Most of this post is bad, but my god!!! Not one gm would take Tmac over Kobe, and any gm that would, would lose his job.
my memory is fine. kobe and tmac were equal back in 03. kobe still had 'he plays with shaq' tag back then. and tmac was a league leading scorer and many considered him the best player that year.
between 2000-2001 to 2002-2003 stats
tmac
26.8/7.5/4.6 .457 fg% .355 3fg% (all nba 2nd team)
25.6/7.9/5.3 .451 fg% .364 3fg% (all nba 1st team)
32.1/6.5/5.5 .457 fg% .386 3fg% (all nba 1st team)
kobe
28.5/5.9/5.0 .464 fg% .305 3fg% (all nba 2nd team)
25.2/5.5/5.5 .469 fg% .205 3fg% (all nba 1st team)
30.0/6.9/5.9 .451 fg% .383 3fg% (all nba 1st team)
many people had mixed feelings on kobe. many of them are probably just MJ homers who were threatened by kobe's greatness. no joke, there were plenty of 'kobe puts up number because of shaq' crowd.
and if you objectively look at those 3 years (both didn't hit their prime yet) both were pretty much equal in terms of talent/skill. kobe was quicker of the two, but tmac was taller and longer. overall offensive arsenal was pretty much wash. tmac was actually more consistent 3pt shooter of the two at this stage and tmac was year younger and kobe was 1 year more experienced.
so in 2003
both puts up great stats
tmac is year younger
both were known for defense
tmac didn't have anybody around him compared to kobe
there would've been plenty of GM who would've taken tmac over kobe. it's not like kobe one those final mvps. kobe was league wide considered a 'robin'.
but hey, it would be a grave mistake for sure. i'm a major kobe guy. i love kobe. never really embraced tmac even when he was a rising superstar. ultimately tmac never achieved better season than 2003 because of his back. he was still a great all around player, but his back problem wasn't going away and he gradually loses his explosive athleticism.
anyway, paul pierce can't touch those stats tmac put up. pierce was not better than 2003 tmac at any point of his career. none. zero. nada. numbers lie, but not in this case. superior talent is superior.