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IMO it's a pretty bad article, and now that I see Ventre wrote it, that shouldn't surprise me.

Bottom-line here; Bryant won MVP this season because, based on the flawed criteria voters use in voting for MVP, Kobe was the best player on the best team in the league, with KG not getting it due to novelty (got his in 04) and Paul not getting it because Kobe is more established. It had nothing to do with Kobe "finally getting it for the first time" as Ventre claims. A guard who was a 1st option facilitator and option 1b/2nd as a scorer on 3 consecutive championship teams can't possibly have not "gotten it" while still having the results he had. It's revisionist history at its worst. You could make the argument that Bryant didn't "get it" the way guys like Magic or Bird "got it", and that would be a fair assessment. Maybe Bryant hasn't reached his potential for "getting it". However, there's essentially little to no way you can successfully argue he never got it. The amount of winning Bryant teams have done suggests he can't possibly have gotten it much better, other than winning 5 consecutive titles, which hasn't been done since the 1960's.

I agree with EHL. That article proves Kobe beat the writers at their own game. They didn't think Kobe could lead a team, and be it's best player. As I've stated before, MVP means nothing. Kobe doesn't need the hater press to crown him king of the court, he does that himself, everytime he plays. This whole MVP fiasco the past few years have been an attempt to change the rules. The year he averaged 35 points, Kobe got 30 fifth place votes. You know why? Because he did it with a big FU attitude that year. An attitude that said you can never say your beloved MJ was a better score. For good measure he scored 81 that year. As a fan of Kobe that was my favorite year from him. It answered all of those questions, of what could he do if Phil let him loose. Well he showed what he could do, he had one of those all-time great seasons. Great seasons like that hardly ever get you the MVP. Voters hate to be flipped off.

In conclusion, "Getting it" means getting better teammates such as Scottie Pippen or Pau Gasol, winning games, and getting individual recognition for it.

Jordanesque.

At this point when I see kobe raise that trophy I can care less what the press and the haters say or if they give him another MVP because the impossible has been accomplished.

I didn't see it as a haters article. Maybe I missed something. It is funny that to get the mvp you really do have to have a great team because you basically have to have the best record and to get that you have to have a great team. Maybe there could be a fluke season were a great player has a crap team and they get the first seed but I doubt it.
They say they give it to the most valuable player to there team but that is just not the case. Kobe has always been the most valuable player to his team since Shaq left. Nobody else could have done what he did espially not Dirk and Nash.
People to vote for mvp should only ask themself 1 question and that is if I had to choice 1 player to start my team judging on this season who would it be? The answer has been Kobe for years.
Jordan-Shaq-Kobe should have at least 5 mvp's a piece and maybe Jordan should have had alot more.