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Realize that bynum only became better cuz kobe and phil were both criticizing him. Jackson first said he had a terrible work ethic... a few months later having seeing the same results... kobe told them to ship bynum's butt off.. it may seem rough... and not so leadership-worthy but realize that the lakers were in an emergency... they have the best player at his prime... and they cant even get past the first round in the playoffs (dunt throw the MJ excuse on me because he had pippen and rodman).... as a leader he had to speak the truth and that led to
1) Bynum working harder to become the better player
2) Mitch working his butt off to pull off a trade... people say that the gasol trade would have happened but without kobe pressurizing him how would you know that mitch would display the same urgency?
Also realize that kobe has improved his bench... farmar... vujacic... turiaf... Paul improved good player (west, chandler) into better ones... you can decide which one is harder to do because its debatable..
and last year.. realize peja was injured and so was west for quite a huge chunk of games... with peja's emergence back to superstar status it helps the Hornets out a lot...
KG is way underrated by your comments... he turned this franchise around... You are only looking at offensive stats... KG led the team in terms of defense.. (Defensive player of the year duh..) Paul pierce might have had the better stats in offense but that doesnt' make him the leader of the boston celtics.... KG is...

Which leads to my next point... according to stats (and its debatable... stats arent always reliable)... chris paul makes his team worse on defense. They fair better with pargo on. He might lead the league in steals (its a stats thing again).... no of steals doesnt always mean much if they dont benefit the team as a whole...

Really.. chris paul's time will come.. but ur blog was a bit tos straightforward for THIS YEAR'S mvp race....
My order
1) Kobe Bryant
2) KG
3) Chris Paul
4) LBJ
In reality.. i dunt really mind if its Kobe or KG or CP that win though... they've all made their case......... my comment is only trying to show you why CP shouldnt win it...

in the end.. in sports analyst's views the order should end up
1) Kobe
2) CP3
3) KG
4) Lebron

What a very biased blog. I'd pick garnett over paul with kobe on top.

hahahahahahha

I like all of the cases you make for the candidates save one - Kobe Bryant (and please don't pay any mind to the fact that I'm a diehard Laker fan). You ask the question "They've become a team finally, but how much of this was Kobe"?

Let me put it this way: start the entire season over and put all the current Laker pieces (including Gasol and Ariza) into place, then take Kobe out of the puzzle and let the season play out. Enough said.

Kobe complains and can't win when he doesn't have another superstar around him, Lebron just steps up his game and leads his team to victory. How hard can this decision be?

LBJ MVP!

No i agree with you CP3 has done the most for his team. . which is the MOST VALUABLE PLAYER.. . to the team. If you were to take out all the canidates for MVP, the team that would suffer the most would be the hornets.

I'm fairly certain that if Kobe left the Lakers, they would end up pretty much like the Grizzlies were this year. I am not trying to undervalue the guy, he is without a doubt either the number one or number two basketball players in the league (the other would be LBJ). But when it comes to MVP, here's what I want to throw out:

Gasol and Odom were all-stars BEFORE they were with Kobe.
LBJ has no other all-stars on his team (aside form aging and inproductive Ben Wallace)
Garnett is, don't get me wrong, a HUGE part of the Celtics turn-around. But it seems like people just want to vote for a Celtic considering their dominance this year.
Without Paul, the Hornets have just one former all-star in Stojakovic, who is far from superstar status. They would in my mind have ended up like the Heat.

I guess I overlooked the Lakers' bench improvement, but you can't deny that at least part of that was because they were mostly young guys developing. In retrospect, I would say LBJ is more important to the franchise than he is to the team.

Rundown:
1. Paul
2. Bryant
3. LBJ
4. [Insert Celtic Here]

Note: I am a huge fan of what the Celtics are doing. And if anyone is curious, my favorite team is Utah, a team with no legitimate MVP candidates. So, no, I do not think this is biased.

You are just another stupid Kobe hater. Enjoy watching one of the greatest players of our lifetime.

Kobe hater? Really?

What is it with avid Kobe fans? Because I voted for someone else, putting Kobe at no. 2, that makes me a "stupid kobe hater?" Give me a break. If I was a true Kobe hater, I would have said something along the lines of, "Kobe's a ballhog, selfish **** who can't stop whining and raping younger women." Seriously, would a Kobe hater say this, "if Kobe left the Lakers, they would end up pretty much like the Grizzlies were this year." I think that speaks VOLUMES to Kobe's worth. Just, in my opinion, if Chris Paul left the Hornets, they would be the equivalent of the Heat post-Wade injury.

Get off your high horse. People's opinion varies. It's a fact of life.

remind me again when lamar odom was an allstar. pau gasol was an allstar 2 years agao. AS A RESERVE. guess who else was a allstar 2 years ago. BEN WALLACE. AS A STARTER. in fact he is a 4 time allstar and 4 time dpoy. big z is also a multiple time allstar. and last i checked when pau was the leader of a western conf team with memphis they had one of the worst records in the leauge 2 years in a row. yes pau helps and so does lamar but to give all the credit to everyone else on the team and not kobe is a pure sign of u hating on him. he leads the team in points assist and steals and the lakers finish with the best record in the WEST. lebron plays in the week east and only finished with a 4th seed. in the west that team wouldn't have even made the playoffs. so please stop hyping kobes supporting cast and dogging lebrons just to try and make a point.

and i also wanted 2 say that i love chris paul. he is the man. he plays for my hometown team. but i wonder how well cp3 and the hornets would have played without chandler d west and peja? suppose they got riddled with injuries like the lakers did this season. bynum hasn't played since jan and pau missed 12 games with an ankle injury. and if u remember correctlt kobe had the lakers still near the top of the west b4 gasol even got there. all i'm saying is that it seems as if people are making it seem like kobe is playing with an unstoppable team just because it looks like he is gonna win mvp. but the media tries 2 spin it like lebron cp3 and kg are playing with scrubs. 2 be honest with u i feel it is between cp3 and kobe and NO 1 ELSE. and in my opinion kobe has the slight edge over cp3 this year for mvp

I respect your pick of Chris Paul because he's my 2nd favorite player in the NBA right now but I have to go with Kobe Bean Bryant simply because he took one of the youngest teams in the NBA and carried them to the best record in the West while Avg. 28 points per game and 6 assists and 5 rebounds... Also leading by example on defense, which by the way he undoubtedly will be named 1st Team All NBA Defense.

People, please. I gave Kobe second place, and I clearly stated that the Lakers would be a wreck without him.

I did a little more research.

Lakers: Lamar Odom was a 1st Team Rookie. Never an all-star. I was wrong. Pau was Rookie of the Year, and had one All-star year.

Cavs: Z is a two-time all-star, and a 1st Team Rookie. Ben Wallace was a 4 time all-star and DPOY, but is no where near he old self.

Hornets: Peja is a 3-time all-star. West is a 1-time all-star. Peterson was a 1st Team Rookie

In retrospect, Kobe does have a lot less to work with, but Wallace and Peja are past their primes (albeit, Peja still produces). I still stand by my decision (because, again, there is more to the award that just one aspect), but I am still baffled that you guys call me a Kobe hater. My arguments against him weren't attacks, they were reasons why I would pick Paul over him, essentially.

I do not believe in giving Kobe the award simply as a "lifetime achievement" award. To be honest, I thought he got robbed during the three-peat. But when it comes to this season, from the tip-off of game 1, I feel Chris Paul has done the most to help develop his teammates, boost morale in the ravaged city of New Orleans, as well as doing the most for himself than anyone else. I remember hearing on Sportscenter that roughly 50% of the offense went through Chris Paul, a number that hasn't happened since Stockton.

And newdynasty08...I picked Kobe over James. Read up.

ddd

i respect your opinion tree. i guess we look at it 2 diffrent ways that's all

Treehandthingy,

Your a tool bro, you don't understand the game one bit and you attempt to post things that will make you look intelligent and knowing, However, your arguments and reasons for Chris Paul as MVP prove that you are nothing but a tool.

Watch the game, but stay off the forums, you have NO idea what you are talking about.

Hey Treehandthingy. Don't worry about all the flak you're getting. I'm an avid Laker/Kobe fan, but I see where you're coming from. Despite Nikolay248's opinion, I believe you're right about Paul and how the Hornets would absolutely STINK without him. I think you gave a pretty argument for the other players also.

That being said: KOBE! KOBE! KOBE!

No hard feelings bro.

That's cool, newdynasty and penn. I was warned that I'd get flamed by people who don't have a reason to. Just adjusting to fanboyism, I guess is all.