And in his first season as a starter, night in and night out guarded by team's best defenders, his stats were:
25.9 PPG, 4.9 RB, 5.8 AST, 1.8 STL, 44% for 2, 37% for 3, 85% FT.
Compare it with Bryant at age of 23:
25.2 PGG, 5.5 RB, 5.5 AST, 1.5 STL, 46% for 2, 25% for 3, 83% FT
and you can see that so far they are equal. Not to mention Bryant has always been the cancer for his team, while Harden is not. But we'll have to wait for Harden's career to finish to be able to compare these two players correctly.
Not a very fair comparison. At age 23 Kobe had to share the ball with Shaq, basically Kobe was the 2nd offensive option. Harden was option 1 (and 2....and 3) on Houston last year. Comparing stats is the casual fan's way of comparing players. Kobe in his prime is hands down a better player than Harden last year, regardless of stats. Bryant the Cancer of his team? A true Kobe hater statement without much merit. Kobe has been the driving force for the team, he has put fierceness in players (like Gasol) to get them to elevate their game. Look at several guys who played Solid with Kobe, moved on to other teams to be mediocre. Guys like Walton, Odom, Ariza, just to name a few. If Kobe is a cancer I would like to order 3 plates of cancer please.