Just Hear Me Out.....

Lebron James has twice as many MVP's as Kobe Bryant in half the time Kobe's been in the league. But wait, Kobe's supposed to be on his way to being better than MJ right? Not even close.

Kobe Bryant has one MVP and one finals' MVP. Jordan has five and six. Case closed.

Kobe also had a pedestrian performance in the Lakers' 08' Finals' loss to the Celtics. Down in the series 2-1 entering game 4, the Lakers had a great chance to tie up the series after taking a 24 point lead in the first half. Most importantly, the Lakers were developing a lead without Kobe's help offensively as he didn't make a field goal until the third quarter (Seriously?). The Lakers blew the lead and lost the game to go down 3-1. The Lakers gutted out the next game but got blown out by 39 in the clinching game 6. Superstars don't go entire halves without field goals..Especially in the Finals'.


Let's back-track a little bit..

In 2000, The Lakers won a very dramatic game 7 against the Trailblazers to propel them into the finals against Reggie Miller's Pacers. Kobe had a BRILLIANT game 7 to get his team there scoring 25, 11 dimes, 7 boards and 4 blocks.

Kobe went on to average 15, 4 and 4 in the finals but played excellent defense on Reggie Miller including an effort that left Reggie with a 1-16 performance in game one.

Shaquille O'Neal had 43 and 19 in game one. 40 and 24 in game two. 41 and 12 in game six. For the series he averaged 38 points, 17 rebounds and 2.7 blocks. Kobe played pretty well but Shaq had an all-time finals' performance and won finals' MVP.



In 2001, The Lakers met up with Allen Iverson's 76ers in the finals. Kobe played an excellent series averaging 24.6 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 5.8 apg. A.I. dropped 48 in the first game in an Overtime victory but the Lakers won the next four basically because Iverson's right hand man was Matt Geiger.

Shaq had another dominating series averaging 33 points, 15.6 rebounds and 3.4 blocks. Again, Kobe played at a very high level but Shaq had elevated his game to an unbelievable level once again and won the Finals' MVP.



In 2002, The Lakers swept J-Kidd's Nets to win their third consecutive title. Kobe had a similar outing statistically with 26.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 5.3 apg. The Nets didn't really have a chance in this series and became only the 7th team to be swept in the finals.

Shaq dominated once again, shocker, I know. In game one he dropped 44, 20 rebounds and 5 dimes. His averages for the series were 36.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.75 blocks as he went on to win his third consecutive Finals' MVP.

A few things to take from those Finals' matchups....
A) The Lakers were playing pretty poor Eastern Conference opponents. (relatively speaking)
B) Kobe Bryant was very good, Shaquille O'Neal was Legendary.
C) Kobe also benefited from what I like to call the 'Dwayne Wade' effect:
-With so much extra attention having to be paid to Shaq inside, this leaves Kobe in one-on-one matchups with guards that had little to no help defense coming their way after Kobe BLOWS by them. Just Like D-Wade when him and Shaq shacked up(ha) for a title in 06'.



................Now Back To The Kind-Of Present..................

The Lakers won the title last year. Annnnd this guy has no problem with it. Kobe was the best player on his team and truly led his team throughout the season and the playoffs. Kudos Kobe.

................Now To The For-Real Present......................

The Lakers had a solid regular season that saw Kobe hit 6 game winning shots (Against Memphis, Sacramento, Miami, Toronto + Dallas n Milwaukee BEFORE they were playing good ball) I won't judge, he's the best closer in the game but the Lakers had no business being in those games.

My issue with the Lakers this year is that Kobe is the second most valuable player on his team. Pau Gasol's importance is continually undervalued as it is SACRILEGIOUS to criticize Kobe Bryant in any way. UH HELLO, the dude is 7 foot tall and extremely talented on both ends of the court which any NBA franchise salivates over. Pau threw out little tid-bits all year long about not getting the ball often enough and Kobe taking too many shots. This of course turned into another way for the media to praise Kobe Bryant for not firing back at Pau.

Hey Kobe..game six against the Thunder..pretty glad Pau was there to clean up your mess? That's what I thought.

---I know I just did a lot of rambling, but here's my point---

Kobe gets too much credit for the teams he has been a part of. While I truly believe he is one of the best 2-guards in the history of the game, he's a long, long, long way from being number one. Pau Gasol is the best player on the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe is one of the hardest working players in basketball and it hurts me to be such a hater towards such a competitor. However, his demeanor on the court is one of a player that expects all the attention, all the love and not to mention all the calls he wants. He deserves a lot of that, but not all.

Shaq said it best:

"Kobe how my Ass taste?"