player who ever lived (okay so the last part is completely The Informer’s bias, but everything else is 100 percent true).

By all accounts Kobe has been one of the most consistent great players who has ever played the game. He has the stats, the rings and the accolades to back up any “this is the Kobe-era” argument.

Cons for the Duncan-era (this is very much nitpicking, but it has to be done):

The past three years have been more about the Spurs system, as opposed to the dominance of Tim Duncan. So while winning this title obviously adds to his legacy, it needs to be noted that he is not the same Duncan who was winning MVP awards in the early 2000’s. Also it needs to be mentioned that Duncan has never won anything without Greg Popovich, who happens to be one of the four greatest coaches who ever lived.

The last negative for Duncan is the fact that he was the leader on a #1 seeded team who lost to the #8 seeded Memphis Grizzlies in 2010-11, something that has only happened four times in NBA history.

Again, The Informer is fully aware that he is nitpicking Duncan, but don’t worry we are about to do the same to Kobe.

Cons for the Kobe-era:

The Colorado incident, the Kobe-Shaq feud (both guys came off as immature pre-Madonna’s), never won a ring without Phil Jackson (also one of the greatest coaches to ever live), only won two rings without Shaq, he is a ball hog who according to Smush Parker is also a terrible teammate and most importantly a lot of people don’t like him (this hatred will make some people lean towards the Duncan-era).

The Final Verdict:

Here is the main problem The Informer has with this argument –we have to downgrade someone’s career in order to pick who the best was.

I mean seriously, look at the pros for both of these guys and try and tell me one is better than the other. You can’t do it. No matter what The Informer says about Kobe, there is a perfectly legitimate counter argument for Duncan. And no matter what a Duncan fans argue, The Informer would have a perfectly legitimate counter in favor of Kobe.

Besides, if we can have the Bird-Magic era for 1980s basketball, then why can’t we honor the two guys who have played in 13 of the last 16 NBA Finals by calling it the Kobe-Duncan era? Doesn’t that make more sense than trying to argue one guy over the other?

Obviously calling it a tie is not going to sell any newspapers, but again The Informer would ask what is wrong with saying both of these guys have been equally great over this extended period of time?

Whether it was a 23-year old Duncan winning the Finals MVP, a 22 year old Kobe scoring 48 points in a NBA Finals game, a 37-year old Duncan leading a new group of Spurs to championship glory, or a Shaq-less Kobe taking the Lakers to three straight NBA Finals appearances; these guys both had great moments, seasons and honors to make this era theirs.

In the end, The Informer thinks he would be doing a disservice to the fans of Kobe and the fans of Duncan if he tried to say one was better than the other. That is why The Informer is going to make a controversial ruling and say that we are most defiantly in the Kobe-Duncan era of basketball.

Again as much as The Informer wants to say one person (Kobe) over the other, the fact remains for the past 17 years (skipping Kobe’s rookie season) both of these two guys have been consistently great and they both deserve to be recognized for their efforts.

Now, if Duncan or Kobe come back strong and get that sixth ring in the next few years, The Informer will be willing to open the discussion back up. Until that time, the final ruling is the generation belongs to both all-time greats.

Congratulations to Duncan and the Spurs on their fifth ring, they truly were the best team in 2014. And of course, get well soon Kobe –the drive for six starts now #MambaInformerOut.