Lebron James Is More Clutch Than Kobe Bryant

I would first like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and also thank my opponent for accepting the debate. This is my first sports debate and I will try to make it a good one. Is it possible that Lebron James is more clutch than Kobe? Is it possible that a player with 0 NBA titles is more clutch than a player with 5 and 2 finals MVP's? I believe it is. Lebron does not have any rings, how could he be clutch? This is a very good question. The simple answer is the rest his team was way below average. The year Lebron carried the team to the finals he scored twice as many points during the season than the next leading scorer on his team [1]. The second leading scorer was who? Larry Hughes. No, that is not a joke. Here are a couple examples to show it was not Lebrons fault he does not have a ring: Game 5 in the eastern conference finals he scored 29 of the teams final 30 points [2]. That is the definition of carrying a team. Secondly, when he left the Cleveland Cavs for the Miami Heat, the Cavs set the record for the worst season in the NBA ever at the time [3]. That goes to show his impact on the team. But he didn't win a title with the heat with Wade and Bosh? We must remember that he has only been there for a year (Yes I know this year is two but it is not over yet and the Heat are still alive in the playoffs so he may win one this year.) It is unreasonable to expect an NBA championship being on that team the first year. Not enough time to develop team chemistry with those pieces. Now that I have taken care of the "ringless king" problem, I will focus more on the clutch statistics. I will use a rather large data set and a smaller data set to show that I am not manipulating statistics. The first data set defines clutch as the shots that occur during the 4th quarter or overtime, with less than five minutes remaining, and neither team ahead by more than five points. This includes the playoffs since the year 2000 [4]. Kobe: Taken 1525 fg Made 606 fg = 39.7% Taken 351 (3 Point attempts) Made 99 = 28.2% Lebron: Taken 1003 fg Made 461 fg = 46% Taken 297 (3 Point Attempts) Made 93 = 31.3 % I will let those numbers speak for themselves. Now onto the smaller data set. In this data set only the playoffs are used and clutch is defined as shot attempts made with the intent to either win or tie the game within the final 24 seconds, during which a player's team is either tied or trails by three or fewer points – or in other words, a one-possession game (the concession 2-point basket in which a player's team is down by 3 points is excluded from this metric) [5]. During his career Kobe Bryant is 7/27 which is 25.9%. On the other hand we have Lebron James who is 5/12 which is 41.7%. You can see the game by game break down in link 5. I have shown that the argument that Lebron does not have any rings so he cannot be clutch is invalid based on how horrid (and that is a generous term) his supporting cast was. I have also shown through two data sets, one larger and one smaller, that statistically Lebron James is more clutch than Kobe Bryant. I look forward to hearing Cons argument and remind him and the readers that as stated in the first round, the burden of proof is shared and I would encourage the voters to vote for whoever made the better case for the player they are debating in favor of for being more clutch. If con makes a better case than I have then please vote for him. If I made a better case then please vote for me. Thank you for taking the time to read and/or vote. 1 http://www.basketball-reference.com... 2 http://www.nba.com... 3 http://www.nbauniverse.com... 4 http://www.libertyballers.com... 5 http://chasing23.com...