What a Night!! Kobe Bryant puts on MVP Performance

Thursday, May 08, 2008

What a Night!! Kobe Bryant puts on MVP Performance

It was a great night in San Pedro, California, where I settled in with friends and fellow laker fans to watch David Stern give the MVP Trophy to the Best Player in the game; ... there was talk of past MVP award winners and how their teams, often caught up in the jubilation of the moment would be so excited that they would end up having a bad game; Often MVP's lose the same night they get the trophy; Same thing happens on Opening Night when the Champions get their Rings from the previous season; But Not Kobe Bryant.

It's a great day after too - The newspapers' sports sections are jumping with Stories about the Lakers, about Kobe - the hope is in the air, and everyone can feel it; Is this team good enough to win ... This year??

If Kobe keeps playing like he's been playing, and most importantly if his team mates keep playing like They've been playing, I dont see a team who can stop the Lakers from bringing home what is rightfully theirs; The Larry O'Brien Trophy.

This is a good start though; Kobe really put on a show last night; He made about 5 incredible shots; I used to really love watching Jordan play... but it seems like Kobe's in-the-game highlight reel is often Unreal.

There is something in Sports called "addition by subtraction" - Kobe has always been a great player; but his Team was not always great. This year two Great Subtractions took place for the Lakers. They Dropped Smush Parker, an obvious cancer to the team, with a piss poor attitude about everything - if he was having a bad game, his sour faces and play would infect others on the team; I think he pissed Kobe off tremendously;

Then you have the ill-fated career of Kwame Brown - what a sad story this is gonna be; You all know he's done playing right? After this year, no team is going to sign him; I at least hope no GM out there is foolish enough to do that; If so, give me his job please. Now ... Kwame Brown's leaving was just as good as Pau Gasol's arriving. Even when Kwame was injured the Lakers were immediately a better team; The guy was just sad, and like with Smush, his terrible play would often cause others on the team to play bad also.

It's infectious, this game of basketball; When it's going good for a player, the crowd feels it, they yell, they scream, and the other players on the team can feel it, it motivates them, focuses them, and next thing you know they're making shots and making plays, and as Stu Lance always says, it's a game of Emotion, a Game of Runs, and a Game of MOmentum.

So in that light, you can understand why having a BAD player on your team, can really effect your team - A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Replacing those weak links with Pau Gasol, and Derrick Fisher doesn't hurt either; D. Fish Is the Lakers; He won 3 Championships here; He knows what Phil wants out there on the court from his Point Gaurd, and he's transferred that knowledge to Sasha and Jordan Farmar.

For the Lakers this year, it's been both Addition by Addition, as well as Addition by Subtraction. Let's see how they do in Utah... usually in the playoffs home court Does play a role in how the game goes; the crowd really gets the home team going; but something tells me the MVP will not be worried about that; To quote Kobe from his post game press conference last night ... "It's just noise."