Pace Paw Print

Media Credit: orlandosentinel.com Kobe Bryant ready to blow by the competition.

COLUMN

With the National Basketball Association (NBA) season winding down, it's only appropriate to discuss who should be the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP).

If you're a fan of the NBA or even follow it slightly, then you know there are three frontrunners; Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, and Kobe Bryant. Nash is the reigning two-time MVP, and a lot of people think he should receive the award for a third time.

Nowitzki's team has the best record in the league, and he's a big part of it so there are a lot of people in favor of him receiving the award for the first time in his career. I've only heard a few analysts mention Bryant's name seriously for the award and I just don't understand it. What Bryant is doing in today's game is very similar, if not more amazing, than what Michael Jordan did throughout the late 1980's and the 1990's.

He's scoring at will, almost 40 points per game average in the month of March, which was ridiculous. He scored the most points of anybody in a four game span. He leads the league in scoring (31.3 points per game) again, and the closet person is almost a whole three points per game behind.

He's putting the Los Angeles Lakers on his back, and although I thought he should've won the award last year, this year he's done it with less. Lamar Odom missed a bunch of games due to a death of a child and an injury, Luke Walton and Kwame Brown were both out for an extended period of time, and Vladimir Radmanovic will be out for the rest of the season. If that's not enough, just factor in that he doesn't have another all-star player on his team as does Nash (Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion) or Nowitzki with Josh Howard.

The Lakers also do not have as many talented players or the depth that Nash has with the Phoenix Suns or Nowitzki does with the Dallas Mavericks, so what does he have to do?

People complain left and right that he's a ball hog and never passes, but oh wait… he leads the team in assists. He also had a season-high 13 assists on April 1, and no one even talks about it.

Whether you like him or not, you can't dispute the fact that he means more to his team than anyone else in the league. If he goes down, the Lakers are finished. No playoffs, no .500 record, nothing.

If Nowitzki goes down the Mavs win about 49 games instead of 60 something. If Nash goes down they win 46 games instead of 60. A drop off, yes, but not one that will force his team out the playoffs as would an injury to Bryant.

That's why he deserves to be the MVP. He's an all-defensive first team player every year which neither Nash nor Nowitzki is and he's unstoppable.

He's the most dominant guard since Jordan and to this day he has not one MVP. Kind of strange don't you think? You can always make the argument that the best player on the best team should get it, but the fact of the matter is that the MVP is for an individual not team.

I don't know, maybe Bryant has to score 100 points or something to get the media and the league to realize just how valuable he is, but in my eyes he's already shown me the light.

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