...at this point, I don't know that LeBron has a strong case that he is a better player than Kobe.
See, I disagree. I think Lebron has played at a higher level than Kobe in each of the last two postseasons. Even when Lebron was shooting poorly against the Celtics, he was still putting his teammates in a position to win by setting them up with brilliant passes. When his shot *was* falling, he was nearly unstoppable.
Looking at the numbers from last season, I think Lebron does, indeed, have a strong case for being better than Kobe:
PPG: Lebron 30.0, Kobe 28.3
RPG: Lebron 7.9, Kobe 6.3
APG: Lebron 7.2, Kobe 5.4
SPG: Lebron 1.8, Kobe 1.8
BPG: Lebron 1.1, Kobe 0.5
FG%: Lebron 48.4%, Kobe 45.9%
eFG%: Lebron .518, Kobe .503
PER: Lebron 29.1, Kobe 24.2
Kobe shoots better from outside. That's about the only area where I think he's clearly better than Lebron.
Also, even beyond who is better right now, the question was, who would have been better in college. To me, Lebron was much more advanced than Kobe at that stage. Lebron came into the league NBA-ready, while Kobe went through a lengthy adjustment period.