Phil on Kobe’s MVP candidacy
February 26th, 2008, 7:14 pm · 6 Comments · posted by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
LOS ANGELES — Cleveland coach Mike Brown is saying it should already be a done deal that LeBron James wins his first NBA MVP award. But Kobe Bryant’s coach — unlike in past seasons when the Lakers weren’t among the best in the West — is right there behind his guy.
“LeBron’s another candidate; Kevin Garnett obviously is the other candidate,” Phil Jackson said. “But definitely Kobe is having that kind of season.”
Jackson said where Bryant is better this season is his “emphasis” on working with teammates: “The real value of a super player is he makes other players better.”
And what Bryant did in focusing at the start of the regular season amid all the talk of trading him was invaluable.
“We saw the potential of this team at the start early in the year when they kind of grabbed it and went with it,” Jackson said. “And then Kobe made a commitment to play with the team and leave the other stuff behind that had kind of caused us some distraction in the preseason.”
For what it’s worth, James recently noted that if Bryant hadn’t won an MVP yet, it would seem to be Bryant’s time — implying that Bryant should’ve had one by now.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:52 am
If Kobe doesn’t win the award this year, then it would be a crying shame. He not only has made his teammates better, but he’s playing through an injury that requires surgery and still putting up good numbers in doing so. Oh, and did I mention that the Lakers have the best record in the ultra-competitive western conference? I take nothing away from Lebron, but for Kobe to come from last summer’s infamous blowup with Dr. Buss and Mitch to where he is now atop the western conference, I personally think it’s a no-brainer! Kobe for MVP!!
February 27th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Kobe is definitely the MVP, but if LeBron gets it, maybe it’ll stir up some wild playoff play from Kobe (like Jordan when Malone won) and set up a very interesting Lakers-Cavs finals, if the Cavs can even make it that far.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Hey Mr. Ding! It has been a while since I contributed to this blog, although I do read it daily. I just had to chime in on this year’s NBA MVP campaign. First and foremost, I may be a little bias, and lack some objectivity because Kobe Bryant has been my favorite athlete since Michael Jordan dominated his sport. OK, here we go! As I have written in past blog posts to this specific blog, the NBA’s MVP process is a joke! I would love for Kobe to be the MVP this year. Actually, Kobe probably will obtain the MVP trophy, but his triumph will come as a “We-should-have-been-given-this-to-you-trophy” in my estimation. As of right now, Lebron James should be the MVP. Kobe Should have been the NBA’s MVP last year and the year prior to last. No player played better basketball than Kobe during those two years. And no player is currently playing better basketball than James. Kobe is the best basketball player in the world, but that does not mean that at all times he is playing the best basketball. I put some importance on wins and losses, but a MVP’s winning percentage cannot be the absolute judge on if he is a MVP. Lebron’s statistics are outstanding, as were Kobe’s the last two years. Kobe played with (I hate to sound so negative) trash the last two years. Kwame Brown, Smush Parker, and other teammates full of youth and potential with little substance. Now, with guys who improved their game exponentially, trades, and an official belief he can win it all, Kobe is ostensibly excelling using less effort from himself. All the while, Lebron is sort of forced in to what Kobe had to endure and he is thriving as well. Look, two weeks from now Kobe, Lebron, or someone else’s play may change my mind. However, at the moment, I see Lebron as the victor…most likely loosing to the guy who should have been victorious the past two years.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Yeah, if Kobe doesn’t win it this year, that really would be a shame. LBJ and KG are both great players, and I won’t go so far as to say that they don’t deserve it. But Kobe has remedied the one knock on him as an MVP candidate — he does not make his teammates better and his team is not an elite team. (BTW, I’ve always had issue with assessing whether someone makes his teammates better. Clearly players like Magic and Bird did. And clearly players like Nash and Kidd do. But did MJ really do that? Does Kobe and LBJ really do that?)
This year, LBJ’s stats have been definitely superior to Kobe’s. (This was arguably the case last year too, as well as the year before. But we love scorers who score in crunch time. Well, Kobe has truly been “the man” when it comes down to it. Plus, it is widely recognized that Kobe is one of the best lock-down defenders. So as an individual player, I think Kobe was clearly, albeit slightly, better than LeBron the last couple of years.) But like I said, this year LeBron has been a remarkable individual player. Better than Kobe? Not sure, but definitely statistically better and arguably just as good or better as an individual player.
But the Cavs just aren’t that good. They have the same nucleus of players (before the trade) as last year when they went to the Finals, but plainly are not an elite team. So does LeBron really make his teammates better? If so, why aren’t the Cavs a better team this year? Shouldn’t LeBron’s teammates play just as well, if not better (due to them being relatively young and continuing to improve), as last year? In fact, (although we haven’t really had enough games to use these stats as meaningful evidence) Larry Hughes is putting up better numbers (considering he has played less minutes) with the Bulls than he did with the Cavs this year. So has Drew Gooden. So does that mean Deng and Hinrich are better players than LeBron because they make Hughes and Gooden better? That is why I have questions about this measure for MVP. But in any case, I have my doubts that LeBron really makes his teammates all that much better.
KG is an awesome player and I really like and admire him. He certainly has been enormously valuable to the Celts and he has had the greatest impact in turning that team around. However, the Celts did well while he was out. Plus, on a given night, KG is not even the best player on his team — a lot of times it’s Pierce and sometimes it’s Allen and most times it’s a combo of the 3.
Unlike LBJ and KG, Kobe (i) has made his team and teammates better (as evidenced by the team’s record (clearly an elite team in the NBA, although that is also attributable to the addition of Gasol and Fisher) and marked improvement in players like Bynum and Farmar) and is continuing to help his teammates grow, and (ii) is clearly the best player on the team pretty much night in night out. I thought that things might change a little with Gasol there, but there is no question that Kobe is the one that leads the team on both offense and defense.
So, if indeed we are talking about Kobe v. LBJ v. KG (although I think CP3 will be mentioned in the mix if the Hornets keep it up), I really think (both subjectively and objectively) that Kobe should win his first MVP this year.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Lebron’s numbers are superior to Kobe’s, but his team is not having much success. Kobe was snubbed of the MVP in the past two years mainly because Lakers had a mediocre record despite his individual stats. This year, he is having both the individual and team success, so he deserves el MVP.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Uh uh… me thinks that he is making his team mates better, proofs of it are the good games Vujacic, Farmar, Turiaf and LO are dishing out. Stats shows of how good LA is and the standing of the Lakers team is a good indication of showing that Kobe have done it all.