Basketball's Great Debate finally hit the floor Wednesday night. Magic-Lakers. You know what that meant.

Tracy McGrady or Mark Madsen?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.

"Hey, T-Mac, I called ESPN and voted for you," Darrell Armstrong said as he left a happy Magic locker room.

That poll actually asked who's better, McGrady or Kobe Bryant? With all due respect to Madsen, the Lakers' loveable, rhythm-impaired center, the real question is not so easily answered. It is quickly becoming one of those questions for the ages.

Bird or Magic? Stones or Beatles? Boxers or briefs?

There is no wrong answer, only different ones. Though one thing is now beyond debate.

McGrady is better.

The record crowd at the TD Waterhouse Centre sure thought so after T-Mac faked a spin that made Bryant look like Madsen trying to dance at the last L.A. title celebration. The crowd laughed at poor, defenseless Kobe, who doesn't suffer indignity well.

"I normally don't retaliate," he said.

Bryant blew past McGrady on the baseline and hammered down a dunk that was felt all the way back in L.A.

Ergo, Kobe is better.

That's how this debate goes. It cannot be settled in one game, though we can tell you who has the better team. That would be McGrady, who had proven commodities like Mike Miller, Darrell Armstrong and (sometimes) Grant Hill to help him. Bryant had Soumaila Samake, Stanislav Medvedenko and Jannero Pargo. The fact management has let Kobe's supporting cast turn into the U.N. intramural team may eventually cost L.A. a fourth consecutive title.

Well, there's always that Shaq guy. Orlando couldn't defend him, but somehow the Andrew DeClercq-Shawn Kemp-Warren Sapp combo contained him. The best chance the Magic had of actually stopping O'Neal came at halftime. Sapp, wearing a (we pause for a melancholy moment of reflection) Shaq Magic jersey, gave the prodigal center a handshake and a hug.

If only Sapp had mistaken Shaq for Green Bay lineman Chad Clifton. But that's another cheap-shot story. The cheaper-by-the-dozen shots Wednesday were flowing from McGrady and Bryant. Not in words, but in the 59 combined attempts.

"I really wasn't trying to get caught up in the one-on-one," McGrady said.

How could he not? Players are programmed to downplay such rivalries, which is sort of like Chevy pretending Ford doesn't exist.

"Oh, he was up for it," Armstrong said of McGrady.

He was throwing up everything, including his lunch. McGrady stared down the flu the way he eyed Bryant after he hit a jumper. Or when he slid past Kobe and finger-rolled in a basket. Bryant then drove the lane and tomahawked another dunk.

"They're both great," Doc Rivers said. "Leave it at that."

You might as well ask people to stop debating boxers or briefs. Some say Bryant is a better defender. He also has the ultimate last line of defense backing him up in O'Neal.

Shaq lightens Kobe's basketball burden, but his presence can mute individual brilliance. McGrady can pretty much do what he wants, which included nine assists Wednesday. Kobe came back with 10 rebounds, one more than Shaq.

"They are the two best," said O'Neal, conveniently overlooking himself.

If Kobe vs. T-Mac were a regular production, the NBA wouldn't have to rely on Charles Barkley kissing a donkey's rear end to generate national attention. How sweet would it be to see the Great Debate played out more than twice a year?

For now, we'll just have to savor the drives, the spins, the dunks and Wednesday's final results. T-Mac had 38. Kobe had 38. Madsen had 0.

That pretty much settles that.