No, he is the best basketball player alive, not active. Sure there were better players than LeBron that are alive now but none of them can play anymore, so that is about as pointless as it gets. Nobody can defend his play in last years Finals, that said, he has hit game-winners in the playoffs and he has carried his team to wins that they should have no business winning. If they make the Finals and plays like he is right now, there will be nothing to say at that point. I don't think last years Finals will stain his career if he plays well in other Finals and wins a few rings, if he struggles again though, his career will be looked at in disbelief.
You've set a nice frame here that ensures that "you're right" no matter how ridiculous your position. Impressive.
Your standards for the interwebz are too high. Oh, and no one was a better NBA baller than Larry Johnson. And really, that can't be argued. [insert sarcasm font]
CP3 has lost a lot of mobility because of the knee problems he's had. Rose is definitely a better overall player, and CP3 isn't "light years" better than Kobe on D just because he gets a lot of steals. If D12 hits free agency, the Magic are going to resemble last year's Cavs.
I know enough about sports in general, and i watch quite a bit of college basketball. Just because i don't watch much NBA doesn't mean i can't adequately judge talent.
If you don't watch these guys on a nightly basis like some of us, then how can you possibly say that you assesment of their talents and abilities is the same? If you don't watch, then you go by highlights and stat lines and even then it's fairly easy to see that there are several players in the NBA better than Kobe. Is Paul Pierce the best player in the NBA? How many here would consider him a top ten player? Not many I would say. Because that is the level of efficiency that he is playing at, only difference is that Paul only takes 13 shots a game while Kobe takes an amazing 24 a game ( 4 more than any other player in the NBA ).
And quit on Cleveland the year before in the playoffs. The guy is a physical freak that shrinks when he's needed the most.
You don't need to watch the Kobe or LeBron on a nightly basis in order to formulate an opinion on them.
I don't need to watch every player every single night just to be able to formulate an opinion on which one i think is better or to know that half the claims you are making (Ex. Chris Paul is light years better than Kobe defensively) are just not true
You're taking the "nightly basis " too far. Just a point. You can think whatever you like about Kobe's perceived abilities, look, you said you hardly watch the NBA, therefore you readily admit to not knowing what you're talking about.
Might as well, if you don't watch the games then where do you get information to fromulate an opinion? Certainly couldn't be stats, cause that would show that Kobe isn't a top ten player, so maybe you watch the highlights and see that Kobe scored over 30 again and think he must have had a great game, when in fact if you watched the game you would see that he jacked up nearly 30 shots, half of which are forced 18 foot fade-away jumpers because it's about the only way he can get an " open " look these days.
