With the top spot in the Western Conference locked up, there is no question that Kobe Bryant should win this year’s regular season MVP award.
When Shaq left the Lakers for Miami, there were many who feared the Lakers dynasty wouldn’t recover. Without a big star to support him, Kobe Bryant could never again hope to achieve the same level of success. By the end of the 2006-2007 season, the Lakers had again exited the first round of the playoffs, and there was talk that Bryant would be traded.
The trade didn’t happen. In less than a year, Bryant has helped transform the Lakers from an “adequate franchise that struggled to grab the seventh playoff spot last year” to one of the premier teams in the league.
Like Magic Johnson before him, Bryant elevated the success of the team by making players around him better. Players such as Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum would be nothing without the guidance and teamwork of Bryant.
Bryant has proven time and again that he is the Laker franchise. Not only is he the best player on the Lakers, he is also the best player in the entire league to never win the regular season MVP. This year, like every year, Bryant has proven that he is an elite player with the numbers he puts up.
As for the other top nominees, their play and team impact has not matched that of Bryant this year.
LeBron James averages the most points per game in the league, but after last year’s playoff run, the Cavaliers were expected to repeat the performance. Bryant is the better candidate because he pushed the Lakers to a level of success that no one could have predicted, thus making him more valuable.
Chris Paul has led the Hornets to one of their best seasons of all time and has put up some amazing numbers, but down the stretch, the Hornets couldn’t win enough games to maintain the top spot in the Western Conference. Unlike Paul, Bryant’s play down the stretch helped the Lakers win the critical games that the Hornets could not.
Kevin Garnett has helped lead the Celtics to the best record in the NBA and transform them from worst to first. However, for all Garnett has accomplished, he did it with the help of some of the best players in the game — Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. In the end, these three players have accomplished the same as Bryant has by himself.
The MVP award should not just be about one aspect of a player’s season. Instead, it should reflect on the overall performance and the impact the player has on his team. Bryant meets those requirements better than any player in the league. That’s why he will win the regular season MVP.
