Kobe Bryant was awarded the 2008 Most Valuable Player –MVP by the NBA in a ceremony in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Tonight, he will be presented with the MVP trophy by NBA commissioner David Stern just before the Lakers next conference semifinal game against Utah.

Bryant received 82-first-place votes and 1,105 points in the media vote. New Orleans’ player Chris Paul was second with 28 and 889, Boston’s Kevin Garnett third with 15 and 670 and Cleveland’s LeBron James rounded it out with 1 and 438.

He’s never won the MVP award even though he has been an awesome player for several years. Kobe Bryant was always considered a selfish player. You either love or hate the guy. I never cared for him as a person because he always seemed so arrogant. But as a player the dude rocks. This year everybody says he’s changed, matured a lot and has started including his team mates on the court. According to the Laker’s coach Phil Jackson,

“I don’t know anybody who’s ever deserved this trophy more. I don’t know anybody who’s ever worked as hard to accomplish what he’s accomplished.”

One of his team mates that I like and admire, Derek Fisher feels the same way about Kobe this year…

“He’s deserving in this particular season with all of the question marks and everything going on coming into the season and the uncertainty. 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.”

Brian Shaw who used to play for the Lakers back in the day and is now an assistant coach on the team had this to say:

“He’s a much better teammate now than he was in the championship days. That’s a credit to his maturation. There were definitely times when he was not a good teammate. No one worked harder than he did. The same is true today.”

He averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.84 steals in 82 games this season.
Kobe Bryant is the first Laker to get the MVP award in years. Other Lakers who have won in the past: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and of course Shaquille O’Neal.

See the NBA ceremony that was held on Tuesday –
video here

Watch the trophy presentation tonight, Wednesday night right before Game 2 of the Lakers Jazz series. After tonight’s game the best-of-seven series goes to Utah for Games 3 and 4.

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