Sports

LET’S PLAY TWO!

They may be linked the same way Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are in football.

Kobe Bryant or LeBron James?

Who would you rather have on your team?

“You’ve got to go with Kobe,” TNT’s Kenny Smith said. “Not only because of his body of work, but I think he has a better understanding of where his game is and where it needs to be to get everyone better.”

Bryant’s resume – which includes three titles – is more jammed than James’. At 28, Bryant has done it, while the 22-year-old James needs to prove he can.

“LeBron is the 4.0 student who is coming into IBM,” Smith said. “Kobe is the executive who has been there for years and gotten it done.”

What Bryant has that James has yet to demonstrate is that instinct to finish off an opponent. This ingredient, the desire of an overachiever, transforms great players into all-timers.

“Kobe is a basketball assassin,” Smith said. “He is a guy that, when it is on the line, he performs better. When it is a confrontation he performs better. When the light is on him he performs better.

“LeBron has the ability to have that, and that is why we are so intrigued by him. He has all the physical skills and you can see he has all the basketball knowledge, but now it is putting it to practice, and he hasn’t put it to practice like Kobe has.”

While the focus is usually placed on Bryant’s scoring, that’s really not what has made him a perennial MVP candidate. Bryant makes his teammates better by covering up their imperfections.

“Everyone thinks that making your teammates better is strictly getting them the basketball,” Smith said. “That’s just a small part of making your teammates better. When you look at the Lakers and Kwame Brown, let’s say they are getting out-rebounded, [then Bryant says], ‘It is my night to go in there and take away four rebounds that we might not have gotten.’ Or if Smush Parker is having trouble bringing the basketball up, ‘I’m going to bring the basketball up and I’m going to get us into the offense.’

“That’s what great players do – they take the weakest links off of everyone else, and now I don’t have that weakness.”

andrew.marchand@nypost.com

Sunday, Lakers at Cavs, 3:30 p.m., ABC Thursday Cavs at Lakers 10:30 p.m., TNT