Tiger vs. Kobe: A Great Debate

Tom Lasorda enjoys starting arguments by claiming it is more difficult to hit a baseball well than a golf ball. A baseball, he says, might be coming toward you at speeds of up to 100 mph. Or faster. It might be curving or sinking or who knows what. A golf ball, he says, is stationary.

On the other hand, you don’t have to play your foul balls in baseball.

I’ve never heard anyone address the subject of golf vs. basketball. The only reason I bring it up is because two of the world’s best athletes, one who has established himself among the best ever in his sport and another who appears destined for the same distinction in his, played in Los Angeles on Friday -- Tiger Woods at Riviera in the Nissan Open and Kobe Bryant at Staples Center against Portland.

If you had to choose which to see, from a consumer’s perspective, it seems as if the nod would go to Bryant. Most seats for a Laker game are significantly more expensive -- tickets for the golf tournament are $25, $20 for seniors -- but you are buying the opportunity to see Bryant play at Staples. There is no guarantee at Riviera that you will see anything from Woods’ gallery other than the backs of the spectators standing four-deep in front of you.

Woods, who has enough money to do anything he wants for amusement, chose Tuesday night to see the Lakers. That was the night that Bryant scored 52 points in a double-overtime victory over Houston, soaring above 7-foot-5 center Yao Ming at one point for a dunk. Woods called the performance unbelievable.

Woods knows something about unbelievable performances.

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Bryant, 24, seems older than Woods, who is 27. Woods, who likes video games and scuba diving and trips to Las Vegas, is an outgoing person who has been forced to shield himself from the public. Bryant, who is married, has a child and leans toward more cerebral pursuits, prefers privacy.

But, when they are performing, they have more similarities than differences.

It’s most obvious in the creativity of each. Woods has been playing so well for so long you might think he would lose his ability to amaze us. Not so. His ability not only to hit but to think his way out of trouble is unparalleled.

He shot a 68 in the second round Friday that wasn’t indicative of how well he played. Wayward drives on his 16th and 18th holes, Nos. 7 and 9 at Riviera, as well as a second shot on 16 that couldn’t escape the deep kikuyu grass, will be blamed for his double bogey and bogey on those holes, but he made marvelous subsequent shots and would have saved a couple of strokes if he hadn’t missed makable putts.

Bryant is also at his best when he seems stymied. For instance, there was his spin drive to the baseline and reverse layup recently at Madison Square Garden that left Latrell Sprewell standing still, a play that might rate as high on the highlight meter as Bryant’s dunk over Yao.

Both Bryant and Woods also show flashes of anger, which proves that they’re human. Woods in earlier years allowed his to linger more than Bryant ever did his. Woods has since matured in that regard. Now both quickly regain focus, putting aside whatever troubled them -- a cell phone that rings on the course, a pass that goes errant because a teammate went the wrong way.

Both have learned from early disappointments.

Woods didn’t play miserably, but he did have a two-year major title dry spell early on.

“But I doubt he thinks about [it] any more than Kobe does about that bad playoff series he had as a rookie against Utah,” says Lynn Shackelford.

Shackelford knows something about both sports, as a player for John Wooden’s 1967-69 UCLA teams and as the current owner of the Sinaloa Golf Course in Simi Valley.

“Both took from their experiences and moved on.”

But the most striking similarity is their enthusiasm for not only playing and winning but dominating. Bryant played on virtually one leg against the Rockets, then, on a night when he could have taken off, not only played less than 24 hours later at Utah but also scored 40 points.

A recurring theme on the PGA Tour is that the players make so much money, even when they don’t win, there is little motivation to take a title. The more Woods wins, the more he wants to win. He was still talking to himself on the day he won his first Masters by 12 strokes.

“I don’t think Earl Woods taught Tiger that it wasn’t OK to win by as much as you could, and I don’t think Jellybean Bryant taught Kobe that it wasn’t OK to score 40 even if his teammates weren’t scoring as much if that’s what was needed to win,” Shackelford says.

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But which sport offers the greater challenge?

Conventional wisdom would probably say golf. There is so little margin for error. Woods made a terrific sand wedge shot out of the tall grass on No. 7 Friday that bounced almost on top of the pin, but it rolled past the hole and he walked away with a double bogey. A Bryant shot might have hit the rim and bounced in. There is no rim on a golf hole.

On the other hand, can you see Woods, who is easily distracted by a cell phone or even the whirring of a movie camera, standing over a putt while spectators are waving those silly Styrofoam cylinders in his face? Or having to make a shot with a player hanging on him?

Woods might respond that Bryant has teammates. Bryant might respond that, yes, he has teammates. You think Woods could carry Mark Madsen and Samaki Walker for 18 holes?

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Randy Harvey can be reached at randy.harvey@latimes.com.