During our review of the data available we have come to the conclustion based on the data analyzed that Lebron James is the better player.
Kobe Bryant (KB) and Lebron James (LJ) are two individuals who have difinitively made their mark on the NBA and both have one championships. Their careers overlapped from 2003 to 2016. KB played for 20 years vs LJ going on his 19th year this year. Looking at the data metrics we chose which were Total Points, Total Assists, Total Rebounds, Total Blocks, Total Defensive Rebounds and Total Steals, LJ commands a significant margin over KB. In this regard we would agree that Lebron is the better overall player.
When we look at per game stats over their indexed year career (so 1st year vs 1st year), we see they had a similar trajectory but LJ also wins out in these metrics as well.
In conclusion, based on the metrics we chose, the data favors Lebron. However, there are other factors that we should consider given more time and resources. We could look at what kind of talent surrounded both players during their careers. For example JL started in Cleveland with poor talent around him so this could have given him more opportunities to pad his stats. Compare that to Kobe who spent his whole career with the Lakers and had much better talent surrounding him which may have limited his stats.
We also didn't take into consideration how many games each actually played in and/or minutes. We may have a different outcome if we assured a more even comparison vs their whole career statistics.