You know my opinion on Kirby vs Duncan. I'm talking from a Media/Espn perspective, which I know you take as gospel.
Also, you can't throw stones at James for bolting to greener pastures when Kobe did the exact same thing on draft day, crying his way onto the Lakers (who were stacked at that point with Shaq, Eddie Jones, Nick Van Exel, etc).
Lebron was dragging along Mo Williams when Kobe "repeated in his era." Kobe never went through James, so that's irrelevant. And like it or not, Kobe will never get lead dog credit for the 3 peat (and he shouldn't). Those were Shaq's teams.
Kobe's legacy is fringe top 10 right now. Only 2 Finals MVPs and inferior overall stats to the other greats of his era (Shaq, Duncan, James, and even Dirk
)