Kobe, The New MVP: How Deserving Is He?

Poetic justice?  

PR appeasement? 

Call it whatever you will, Kobe Bryant finally gets his MVP trophy. Yes, that trophy!

Inarguably the most maligned and most feared player in recent NBA history, his game has pleased as much as it has shattered our expectations.

Yes, he has been the single most awesome force since Michael Jordan. Yes, he has been the most feared weapon in the NBA, the one whose mere presence shakes teams and defenses.

But also, he has been the most widely covered, the media has followed his every step, and also his every whisper. He dominates a good majority of your NBA discussions and he still gets the flak day in and out. Nothing is just good enough! 

Possibly, not since Jordan has any single player been so harassed and covered by the media, and the coaches, and the players.

It hasn't been easy, but Kobe's lived with it, for years. Even when they said that he was just too selfish for his team to prosper, he still played and won, and lost. 

Yes, Shaquille O'Neal might have never had those 3 titles if not for Phil Jackson. And again, if Kobe weren't Kobe, Shaq wouldn't be Shaq either. They were the perfect foils for one another, the perfect team.

Sad that they just couldn't get on in later years. But they are now friends, with a deep respect for one another-one climbing the stairs to salvation, and the other trying to find his way into the hallowed rooms he once inhabited. 

But then, for every door closed, another window opens. 

And it did. Kobe carried his team night in and out, shred defences and offenses apart, the records kept on piling, and still, his team was nothing without him. The Cavs without LeBron? Please.....without Kobe, the Lakers would just be another inner city ball club. 

And now, back to May 2008, with a red-hot Pau Gasol, a rejuvenated Lamar Odom, an inspirational Derek Fisher, a bench that threatens to be the best bench in the league, and his blink-and-you'll-miss-it leadership and game, Kobe's Lakers sit at the top of the Western  Conference, just an edge ahead of the red-hot New Orleans Hornets, and you would even be inclined to suggest that the last 10 games of the regular season just, just made the difference.....

LA won 8, and NO won 6, and of those four losses, one was to LA, another to Dallas, and again to the Spurs, and this is where it all faded away....Chris Paul could have plastered the MVP award those last games, but he cracked....and so did his team.

And remember, some of those road wins and losses for the Lakers and the Hornets respectively....just, just told you....that Kobe was the man. That Paul would improve in later years, but for now, Kobe was just irrepressible. 

Kobe's lived with this pressure all throughout his career, and the last few seasons, no one has had to deal with as much.

Yet, he plays and gives it his all, admonishes his team mates for not living upto their potential, for not giving it their all, takes over games and defences and just shreds them apart, and still gets so much dirt thrown at him that it's sometimes preposterous that he's still with the Lakers, still in the league. 

Paul and Kobe were my top 2 this year, not because KG and LeBron were any less deserving, but because Paul and Kobe were the main forces this year.

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