Kobe Bryant won his first NBA player of the year award yesterday after leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the best record in the league's Western Conference.
Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant (R), accepts the National Basketball Association's most valuable player award from Alex Fedorak, director of public relations with Kia Motors Tuesday, May 6, 2008, in Los Angeles. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
He will receive the trophy tonight from National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern before the Lakers face Utah in Game 2 of their conference playoff semifinal series. Bryant was followed in the voting by journalists by Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett and LeBron James.
"It's Hollywood, it's a movie script. The perfect ending would be for us to hold a championship trophy at the end of it," Bryant said at a news conference attended by his teammates, club officials, his wife and two daughters.
"This is an award I couldn't have won on my own. I can't thank these guys (his teammates) enough. These are my guys, these are my brothers. Let's get ready for tomorrow."
Bryant entered the season as the league's two-time defending scoring champion but had finished only as high as third in voting for the Most Valuable Player award. He averaged 28.3 points while playing all 82 games despite tearing a pinkie ligament in February.
This season there was no denying the Lakers' star. Los Angeles rose to the top of the West despite key injuries and following Bryant's trade demands last spring when his team was eliminated in the first round by Phoenix for the second straight year.
Bryant averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.84 steals while playing all 82 games despite tearing a ligament in his right pinkie in February. He put off surgery until after the Olympics.
The knock on the 29-year-old Bryant had been that he didn't make those around him better -- not anymore.
Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant holds the NBA's Most Valuable Player trophy with his daughters Gianna (R), and Natalia (L),Tuesday, May 6, 2008, in Los Angeles. Bryant received 82-first-place votes and 1,105 points in the media vote. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
"He's deserving in this particular season with all of the question marks and everything going on coming into the season and the uncertainty," teammate Derek Fisher said. "Not only did he statistically have an MVP type of season, everybody can reasonably say they were better this year because of what he did. He met the so-called criteria, elevating his teammates' games."
Bryant, second in the NBA in scoring behind James, is the first Laker to win the MVP award since Shaquille O'Neal in 2000. Other Lakers to win since the award was first presented in 1956 were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson -- each times. Abdul-Jabbar also won three with Milwaukee.
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily May 7, 2008)
