Fans agree with Shaq: In their primes, Kobe Bryant better than LeBron James
Nobody messes with the Big Aristotle. When Hall of Famer and former Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal recently said that he'd take Kobe Bryant in his prime over LeBron James in his because of Kobe's killer instinct, there was a bit of a brouhaha in the basketball community. It was something of a reversal of course for O'Neal, who'd previously answered a similar question by going with Julius Erving.
But this is a democracy, after all, and the voice of the people cannot be denied. Those people, it turns out, agree with O'Neal, at least according to a recent poll by ESPN's SportsNation. 59 percent of 15,315 respondents answered Bryant over James when asked, "Which player was better in his respective prime?" And the most striking result was that the state of Florida was pretty much in lockstep with the rest of the nation; 60 percent of those surveyed in Florida picked Bryant.
Polling hath no fury like the scorned home of your former team, apparently. So count the rings, King James. Shaq is far from alone in his opinion.
(h/t ESPN.com)
