Trained to Rock: 02.2008

Kobe Bryant. I didn't like him when he entered the NBA. Too cocky and too arrogant. But the kid has become a man. A champion. And now a leader. At age 29, Kobe Bryant is one of the best NBA player EVER, if not the best. I picked up three recent articles that can explain the fact better than me. It's long but worth reading even if you're not a Lakers fan. To read these articles in their entirety simply click on the links.

(Photo by Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE via Getty Images)

Let's Be Honest: Kobe Bryant Deserves To Be MVP

By William Smith, Bleacher Report

He plays both ends of the floor. His defense is lock-down and he's quite possibly a candidate for defensive player of the year.

If you don't believe me ask Yao Ming, Andre Kirilenko, Dwayne Wade, and countless others that Kobe's simply embarrassed with his defense this year.

In addition to his offensive and defensive production come Kobe's intangibles. "Doesn't make his teammates better?" Hogwash. This is a guy who led a team with Smush Parker as its starting point guard, a guy who doesn't even get playing time on the ailing Miami Heat now, to the playoffs in the always competitive Western Conference.

Kobe's leadership has allowed guys like Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic, Luke Walton, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom to grow and strive over the past couple of years.

He’s Beethoven Bryant… Now Hear the Music!

By Ted M. Green, SportsHubLA

You wouldn’t think a man who seems to have everything would need anything.

You wouldn’t think a man loved by millions might need a friend.

Kobe Bryant has oodles of talent, tons of money, a pretty wife, beautiful young family and the respect, if not unconditional affection, of most of his peers. So what could a man with all that possibly need?

Oh, just understanding, appreciation and, finally, an end to the hating.

Understand what, you say?

That he is the best player in the NBA by eons and quite possibly more skilled than even Michael Jordan.

Appreciation? Yup, by finally naming him MVP of the league.

And hating? That’s right, it’s time to put a merciful end to the petty envy and ugly jealousies, time to stop holding Colorado over his head, time to stop penalizing him because he’s ridiculously gifted and kinda comes across like he knows it.

The rap in the past that he didn’t make his teammates better? Bullfeathers. He passed to them. They missed. What was he supposed to do, shoot it in the basket for them?

Look at the Lakers now: If you don’t think Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic and Ronny Turiaf are all light years better than a year ago, you’re just not paying attention. Heck, playing in the backcourt with Kobe, Derek Fisher at an age (33) when lots of guys are fading, is having a career year, with all-time bests in every shooting category. Coincidence? Not hardly.

What I’m REALLY talking about is, for Kobe’s detractors, the haters, to drop the pretense and stop the posturing and just admit that as a shooter, driver, finisher and defender, as the ultimate basketball Jedi master as we speak here in the late winter of 2008, Lebron James with all his Nike marketing power and funny/cutesy Old Man commercials, can’t hold Kobe’s jock. Or gym bag.

Oh, he can hold it, all right, but only if he asks real nicely.

It is absolutely incomprehensible to me, but yet fully expected given the history of Kobe Bryant, that not one major national NBA writer, far as I know, has been smart enough, fair enough or honest enough to come out right now and say what is now startlingly obvious:

That if Bryant isn’t the MVP this year, that award needs to be put on the shelf forever, never to be dusted off again.

In the real, un-spun NBA, it’s Kobe’s world and everybody else is just living in it. And if you don’t believe me, ask the players. Trust me, they’ll tell you.

Kobe Bryant: MVP

By Respect Kobe

Over the past two years, Kobe Bryant has done everything humanly possible to help the Lakers win — leading a team even worse than this year’s Cavs to a better record in a better conference. He has performed minor miracles on a daily basis. But despite his heroics, he was unable to lead what amounted to a D-League team to 50 or more wins.

Now, that is changing. As Bryant continues to do everything anyone has ever asked of him, and more, his Lakers are on pace for anywhere from 56 to 62 wins.

Bryant has led the Lakers past the Suns for the Pacific Division lead, currently one game behind New Orleans for the best record in the West, with the hardest part of their schedule behind them. He has the Lakers on an overall pace for 56 wins. However, since the Pau Gasol trade, the Lakers have won 7 of 8 (and 9 of their last 10) — a pace that, if maintained, could result in an astounding 62-win season. If they continue to play as they have since Gasol’s arrival — especially after the return of Bynum — the Lakers could very possibly finish the season with the best record in the West.

This removes the only remaining excuse MVP voters have had for not giving Bryant the Award: the Lakers sub-standard record of the past couple of years. He has sacrificed his personal stats for the benefit of the team — taking 7 fewer shots and scoring 7 fewer points than he did two years ago — while trusting his teammates in ways that his critics claimed he never would. Now, if the universally acclaimed best player in the world leads his team to 55 or more wins in what experts are calling the most competitive conference ever, the voters will have no remaining excuses for not giving him the MVP Award he rightly deserves.

But there’s more.Not only does Kobe have the Lakers on track for a very impressive win/loss record, but he has kept the Lakers playing .500 basketball after Andrew Bynum’s injury and before Pau Gasol’s arrival — during a time when many thought the Lakers might even fall out of the playoff race. Overall, the Lakers are 12-6 since Bynum’s injury.

Of the 5 losses suffered during the post-Bynum/pre-Gasol period, all were to teams with winning records, and four were against 4 of the top 5 teams in the NBA: Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, and Detroit.

These accomplishments — the Lakers overall record, and their recent record without Bynum — are even more impressive in light of the multitude of injuries the Lakers have suffered. In addition to Andrew Bynum’s 8-week absence, defensive swingman Trevor Ariza is also out for 8 weeks (now looking more like 12 or more weeks), Chris Mihm continues to struggle with injury, and Vladimir Radmonovic and Luke Walton have each missed a number of games with ankle injuries that are still not fully healed. Meanwhile, Pau Gasol did not arrive on the scene until very recently. Thus, Kobe’s ability to keep the Lakers on pace for 55+ wins despite the constant flux in the roster around him cannot be overlooked.

In addition to constant injuries to those around him, Kobe has himself been hit with food poisoning, flu, wrist injury, shoulder injury, ankle injury, upper respiratory infection, and dislocation of the pinky finger on his shooting hand — and has played through all of it, not missing a single game. Aside from the first two games following his initial pinky injury (in which he made up for poor shooting with very high assist totals), he has played excellent basketball in all of these games.

Now, having aggravated his pinky injury, he is currently playing through an injury on his shooting hand that will require surgery, with his pinky finger taped to his ring finger. He intends to do this through the rest of the season, the Playoffs, and the Summer Olympics.

The significance of this cannot be emphasized enough. This is what MVPs do. Compare this to LeBron’s lesser injury to his non-shooting hand earlier in the season: LeBron sat out six games, all of which the Cavs lost.

Were this the East, Kobe could probably afford to have the surgery, miss six weeks, and return for the Playoffs. But with 4.5 games separating the 8 playoff teams in the West, the Lakers cannot afford to play without Kobe Bryant. It could mean falling out of the Playoffs entirely.

Thus, if Kobe is able to successfully play through an injury that would result in a minimum 6-week absence for any other player, and in so doing leads the Lakers to one of the best records in the NBA, there will simply be no way for the voters to deny him any longer.

In addition, Kobe’s Lakers have the surprise factor going for them, much like Chris Paul’s Hornets. Before the season started, many thought the Lakers would be hard pressed to make the Playoffs. Many others assumed Kobe’s days as a Laker were numbered. All expected this season to be grim, tense, and full of frustration. As it turns out, none of the above has been true.

Kobe has formed closer bonds than ever with his teammates, has become a stronger leader, and the Lakers were considered one of the best teams in the West even before the Gasol trade! As such, the Lakers may be an even bigger surprise than the Hornets.

Also like Chris Paul, Kobe and the Lakers have achieved all of this in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. Again, I couldn’t possibly overstate the significance of this. Were this Lakers team in the Eastern Conference, they would likely be on pace for 65 wins — or more! The West has long been drastically better than the East, but this year it is also drastically better than previous Western Conferences. To be achieving such success at such a time as this in the Western Conference is truly impressive.

Unlike Paul, however — not to mention Garnett — Kobe has accomplished all of this without any All-Star help. Pau Gasol only recently arrived, and Andrew Bynum, while significantly improved and a dramatic upgrade over Kwame Brown, was nonetheless averaging numbers similar to Cleveland’s Zydunas Ilgauskas — 13 points and 10 rebounds — before his injury. While his potential is seemingly limitless, he is not an All-Star yet. And while these numbers are similar to Tyson Chandler’s 12 points and 12 rebounds, Bynum is not yet the defensive presence the Chandler is in the paint.

And while the Hornets’ fourth-best player is Peja Stojakovic — averaging 16.3 points per game and leading the league in 3-point shooting — the Lakers top scorer from behind the 3-point line is, in fact, Kobe Bryant himself.

As for negatives, I can think of nothing to detract from Kobe’s MVP candidacy. He does not play in the weaker East, like LeBron and Garnett. He does not have the luxury of playing along side other All-Stars, like Paul and Garnett. He has played through every type of injury and ailment imaginable, unlike any other candidate — and plans to play for the next several months with a shooting hand that needs surgery. And he is leading the Lakers to one of the best records — perhaps the best record — in the West.