You Like Me! You Really Like Me!

M-V-P !!!

M-V-P !!!

M-V-P !!!

This is two years too late, but finally Kobe is getting his props. Do you think people are noticing that 2-time MVP Steve Nash is a defensive liability? And certainly the NBA was a little stung when Dirk had to come back from vacation to receive his MVP trophy (named after some jew lawyer, go figure; no offense -- some of my best friends are jews and lawyers).

So it's about time. Lebron and CP3 are great, and deserve to be all-NBA, but will either of them be within sniffing distance of All-NBA Defense 1st Team? To be fair to Paul, he deserves it more than Nash did two years ago, but now he'll have to bide his time because this is the first of three in the next four years (ala Magic) for Kobe. He's 29, and the prime of an NBA career is 28-32. The rest of the West should be scared.

I think if we'd set some pre-season goals, they'd have looked like this:

Standard Goals:
1) Keep Kobe a Laker (check)
2) Improve the backcourt (check)
3) Sign or trade for some championship-caliber talent (check)
4) Win 46 games (check)
5) Make the playoffs (check)
6) Make it past the first round (check)

Stretch Goals:
1) Win the Pacific Division (check)
2) Unload Kwame for something more valuable than a bacon-wrapped hotdog (check)
3) Get home-court advantage in the 1st round (check)
4) Win the #1 seed in the Western Conference (check)
5) Kobe MVP (check)
6) Make it past the 2nd Round (incomplete)
7) Win the Western Conference (incomplete)
8) 2008 NBA Champions (incomplete)
9) Kobe All-NBA 1st Team (incomplete)
10)Kobe All-NBA Defense (incomplete)
11)Bynum Most Improved (nope)
12)Phil Coach Of The Year (nope)

If I were the Lakers manager, I'd say they deserve a promotion and a big raise. Work well with others, can-do attitude, exhibit leadership skills, etc.

But now I have a big assignment for you: go beat the Jazz in 5 games. You're the MVP Kobe, go get it done.

I Like The Fear

I do declare, that was quite a lovely evening of basketball.

First, I get home in time to see the Suns game out of reach early in the 4th, which meant that a win by the Lakers would clinch the Division. Nooooiice.

Second, as I'm getting ready to leave, Sony calls and convinces me to watch that hilarious hockey check by VladRad on Tyson Chandler. Great to see him fired up, but the adrenaline didn't seem to do much for his outside shot.

Third, I played a very entertaining 3 hours of basketball down in the Mont. With 16 guys we played rotating winners/losers court 4-on-4, and my team never lost despite having a 10-year-old as our fourth. There is some pretty decent talent there mind you -- mostly in the 21-29 age group, including a few guys that play on the Ohlone college squad. In the fifth game the one loudmouth hick in a gym full of otherwise classy, no-argue players, rolls his ankle untouched on some ridiculous fading 3-point turnaround jumper. It wasn't too bad, but he threw a hissy fit and basically challenged my teammate to a fight, claiming he was pushed. The best part: the remaining 15 of us all told him to go home an not come back. Oh yeah, then we ran full with subs and my team won a 20-min. timed game by 2. Nooooiice.

Was there something else? Oh yeah, Fourth: I get home well after midnight, sore but satisfied (no homo), and get to watch that great Laker win over the Big Easy CP3s. Someone 'ruined' the outcome for me, so that 3rd quarter only stung a little. But a salve was at hand: that dunk (above) by Kobe was incredible -- the slo-mo really does it justice. And speaking of justice, that clinches the division and moves the Lakers to the #2 spot and a potential 1st-round match-up with our bitches the Mavs. What do you think, Stu? Nooooiice.

So did the MVP race just turn back in our favor? I'm still not buying it. If the players or coaches or GMs voted, Kobe would win in a landslide. And yes I know that a couple LA Times 'informal poll of voters' has him winning, but the 'journalists' that vote are lard-ass haters extraordinaire (this not an opinion, but a verifiable fact). And as we've seen in the difference in Obama vote totals in open caucuses vs. balloting, there is something about the privacy of a voting booth that clarifies the mind and allows the voter to proceed with complete irrationality and unfettered bias. Also, most of the writers are white, and white people do love assists.

Never mind that CP3 is sort of a defensive liability -- sure he gets some nice steals, but so does Baron Davis, and so did Smush Parker. Can anyone seriously watch last night's game and think, wow those two superstars really battled it out? You mean Kobe and Pargo? And since stats can't tell the whole story, it should come down to the intangibles of Leadership, Indomitable Will, and, I don't know, how about Which Player Strikes The Most Fear Into The Hearts Of His Opponents? (Answer: Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. And KG second.)



If it comes down to this "who is most valuable to his team" nonsense, I might have to go with Lebron James. That Cavs team wouldn't win 20 games without Lebron. But is anyone worried about them on the playoffs? Or the Hornets? It is to laugh. There are three and only three contenders for the championship right now: Celtics, Spurs, and Your Los Angeles Lakers. You feel that fear? It's because we're close.