It's not tracked anywhere, but there's a pretty good chance Kobe Bryant is among the NBA's all-time leaders in conversations generated.

In the wake of his placement at No. 14 (four spots behind Stephen Curry) in the top 50 all-time NBA player rankings published by Bleacher Report on Thursday, Kobe became the top trend on Twitter in the United States.

That prompted a deeper explanation of why Bryant wound up behind Curry, specifically. It's the third time he's appeared in one of Bleacher Report's either/or articles this summer. He was previously pitted against James Harden in August and Shaquille O'Neal a few weeks later.

Of course, Curry hasn't been in the league nearly as long as Bryant was. He has fewer titles. But in a purely statistical comparison, Curry's advantage is overwhelming.

With the names replaced by "Player A" and Player B" to eliminate bias, Curry's numbers annihilated those from Kobe's 10-year peak:

And the gap actually widened when career playoff numbers were used:

But, as is always the case, these blind polls aren't enough to definitively claim one is better than the other. Heck, there may be no way to make a truly definitive claim.

That won't prevent the attempt, though.

The breakdown will cover six categories: scoring, shooting, playmaking, defense, accolades and impact.

And with all that out of the way, let's get going.

Scoring

Kobe is a two-time scoring champ who averaged at least 20 points in each of 14 (fourteen) straight seasons. He topped out at 35.4 per game in 2005-06, the season in which he gave the world his 81-point performance against the Toronto Raptors.

"It sounds crazy to say—at least I think most people would find it to be crazy—but scoring 81 points wasn't surprising to me," Kobe told ESPN. "I hope people don't take that as being arrogant or whatever the case may be, but you have to understand at my age at that time [27] and being in my physical prime, it wasn't surprising."

Confidence was a critical component of Kobe's brilliance, and it helped make him a scoring machine.

Over the course of Kobe's 10-year peak, his 28.2 points per game ranked first in the NBA. Even if you stretch the timeframe to include his entire career, he's fifth.

And on the all-time scoring leaderboard, he's third in total points and 12th in points per game.

As far as scoring goes, Kobe's resume is a tough one to top. He could get to the rim, play out of the post or toss in daggers from the mid-range. He even had four seasons in which he shot over 35 percent from three.

Where Bryant probably doesn't get enough credit is in terms of efficiency.

In this particular debate, a plus-3.0 relative true shooting percentage during his 10-year peak pales in comparison to Curry's plus-8.0, but that's still an impressive number given Kobe's volume. An ability to get to the line (8.0 free-throw attempts per 75 possessions for his career) helped him on that front.

Curry, of course, isn't far behind as a scorer. In fact, he might be better.

The Golden State Warriors point guard has a career offensive rating of 118, a number that trails only Adrian Dantley and Karl-Anthony Towns (yes, that KAT) among players with a 25-plus usage percentage. Kobe's 110 is 33rd on that list. Even if we use the 113 from his 10-year peak, he's well short of Curry.

Steph also has two individual seasons at 125. Only Dantley and Charles Barkley (both 126) have seasons with a 25-plus usage and a higher offensive rating.

Is Curry's efficiency advantage enough to overcome the deficit in raw scoring, especially when that deficit is as small as the one in the blind poll above? Probably not yet.

Curry discovered his absurd scoring heights fairly recently, and he hasn't dominated throughout his 10 years quite as much as Kobe did at his peak. Since 2009-10 (Curry's rookie campaign), he's eighth in scoring.

If the next few seasons replace the first few as parts of his true peak, he may be able to wrestle this category away. But for now, Kobe's scoring dominance puts him ahead.

Curry 0, Kobe 1

Shooting

This one won't be nearly as difficult.

Curry is the greatest shooter in the history of basketball. Kobe is nowhere near that title.

In another piece from this summer, Bleacher Report set out to determine the best three-point shooters ever:

"The formula concocted by Adam Fromal of Bleacher Report and NBA Math goes like this: Take the player's points per shot on three-point attempts and subtract the league-average points per three-pointer during the relevant time period. Then, multiply by the number of attempts.

"If a player shoots 45 percent on 100 threes, he's getting 1.35 points per attempt. Say the league average is 35 percent, or 1.05 points per attempt. The shooter is 0.3 points above average per attempt. Multiply that by the 100 attempts and you'd have 30 points above average."

By the end of the exercise, Curry's lead over No. 2 was immense: 1,365.6 points above average from three, compared to Kyle Korver's 1,185.8.

ESPN's Kirk Goldsberry added some impressive context to the threes Curry has hit:

"Curry's 3s were tough. No one has attempted more triples since 2013-14 -- the first year we have full player-tracking data via Second Spectrum -- and only four players took more difficult attempts when accounting for shot quality and defender distance. The gap between Curry's expected eFG (49.6%) and actual eFG (64.0%) on 3s is greater than any other player's."

There are many different ways to quantify Curry's incredible shooting ability. The fact that defenses often have to double-team him 35-40 feet from the rim may trump all the numbers, though.

Curry has given his teammates so many four-on-three possessions. The times he doesn't shoot may be as impactful as when he does, and it's all because of that field of gravity he generates the moment he crosses halfcourt.

Kobe, meanwhile, may be 15th all-time in career threes made, but he simply doesn't have a reasonable argument in this category.

Among the 420 players with at least 1,000 career three-point attempts, Bryant is 360th in three-point percentage and 297th in effective field-goal percentage.

He trails Curry in field-goal percentage, three-point percentage (by over 10 points), two-point percentage, effective field-goal percentage (by exactly 10 points), free-throw percentage and true shooting percentage (by over seven points).

Curry 1, Kobe 1

Playmaking

Playmaking and passing are actually a couple of areas in which Kobe may not get quite enough recognition. Among players his height or taller, Kobe is 17th all-time in career assist percentage.

But he's still comfortably behind Curry.

In 2018-19, Curry averaged a career-low 5.2 assists. Kobe's career average is 4.7. Curry's lead in assist percentage is sizable, too.

What's more, Curry has been among the league leaders in secondary assists (think: hockey assists) ever since that data became available in 2013-14. During the 2017-18 season, he was first with room to spare.

Remember that talk of four-on-three possessions? Curry is great at pulling those double-teams as far from the hoop as possible before finding Draymond Green running downhill. At that point, Green gets a shot at a bucket or a relatively easy dime.

There's a symbiosis between plenty of basketball skills. Being the best shooter ever has made Curry one of the game's best playmakers.

Curry 2, Kobe 1

Defense

Believe it or not, Curry is just barely behind Kobe in career defensive box plus/minus: minus-0.7 to minus-0.6. He has a higher career steal percentage and is within a point in career defensive rebounding percentage.

DBPM shouldn't be considered the end-all, be-all, though. Basketball Reference's Daniel Myers explained:

"There are limitations on all box score stats – if the box score doesn't measure a particular contribution, a box-score-based metric can only approximate that contribution. This is not a great hindrance on the offensive side, as nearly everything of importance on offense is captured by the box score (only missing things like screen-setting), but on defense the box score is quite limited. Blocks, steals, and rebounds, along with minutes and what little information offensive numbers yield about defensive performance are all that is available. Such critical components of defense as positioning, communication, and the other factors that make Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan elite on defense can't be captured, unfortunately.

"What does this mean? Box Plus/Minus is good at measuring offense and solid overall, but the defensive numbers in particular should not be considered definitive. Look at the defensive values as a guide, but don't hesitate to discount them when a player is well known as a good or bad defender."

There's little question Kobe is "known" as a better defender than Curry, even if his impact on that end may be slightly overblown.

Since 2000-01 (as far back as play-by-play data is tracked), the Lakers' defensive rating is 1.39 points better with Kobe on the floor. That number is heavily influenced by Shaquille O'Neal, though, and his defensive rating swing is still slightly worse than Curry's 1.74.

Still, Kobe made 12 All-Defensive teams compared to Curry's zero. That's more than enough of a gap to overcome defensive numbers and all their accompanying flaws.

Curry 2, Kobe 2

Accolades

This section may not be fair in certain contexts. Kobe is done and on his way to the Hall of Fame, while Curry is maybe just past the halfway point of his career. But given Curry's placement over Kobe in the top 50, it's worth a look.

Kobe is an 18-time All-Star (second all-time), 15-time All-NBA selection (tied for first), 12-time All-Defensive selection (tied for second), five-time NBA champion, two-time Finals MVP, two-time scoring champ and one-time MVP.

Curry has plenty of accolades himself, but he's not close to Kobe on this front. Ten years in, he's at six All-Star appearances, six All-NBA appearances, three titles, two MVPs (including the only unanimous MVP in league history) and one scoring title.

If their all-time placements relied more on achievements and longevity, Kobe might wrap it up here. But it's about more than that.

Curry 2, Kobe 3

Impact

Kobe was a phenomenal player and a cultural icon. He scored a mountain of points, but he didn't impact winning to the same degree Curry does.

Over the course of Curry's career, the Warriors' net rating is a whopping 11.5 points better when he's on the floor: 8.92 to minus-2.58. And that includes the playoffs and regular season.

Bryant's net rating swing since 2000-01 (again, that's as far back as we can check it) is 7.06. That's a great number, but it's way behind Curry's.

Beyond that, Curry leads Kobe in box plus/minus (by a lot), win shares per 48 minutes, playoff box plus/minus and playoff win shares per 48 minutes. Even game score per 36 minutes, a stat that basically crams basic numbers together, favors Curry: 19.5 to 17.2.

Given Curry's overwhelming advantage in these numbers, it's almost tempting to give him more than one point, but we'll stick with the rules we've followed all summer.

Curry 3, Kobe 3

Who Ya Got?

The raw numbers are fairly close. And Curry can't touch Kobe's longevity—not yet, at least.

But Curry does more for his team than Kobe did, as evidenced by the impact numbers. And while Kobe was an impressive attempt at a Michael Jordan facsimile, Curry changed basketball. His complete and utter dominance from behind the three-point line has people considering rule changes.

The tally from the categories paints this as a tie, so everyone may have to ask themselves the question: "Who ya got?"

I'll take the revolutionary.

Kobe was incredible. He deserves the love he gets from fans.

But having him behind Curry on an all-time list isn't disrespectful. It's just honest.

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr joins the Full 48 podcast to discuss his time with USA Basketball over the summer, the upcoming season and the Kevin Durant fallout.

All stats, unless otherwise indicated, courtesy of Basketball Reference, NBA.com and PBPStats.com.