Bryant the Best, But He's Not the MVP

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">He is the most talented player in the game. He makes more clutch shots than anybody on the planet, and he stamped his indelible signature on this season with that big, fat 81 he dropped on Toronto.

But there is one startling reason Kobe Bryant can't be the MVP of the NBA:

He is too good for his own team.

There is such a huge dropoff between him and everyone else on the Lakers, there have been too many nights like the recent loss to Denver when he took 39 shots and finished with one assist. Too many nights when his competitiveness seems to hurt the team almost as much as it helps it.

It seems so easy to knock him for appearing selfish and scream that he doesn't pass the ball enough. But to whom should he pass on this team?

Kwame Brown, with hands that only Roberto Duran could love? Lamar Odom, whose assertiveness flits in and out more often than the drivers on L.A.'s erratic freeways? Devean George, who seems almost as surprised as his coaches when one of his jumpers goes in?

Bryant shoots too much because he is the only Laker capable of consistently knocking down shots.

But in the process, Phil Jackson's team too often looks stagnant on offense. Bryant shoots, and the rest of the guys stand around and watch.

It isn't exactly the way John Wooden would teach Basketball 101.

Jackson has hinted that he's up to his Zen in frustration. You listen to him after games, and he will praise Bryant, then note that it isn't really the way he prefers things to function.

This isn't so much a triangle now as it is one giant circle revolving around one guy in the middle.

Just the other night, the coach called his best player's performance "remarkable" but then lamented the fact his teammates didn't "get in the flow."

It is a catch-22, or maybe we should call it a catch-81, situation.

You want Bryant to help everyone else get better. But if he concentrates on that, the Lakers probably aren't going to win as many games.

Brian Cook is the next best shooter on the team, but his defense isn't good enough for Jackson to play him enough minutes. Luke Walton is a fine passer and a nice, instinctive player, but he has almost as much difficulty hitting open shots as his father does talking in short, succinct sentences.

So, often on this team, it comes down to Bryant or someone like Smush Parker.

You tell me, which one would you pick with the game on the line?

If you like lively sports debates, the one raging on the Internet involving the league's MVP race is about as juicy as it gets.

Somebody listed a top five the other day and didn't even include Bryant, which is ridiculous. The fact he has carried this team, practically by himself, to the brink of the playoffs is more than enough to qualify him as a serious candidate.

He belongs in the top five.

But because of the strange makeup of his team and the fact he often is forced to play too much isolation basketball, you can't pick him to win the award.

Not when you have so many other strong candidates. Not when you can choose from a list that includes the Suns' Steve Nash, the Pistons' Chauncey Billups, the Cavaliers' LeBron James, the Clippers' Elton Brand and the Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki.

Nash, who was MVP a year ago, is probably the favorite. When Amare Stoudemire went down at the start of the season, the natural inclination was to think Phoenix was finished.

But the cool-hand Canadian with the distinctive mullet had other ideas. He not only leads the league in assists again, he also leads in free throws. More important, he and five teammates are averaging career highs in points, and that's all attributable to Nash's rare ability to distribute the ball.

So if he won last year with Stoudemire, and the Suns are playing almost as well without their gifted, young power player this season, what does that make Nash?

Probably a two-time MVP.

Although it is just as difficult to discount Billups. Call me old-fashioned, but this still seems like an award that should go to the best player on the best team. If that's the case, the Pistons' point guard is your man.

Detroit has played the finest team basketball in the league this year, and Billups is the primary reason. He not only is averaging 19.1 points a game, his assist-to-turnover ratio is an extraordinary 4 to 1.

The Pistons are the closest thing to the old Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere Knicks of the 1970s, a team that never met a pass it didn't like. With Billups at the point, this group reminds you that basketball still is at its most watchable when it is a five-man game.

Not that it isn't fun to watch a blossoming talent like the remarkable Mr. James. Even more than Bryant, LeBron can take your breath away at times. But what impresses you isn't so much his raw talent as his ability to see the whole floor.

The kid is just as willing to make a big pass as he is a big shot. But that's the difference between James and Bryant.

One has an All-Star named Zydrunas Ilgauskas playing alongside of him. The other has Kwame Brown.

You could say the same thing about Brand, who's enjoying a terrific season for the Clippers. He has Sam Cassell.

Bryant has ... well, you get the idea.

Attempting to do it all by himself, the Lakers' superstar has had a truly remarkable run this year. He deserves a ton of credit.

But he doesn't deserve to be MVP. </div>

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This is a well written piece with how things have been for the Lakers. I think he's right about Kobe being the best, but not the MVP because of his teammates.