Kobe vs LeBron | The NBA Finals That Never Was... 

What Coulda Been... Edit: Since a lot of people have mentioned it, when I said Kobe was a three time champion I was referring to how many he had when their rivalry started in 2007. I shoulda been more clear

MJ VS Hakeem also never happen in the finals

The matchup sounds good, but the lakers would’ve killed the cavs in the finals. Kobe and Lebron would’ve been a great finals matchup, but the rest of the lakers roster was simply better. I wish we would’ve gotten this too tho. Edit: I have two things to say. 1. Thanks to everyone liking this comment and replying👍🏻 2. I do have to say I am referring to Lebron in Cleveland and not in Miami. If the lakers and Heat would’ve matched in their primes it would’ve been a finals for the ages. However, Lebron in Cleveland (the first time) would not have beaten Kobe’s lakers (in my opinion).

Those late 2000s Lakers were the funnest teams I’ve ever watched, just perfect chemistry. Two stars and great role players. You look at the roster and it’s so awesome they won back to back championships. Since everyone team hops nowadays I appreciate those teams even more

People don’t take into account the fact that Kobe was already 5 years in when LeBron was drafted. Kobe unfortunately had his career stunted by injuries and racking up miles playing deep into the playoffs in the double big era and a front office that made too many questionable decisions.

Kobe was so good he made fans forget who they we’re cheering for 😂😂😂 10:44

2009 was the year Kobe and LeBron should have faced each other. With both the Lakers and the Cavs being great, Kobe still in his prime, while LeBron was just entering his, the Nike commercials and so much more, fans and the league lost out big time. I'll forever be sad we never got this matchup. Even Magic and Michael played against each other in the Finals. The 2008-09 season was the one we all lost.

They literally missed each other. Here's their Finals appearances: 2007: Lebron James, No Kobe appearance 2008: Kobe Bryant, No Lebron appearance 2009: Kobe Bryant, No Lebron appearance 2010: Kobe Bryant, No Lebron appearance 2011-2018: Lebron James, No Kobe appearance

Might be controversial, but my theory on why Dwight has been shunned/disrespected by the NBA, fans and media alike is bc he is looked at as the main reason why we never got that Kobe-LeBron finals. It was all set for it in '09, but the Magic had other plans. I think people feel a type of way towards Dwight bc of that. Well that and he's a clown.

I wonder how many people realize we missed that matchup twice. Lakers were the 2 time defending champion and had been to 3 straight Finals when Dallas knocked them off and faced LeBron instead. Not as close because it was a second round defeat but still. Going into that year's playoffs, that potential matchup was on a lot of people's minds. Reminds me a little of when Houston failed to get to the Finals a 3rd straight time to face the Bulls. Imagine that matchup, 2 time defending champs vs previous 3 peat with Jordan back full time and having just won 72 games.

man.. i miss kobe

That Chris Paul trade was weird, especially since the Hornets flipped Paul to the Clippers of all teams for a worse return.

This is the best thing that ever happened to LeBron.

Damn, 2009 was such a great year for sport. Arguably the 2 biggest sports in the world, Basketball and Football (soccer) have their biggest club stage, wich is Champions Leauge for football and NBA Playoffs for NBA. In 2009 we saw Champions Leauge final between two of the greatest football players of the 21st century, Ronaldo and Messi, and we were on the verge of seeing an NBA finals between two of the greatest basketball players of our century, Kobe and LeBron. Also prime Usain Bolt ran, by far, the fastest time in human history.

Also had the best playoff commercial with Kanye amazing playing

As a die-hard, life-long Cavs fan, and a basketball-head who just wanted to see Kobe vs LeBron once...I greatly loathe that 2009 Orlando Magic team. They. Would. Not. Miss in those ECF.

When Lebron was beaten during 08-10, it happens to be the opponent of Lakers in the Finals. Same thing when Kobe didn't get past their rivals (Mavs, Thunder, and Spurs)

It was the 2015-16 Spurs that matched the 1986 Celtics home record. Not the 2016-17 Spurs

I honestly believe if referee Tim Donaghy didn’t get caught fixing games, the NBA would have made the Lakers-Cavs Finals happen back in 2009 instead of against Orlando

You definitely short changed the last year of the Lakers. Overall mediocre, but the switch hit at mid season once Kobe took control from D'Antoni is the stuff of legend. He played the way everyone kept telling him to play his whole career the first half of the year and it had them in the 10 seed. He finally had enough and told everyone that he's now in charge of the offense and told Dwight to take care of the defense and they closed the year out on a crazy 26-4 run. Had Kobe not torn his Achilles at the end of the year I firmly believe we would have finally gotten our Kobe/LeBron Finals.

Kobe would have won that year regardless of who was in the way. Lebron is lucky he didn't make the finals that year. After losing to the Celtics, the mamba was determined to get that first ring without Shaq

Bro........this makes me sad. I never thought about it this way, and now that I do......I feel robbed that we never got to see this. Great video bro!

Just came across your channel and subscribed. Great video bro. A Kobe/LeBron finals would've been epic. Two of my favorite players and as a long time Laker fan, this would've been an emotional rollercoaster for me 😂. RIP Mamba & Gigi 🙏🏾.

Y’all are so dope. Been watching y’all for the last like 5 hrs and it’s been awesome. Automatic fan. Keep up the superb work fellas, definitely going to blow up🔥🔥🔥

You forgot all those Nike 23vs24 Kobe vs Lebron commercials, which after the magic beat the Cavs, Dwight mocked in comercials.

I like this solo monologue type video just as much as I love the banter kind. Love to see more!

A Lebron and Kobe finals matchup would be undoubtedly the best finals ever by far

looked this up today, glad it came out ontime, r.i.p, forever remeber.

Y’all to underrated I swear amazing job ❤

Y’all make such great content, deserve wayyyy more subscribers. Keep it up boys!🔥

Such a great video, this is one of my favourite basketball channels & this video covers one of my favourite topics (Kobe vs Lebron the finals that never was)

Great video! Awesome research and trip down memory lane.

this video is great, clip selection for the words you're speaking is so on point

You didn't have to do Mo like that😂

Very nice video, this was an era of basketball that I will always enjoy

Just found yalls content a couple days ago and been binging it all day!!

If Kobe and LeBron had faced off in the finals even once, it would have been on par with Magic VS Bird.

you didnt lie bout the Kobe content coming soon !! love to see it

BROOOO YOUR FUCKING INTRO SOUND, IS THE ONE OF CW MAN YOU JUST BRING A LOT OF GOOD MEMORIES WITH THAT BRO, DAMN HOW MUCH I MISS THOSE TIMES

Love this channel for putting stuff like the puppet commercial in these videos

I actually think we were closer to it in 2008 than 2009. Game 7 between Celtics and Cavs was one of only TWO playoff games in which Paul Pierce scored more than 30 points (the other was Game 5 vs LAL). Had Paul Pierce played his average game, Boston would've lost. The ECF would've been the Cavs-Pistons rematch which the Cavs won just the year before. No sign they wouldn't have done it again

This video was fire and UNBIASED!! This was fire i had to subscribe

Sad the only place we’ll see this is in 2k.

Yeah, I was really wanting to see LeBron when he was in Cleveland face Kobe Bryant, and the Lakers in 2009. I’m not going to complain about 2010 at all because I am a diehard Laker fan and to a Laker fan. Yes it would’ve been cool to see. Kobe beat LeBron in 2010 but to us getting revenge on the Celtics meant so much more. That Lakers team that came together in 2008 is my favorite Lakers lineup ever. I loved watching that team lead by Kobe and Pau Enjoy the success they did. It was a really fun team to watch play. And the only thing about that team though is yes, they all came together in their prime but other than Andrew Bynum everyone else on the team was kind of at the tail end of their primes though and by the time 2010 and 2011 came around the Lakers were really approaching their mid 30s, and even in the previous playoffs, Andrew Bynum was playing limited time because of having to take it easy on his knees, and Kobe was playing with a bone spur in his ankle and with a broken finger and it was really the last year of Kobe Bryant’s prime I feel like. When it didn’t happen in 2011, I knew it just wasn’t going to happen again, especially after Dr. Bus’s idiots son took over the reins on the basketball side and one thing that a lot of people don’t know about is he sent someone from the front office to Dallas to meet the team while they were playing the Mavericks so he could tell the entire coaching staff in front of the entire team that no matter what happens even if they win a championship that the entire coaching staff is fired after their playoff run is over which devastated the team. Further proof that. Dr. Bus’s so Jimmy might be a nice person but he’s an idiot, because why would you make an announcement like that to the coaching staff in front of the team while they were fighting for a three peat? It was an idiomatic decision, but then the way you told them was even more idiomatic. It was a case of what happened in Chicago 15 years earlier when Jerry Krause didn’t feel like he was giving you enough credit for the championships. The Chicago Bulls had one, now, Jimmy didn’t want this team to win a championship because it would be a team that his dad had put together and not him and he had this crazy idea that Andrew Bynum who was on his 17th knee surgery or something crazy like that was going to be the future star of the team and really could’ve cared less about anyone else and he planned on rebuilding the team around Andrew Bynum. And don’t get me wrong. I love Andrew Bynum, but even a casual fan could’ve told you that building a team around Andrew Bynum was a mistake. He was the youngest Laker, but his prime years were already behind him. We never saw Andrew better than what he was at the end of the 2000s because You can’t be 7 feet tall and 300 pounds and have so many knee surgeries and think this guy is going to be a top-tier player for the next decade. Only an idiot would think such things. So really us Laker fans knew that the great run we had just watch head come to an end, our team was now older, new management didn’t want field Jackson to get credit for another championship, and they hired the worst coaches imaginable for an aging team, and the front office just kept making one bad decision after another. It’s not like Kobe and LeBron were the same age. I mean Kobe’s prime after 2011 was really over. He was drafted seven years before LeBron James, and now LeBron was still in his prime in Kobe was older, and was fighting injuries every year until he retired. So really if it was going to happen and it needed to happen between 2007 and 2011, and once 2011, came and went and neither of them walked away with the championship that year everyone in Laker nation knew that unless we had a competent coach that knew how to coach a team that was still good but just older and wasn’t going to be that’s super athletic team anymore then we weren’t going to win a championship anytime soon. But as a Lakers fan, I do want to point out that the two years that Kobe had held up his end of the bargain before the team hit their mid-30s and management fired a great coaching staff, both teams Kobe beat to win his fourth and fifth championships were teams, LeBron James could not get past .

Love the old school VHS date & time overlays 👌

SYNTHETIC SPORTS IS IN THEIR BAG RIGHT NOW WITH THIS VIDEO

I love how you have the date to every video

Great editing, awesome video.

I give this documentary an A+!!!. All of the nostalgia was there. A 22 minute time machine spot on!!!👍👍👍

the editing is insane 😮

I would love a video on the we believe warriors team! Love the channel btw!!

Great vid man Your Channels super underrated

This video was very well done

That matchup would have shaped the goat debate for YEARS

This was great!

I like this video, it retains facts and doesn’t allow half truths and revisionists muddle history and the context of players’ decisions and demands. A trade for JJ Hickson for Amare being turned down by the Cavs front office, never forget.

Greatest commercials ever. Freaking GENIUS

Great video

2009 and 2011 was the best time for kobe and lebron to go against eachother in the finals!!!! 2010 was meant for lakers vs. celtics

Black Ops Cold War multiplayer theme playing in the background. Nice!! 👍🏾

alr know this is bouta be a banger

This video brought back so many memories being a laker fan but also someone who followed lebrons greatness good job

Bro did Lebron pay you to give him that hairline in the thumbnail?

Kobe would've torn brons ass up in 09 and 2010 lol

Fire Video

greatttttt vid

Crazy how the only chip dwight got was from the lakers lead by bron, wish they’ve kept him, he could of helped with jokic this year

Video Idea: Y'all could do a video about Chris Mullin or Mark Price

19:26-19:54 FACTS💯 Shortened Kobe’s career even more

I blame lebron in the first cleveland run. People like to claim " he was by himself" but the truth is the Magic and celtics beat him by clogging the paint and forcing him to shoot so it could take lebrons shooting teammates OUT the game...he needed to be more offensively versatile to find more ways to get them open

Your awsome ❤😂😂😂😂😊 make a Video about mj Kobe and Lebron debate

Can you guys do a vid on the 04 Mavs. A "super team" that never was

It’s sad the Celtics been stuck chip 17 for 15 years and counting 😂

GREAT piece. Lots of research and FACTS. Thanks for not boring us with Lie'Bron Lames excuses.

This matchup never happening always felt like kinda rigged to protect each players brand and legacy NO ONE would ever let up the fact of who lost in that finals match up no matter what else they did in their careers This would hurt they’re brands badly Kobe would’ve won btw

Maybe we could've gotten it at least once, but it would be pretty ridiculous to have them face off more than 3 times. Me personally, I lost all interest in the NBA when it became the Cavs & Warriors every year. That got boring after year 2.

I might’ve been one of the few who was both a Kobe & bron stan My 🐐s

The muppets are still my favorite commercials ever, them things were golden!😂

I always thought that if the Lakers were to Ariza they would have been way better. He was outstanding in the playoffs and only getting better.

Tbh I wish we had of seen this match up because whoever would’ve won there wouldn’t even be a debate on who was the better player

I would look forward to every new MVPuppets comercial

Bruh🤦🏾‍♂️…how the hell was LUOL DENG EVERRR leading the league in minutes?! It’s a shame, such a great video and THAT was my takeaway😂

@4:51 My guy said Co player. Mo Williams was literally an all star. Put some respect on his name! 😤🔥💯

This matchup is on the TV List in Heaven

In hindsight, the Cavs were set up to fail in '09 and 2010. The basketball world was so hyped about a potential Kobe vs. LeBron Finals matchup that nobody considered whether or not the Cavs were actually good enough to get there in either year, and they were not. However, instead of acknowledging that proven fact, the narrative became that LeBron was a choker. The roles were reversed in 2011 and 2012, but ironically, Kobe did not receive that same scrutiny. We could've seen he and LeBron match up in the Finals in either year, but while LeBron and the Heat got there in both years, Kobe and the Lakers were eliminated early in both years. Imo, the Lakers would've beaten the Cavs in both '09 and 2010. The Heat would've won in both 2012 and 2013.

I forgot how stupidly good Lebron was in his first stint in Cleveland. If the cavs were able to fine even slightly better supporting cast for him…man it would have been great to see.

Im hella late but im happy Lebron dedicated the 2020 season for Kobe

Dan Gilbert, next question.

Similar to never had a ronaldo vs messi final whilst Ronaldo was at real madrid. Did have one in 2009 cl final when ronaldo was already out the door at united.

Everyone wanted a Kobe vs LeBron finals in the late 00s’…but if you were a REAL Laker fan you didn’t gaf about LeBron, the Cavs or anyone else, we wanted Boston & no one else mattered…Don’t get me wrong a Kobe vs LeBron finals would’ve been cool, but the Celtics were the team we wanted to beat.

i never thought about this tbh

I remember one dude i knew said the szn Dwight went to LA that it was gonna be the Heat and Lakers in the Finals.

Man I wasn’t falling into that Kobe vs LeBron stuff cause I loved them both actually wanted them to be teammates at one point could’ve been a better version of MJ and Scottie

we here early

Bron got double the FMVPs and rings in the best era

Imagine putting up 40 plus in both games on the road but, your supporting cast can’t help you.. but then management gets you over the hill Shaq instead of Amare 💀

Bron knew to never meet Kobe in the finals bc losing to him would’ve changed the trajectory of his career

You gotta do a Jordan vs Olajuwon what if!!!

MW2 was amazing 🔥

yo what's your intro song its fire