they have reason to call him the league's best player...they want him to be the league's best player, which is why they call him the league's best player.

as for 'league's best player', if you asked me who i would rather have on my team (obviously throwing out positional considerations, just pretending that you're starting from scratch), i'd pick lebron. kobe might have a more well-rounded game for now, but IMO i'd rather have lebron on my team...that's generally what i use as my criteria, the player i would most like to have on my team...others might go about reaching the conclusion differently.