I didn't bring it up, the Cleveland Plain Dealer did.

I haven't totally tired of this subject, especially with the playoffs so far off, and the Lakers with few problems to complain about.

The Plain Dealer sports writers wrote a book called LeBron James: The Making of an MVP, and they published an excerpt of their book here.

Inevitably, a book like this must make a comparison to Kobe, and as you can guess by the title, the authors found it justified to shit on Kobe in order to make Lebron look better in contrast (my bold added):

Why even bring LeBron into this discussion?

Because he won his first MVP award at the age of 24. Most players don't peak until their late 20s. Johnson and Bird were not awarded their first MVPs until they were 27. Jordan? His came at 25.

By the age of 24, LeBron had 24 triple-doubles, with four more in the playoffs, compared to two for Jordan.

What about Kobe Bryant? He has won only one MVP award, that being in 2008 at the age of 29. More importantly, the guy doesn't pass -- a career average of 4.6 assists. Certainly not an embarrassing total, but Jordan is at 5.3. Bird was 6.3 assists from his forward spot. LeBron, by the end of his sixth season had a career average of 6.7 assists.

For Bryant, the numbers remain at 25.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and those 4.6 assists. There is a sense that Bryant often is a "bailout passer," meaning he gives up the ball only when he's in trouble -- being double- or tripled-teamed. Nearly every time he catches the ball, the first thing that crosses his mind is "shoot it."

What makes LeBron different is he can do everything, and is doing it at a younger age than nearly anyone has done it before. He also is doing it at a historic pace.

Like I've said before, I'm only a little bit tired of this conversation, and the scoreboard is so far in Kobe's favor, it's risible, but I think I could talk about this till the cows come home, sit down for dinner, and eat.

I don't like it when people crap on Lebron to make Kobe look good (though I admit I've done it in the past, and I feel dirty afterwards). So I promise to be on better behavior in the future, because I see how pathetic it looks from the other side to put down a great player in order to praise another one.