Kobe Bryant: Was Dwyane Wade Wrong to Rip Kobe for "Going for MVP?"

Kobe Bryant knew last night was his moment.

He was in front of his crowd.

In his city.

And he was playing against the league's top talent on one of the biggest stages in basketball.

Bryant was aggressive from the opening tip, and he kept it up all game long, shooting a game-high 26 shots and finishing with a game-high 37 points. On top of all that, Kobe attacked the glass, grabbing 14 rebounds.

Before the game, Bryant said he was going to stick to jump shots to save his legs, but there he was, throwing down some amazing dunks that raised the home crowd out of their seats.

Kobe won his fourth All-Star Game MVP award, which tied him with Bob Pettit for the most all-time, and after the game, some of the other stars chimed in their thoughts.

One of those stars was Dwyane Wade.

"Kobe was going for MVP tonight," Wade said to the media after the game. "It was that obvious. I think my three-year-old son knew it."

So what if he was? Wasn't LeBron James doing the same thing? The TNT cameras caught James trying to pull his teammates together on the bench, and we all saw him make a huge push to get the Eastern Conference back in the game.

It would be naïve to think that James didn't know he was closing in on just the second triple-double in All-Star Game history. There is no point in commenting about someone trying to win the MVP award in a game where no one plays defense and people either dunk the ball or shoot an outside jumper.

More importantly, doesn't this fit right in with a lot of people's perceptions of Bryant? Many people still see him as a selfish player who only looks for his shot and doesn't care how it affects the team and its offense.

We saw it in the fourth quarter, when an admittedly gassed Bryant forced shots and committed bad turnovers as the East pulled closer on the scoreboard. He knew this was his last moment to shine in the All-Star Game in front of his home fans, and he seized the moment.

Wouldn't Wade do the same thing if he were in Bryant's shoes? Kobe has played countless games in Los Angeles, and he's not going to be around forever. Bryant, for all of his flaws, deserved to have the right to try to go out on his home floor and go for broke.

On top of all that, the Western Conference won the game, but they couldn't have done it without Bryant's first-half explosion. Kobe, along with Kevin Durant, put up huge numbers, and if it weren't for those two, the West would have lost the game.

I have a much bigger problem with a guy like Dwight Howard (who looked like he wasn't even trying for most of the game with his two terrible three-point attempts) than I do with a guy who goes out there and tries to establish himself as the best player on the court.

Kobe Bryant knows his time as one of the alpha males of the league is limited. He said as much after the game when he talked about guys like Blake Griffin starting to get the league's attention (and rightfully so).

But for one night, Kobe Bryant decided he was going to steal the show, and no one (especially Dwyane Wade) should try to take a shot at him for doing something every other star in the building would have done.

If they didn't like it, they should have done something about it. It's that simple.