Champion Lakers Center Identifies Key Difference Between LeBron James & Kobe Bryant

He would know.

Three-time (non-consecutively) Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard is uniquely positioned to assess the big difference between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

The eight-time All-Star and three-time Defensive Player of the Year won a championship with James in 2020, but had his most prolific season with Bryant while still an All-Star during the team's ill-fated-but-star-studded 2012-13 season.

During an extended barbershop conversation with Matt Hoffa, Howard was reflective when the talk turned to his two most best Hall of Fame Los Angeles Lakers teammates (if we're counting, he also played with Hall of Famers Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, plus future Hall of Famers Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook, while in LA).

Hoffa asked the big man about the main differences in approach to the game between the two greats.

"See I was at two different stages of my life and career with both players," Howard noted. "So with Kobe I was super-young, I was in my prime, not that I was egotistical, but I felt highly of myself because of my accomplishments, and I'd never had a superstar teammate [before Bryant], so I think we bumped heads because of the age gap [Bryant was seven years older] for one, and me just never experiencing what it's like to have another alpha star like that on the team. And as I got older I started to realize more of how he felt. And as a young ballplayer you're not seeing that, you think the game will last forever."

"LeBron almost acts like somebody from the south side of Georgia [Howard's home state]. We act kind of like twins," Howard continued. "Joking, silly, having a good time. We get on the court, we're still going to have a good time but we're going to dominate. Kobe ain't bullsh*tting with nobody. He might not come to the locker room to talk. And everybody's like, 'So he's just going to walk all the way past us. Dap nobody up. [Not give us] a head nod or nothing, he just walks past us.'"

Bryant was always somewhat asocial off the hardwood, though he was certainly a verbal communicator on it. James has been doling out patented, player-specific dapping and high-five combinations since his rookie season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. It's fascinating to hear that their on-court personas are pretty in-line with their behind-the-scenes personalities.

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