Why Kobe Bryant Should Repeat as MVP

Let's be honest. There are only two legitimate MVP candidates: LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. No other players have meant more to their teams' success than these two individual players and no two players are playing at a higher level.

For the first half of the season, Lebron James was clearly the MVP. He was playing at a high level statistically, improved his defense and had the Cavs sitting at the top of the Eastern Conference.

Then the second half of the season came, Andrew Bynum once again got injured and Kobe Bryant took his game to an entirely different level once again.

The race between these two players is extremely close. LeBron has the statistical advantage and Kobe has the team success advantage. At the end of the day though, I give the edge to the reigning MVP.

If a player is going to win MVP, he has to take it from the reigning MVP. This year, Kobe's been better statistically and he's lead his Lakers to a better record so far at this point than he did in his MVP season.

Part of the problem is that we create premature expectations at the beginning of the season. The media prematurely pegged the Lakers to win 70 games without knowing if Andrew Bynum would be ready to dominate after coming back from a season ending injury.

Of course, Bynum was no where near his former self and as soon as he showed signs of becoming a dominant center again, he went down. Conversely, many underestimated the Cavs supporting cast.

All anyone ever hears is how LeBron has a poor supporting cast, but in reality it is a team that went to the finals. It is a team that took Boston to seven games in the playoffs last year. And it is a team that added Mo Williams. How then could the Cavs be predicted to be anything less than second in the Eastern Conference?

Sure, LeBron has been fantastic. Dominant even. But is his supporting cast that much better than the Lakers? Sure, Kobe Bryant has Pau Gasol, but part of Bryant's value is making Gasol a much better player than he ever was.

Gasol even won a player of the month award this season because of all the extra attention given to Bryant in the second half of the season.

And let's be honest. If you take Bryant off of the Lakers, the team looks eerily similar to the Gasol-led Memphis Grizzlies. How come when Bryant meshes and elevates the play of his teammates, everyone says he has so much help?  But when Steve Nash does it, it is because he is a back-to-back MVP??

Truth be told, LeBron's Cavs have a collection of talent, experience, and depth that cannot be matched by the Lakers. The Lakers have Pau Gasol, but after that, the Cavs nearly run the table against the Lakers with the talent they have.

They have a guy who won the defensive player of the year award four times. Mo Williams is an all-star and is certainly better than Lamar Odom. Z has played at a higher level than Andrew Bynum. Most of the D-League is better than Luke Walton.

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