<table> </table> Organic is better. We can agree on that, right?</p><p>Then we can also agree that Kobe vs. LeBron will always be inferior to Bird vs. Magic.</p><p>OK, I&#8217;m starting to sound extremely middle-aged. I&#8217;m beginning to whine about how things in my youth were vastly superior to what we have today. That is not the point of this column.</p><p>The point is Magic-Bird was a once-in-a-lifetime rivalry that simply cannot be duplicated, particularly given the current NBA-eligibility rules. The point is the more the NBA, broadcasters and marketers try to convince me that Kobe vs. LeBron is the second coming of Ali-Frazier, the more I reject that notion, the more I&#8217;m turned off by the artificiality of the nonstop hype.</p><p>I actually rooted for the Denver Tattoos to upset Kobe and the Lakers in the Western Conference finals. Denied that pleasure, Saturday night I rooted on the Orlando Magic as they eliminated King James and the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals.</p><p>I did not want to see Kobe vs. LeBron.</p><p>I could never imagine saying that about Bird and Magic or Ali and Frazier.</p><p>It&#8217;s not that I fail to recognize the individual greatness of Bryant and James. They&#8217;re spectacular. Kobe is nearing equality with Michael Jordan. James is on the verge of surpassing Magic and Bird as an all-round playmaker.</p><p>It&#8217;s the hype that I cannot stand. Kobe vs. LeBron has been injected with steroids. The 24-hour sports news cycle, the shoe companies and game broadcasters are force-feeding us Kobe-LeBron to the point that it is counterproductive.</p><p>I realize this is not the fault of Bryant or James. They&#8217;re probably just as annoyed as I am. It&#8217;s the era we live in. The leagues dictate to the television networks which players to build into superdooperstars. John Madden built a career out of making everyone believe Brett Favre was somehow more incredible than Joe Montana and John Elway.</p><p>The whole thing just seems worse in the NBA because there are more opportunities (games) for Doug Collins and Jeff Van Gundy to gush about LeBron James or some other player.</p><p>(Chauncey Billups is arguably the No. 1 benefactor of NBA broadcasters&#8217; need to glorify a player beyond his worthiness. No team in the NBA took more bad shots this season than the Denver Tattoos. No question, Billups was an upgrade over Allen Iverson. But all Billups did was raise the Nuggets&#8217; basketball IQ from 20 to 35. You put a real point guard on the Nuggets, and they sweep the Lakers and win the title. Someone should change Billups&#8217; nickname from Mr. Big Shot to Mr. Bad Shot. I guarantee you ESPN&#8217;s Mark Jackson knows exactly what I&#8217;m talking about. If Billups is an extension of George Karl on the floor, then Karl needs to be fired.)</p><p>I&#8217;m sorry. I had to get that off my chest.</p><p>Anyway, throughout the regular season and playoffs, there had been this steady drumbeat for a James-Bryant showdown.</p><p>What about the James-Dwight Howard showdown? Howard is the NBA&#8217;s top defensive player. He&#8217;s a little bit Hakeem Olajuwon and a little bit Moses Malone. Howard has owned James and the Cavaliers the past two seasons.</p><p>It seems everyone ignored these facts in their rush to create this James-Bryant rivalry. Man does not create true rivalries. They just happen.</p><p>Magic vs. Bird just happened. They were two forces of nature that collided in college. We fell in love with them not because Dick Vitale screamed that we should. We fell because their style of play and obvious passion for the game demanded that we fall. And we also couldn&#8217;t resist the racial/cultural clash.