As easy as it would be for me to sit here and praise Kobe Bryant after his ridiculous Suns-slaying buzzer beater, I’m not going to. I’m going to rave about his teammate Lamar Odom. After all, I owe the guy.

A few days back, in my "Been Like Mike" blog, I lambasted Odom. I referred to him as a Scottie Pippen wannabee and said that scoring-wise he “defers more than a timid first date.” Today, during the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game Four victory over the Phoenix Suns, Odom did anything but defer. He scored 25 points on 7-of-16 shooting. Normally a poor free throw shooter, he even stepped his game up from the line and hit 11-of-14 free throws. It was Kobe who, as usual, delivered the clutch heroics, but make no mistake about it—The Lakers would have lost this game without the inspired play of Odom.

Lakers Head Coach Phil Jackson playoff strategy has been for Kobe to distribute the ball more often and his teammates to be more aggressive. This strategy has paid dividends for Odom more than anyone, especially with Jackson entrusting Odom with a large share of the ball-handling duties. With the Lakers sticking to Jackson’s game plan, Odom also added 8 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a block. He played tremendous defense while showing more versatility than James Bond’s Aston Martin. Odom even outplayed Mr. Versatility himself, Suns F Boris Diaw.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I saw something today. I saw more than just a bunch of stragglers being carried by the best coach and the best player in basketball. I saw Lamar Odom playing Scottie Pippen to Kobe Bryant’s Michael Jordan. They play of this dynamic duo gave its Laker teammates a huge lift. Luke Walton suddenly looked like Toni Kukoc. Kwame Brown showed shades of Horace Grant (well, at least shades of Harvey Grant). Smush Parker, Sasha Vujacic, Devean George and Brian Cook also contributed. If Odom continues this type of play the Lake Show can make some serious noise in these playoffs.

Kobe Bryant has been here for ten years. He has won three NBA Championships. He has won scoring titles. He scored the second most points in a NBA game ever (81). At this point, forty-point outbursts seem almost routine. He has made the All-NBA First Team and All-Defensive First Team multiple times. Defensively, he can be mentioned in the same breath as modern shutdown artists Bruce Bowen, Ben Wallace and Ron Artest. Offensively, he has no peers. The jerseys of his equals hang in the rafters. Wilt Chamberlain. Michael Jordan. The list pretty much stops there. His ability to hit big shots in the clutch is rivaled by only Jerry West, Larry Bird, Jordan and Reggie Miller. He is climbing to the top of that list.

Most recently, he averaged 35 freakin’ points per game this season while leading a Scottie Pippen wannabee and a group of vagabonds to the playoffs. Actually, it looks like he might take them deep into the playoffs. Western Conference Finals deep. Heck, even the Finals aren't out of the question.

It’s clear to me now: we messed up. For years we’ve been looking for the next Michael Jordan. There was Harold Minor. Then there was Grant Hill. Next was Jerry Stackhouse. Then Vince Carter. Now, there is LeBron James and even Dwayne Wade. None of those guys are truly like Mike. Yes, LeBbron James is an amazing player. However, he just doesn’t have the drive and killer instinct requisite to become the true Air Apparent. That is Kobe Bean Bryant, who has been here this whole time. For ten years.

The MVP Debate

Damn. We’ve crowned the wrong King. We’ve selected the wrong MVP. We’ve slept on Kobe Bryant. We’ve been hitting the snooze button over and over again so that we can keep dreaming about LeBron’s trademark smile and Steve Nash’s flowing brown locks. Meanwhile, the alarm has been loud and clear—“I’m Kobe Bryant. The best basketball player in the World. Period.”

Why is this? Does the basketball world shun Kobe because of the sexual assault trial where he was essentially vindicated? Or is it because he grew up silver-spoon-in-mouth as a professional basketball player’s son? Maybe it’s because he plays for the often-loved, more-often-hated Lakers. Or maybe even because of the general perception that it was him and not Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak and Owner Jerry Buss that punched Shaquille O’Neal’s ticket out of Tinseltown (For the record, this was the right move. Shaq is overweight, past his prime, and is no longer the 40-20 Shaq). Maybe it’s Kobe’s intense demeanor and loner style that prevent him from being a media darling.

Whatever the reason may be, the man is not being paid his proper dues. Kobe Bryant is the best player in the NBA, the King of the Court, and the rightful MVP.

Go ahead and call him selfish. Call him a ballhog. You would hang on to the ball too if you were playing alongside a journeyman named Smush, the erratic Lamar Odom, Chris Mihm, and the soon-to-be bust of the decade Kwame Brown. Kobe doesn’t just put up numbers. He also commands the ball when the game is in the balance. He routinely shuts down the other team’s best perimeter player. He takes over games and often wills his overmatched team to victory.

Doesn't he look shocked?

Do Jordan’s so-called heir James and MVP Nash do all of these things? No.

First off, both of these guys are turnstiles defensively. Nash’s defense is similar to that of a bad guy in an Ah-nold movie—stand there flat-footed and let the opposition shoot at will. James’ defense isn’t much better. Sure, he has all the athletic tools, but he doesn’t have the drive, the grit necessary to become a stopper. He’s more concerned with his “King James” ad-campaign and putting up triple-doubles. His lazy defense also enables his teammates to follow his lead. Both Nash’s Suns and James’ Cavaliers play lousy defense. Phoenix is the third-worst team in the league defensively and anyone who has watched Cleveland play (which is everyone, the NBA, Nike and ESPN are shoving James down our throats) knows that they can’t dig in and gets stops either. Kobe’s Lakers rate 15th defensively, but play exceptional team defense and get stops when they are needed. This is a reflection of Kobe’s influence. His toughness and shear determination rub off on his teammates.

Secondly, while both Nash and James are offensive studs that make everyone around them better, they do not take over games like Kobe does. As James’ ad-campaign would put it, we were all “witness” to this in Game Two of each players First Round Playoff series.

At home in Game One LeBron James put up a triple-double and protected his team’s homecourt advantage. In the more crucial Game Two contest he allowed Caron Butler and the rest of the Wizards to intimidate him and played softer than Charmin toilet paper. Not only did he not have the “Eye of the Tiger” (look into Kobe’s, any of the Detroit Pistons Starter’s, or Manu Ginobli’s eyes to see this), but also he looked lethargic at times. Gilbert Arenas outplayed him and the Wizards won Game Two and stole homecourt advantage from the Cavs.

Nash and his Suns also protected homecourt against Bryant’s Lakers in Game One. However, Nash came up short in Game Two. The very day that Nash was named MVP over Kobe – and you have to know that this made Bryant’s blood boil – Kobe stole homecourt advantage away from the Suns on their own floor. He didn’t do it with fifty points, either. He did it by looking more like Magic Johnson than Kobe Bryant; putting up 29 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Those are numbers you’d expect from James, who was too busy going a paltry 7-25 from the field in his team’s crucial game. Kobe even put the game away in emphatic fashion. In the fourth quarter he nearly jumped over Nash on a dunk that distanced his Lakers from the Suns and put an exclamation point on a sentence that’s on the tip of all of our tongues – Kobe is the real MVP!

Finally, and this is my true definition of MVP, take each player away from his respective team for the entire duration of last season. After doing that how would each team fare? This is entirely subjective, but ask yourself this question and I am guessing that you will reach a similar conclusion.

Remove Nash from Phoenix and the Suns still have a top-ten talent in Shawn Marion. Raja Bell is one of the NBA’s most underrated players. Kurt Thomas gives the Suns a guy that can shoot, rebound and defend down low. James Jones and Boris Diaw were two guys that, if you watched closely last year, were ready to break out. Eddie House accumulates points like he was playing pinball. Leandro Barbosa may be the best back-up point guard in basketball. Tim Thomas is playing like an All-Star. Without Nash, the Suns still have considerable talent. My guess is that they would’ve battled the Sacramento Kings for the eighth Playoff spot out West.

Take James out of the equation in Cleveland and you still have two All-Stars in Larry Hughes and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Flip Murray is a playmaking guard that could crack any coach’s rotation in the league. Donyell Marshall is a talented veteran big man with a penchant for the long ball. Damon Jones and Eric Snow form an above-average point guard platoon. Drew Gooden can be a beast on the boards. Add in Anderson Varejao, Luke Jackson, Sasha Pavlovic and Alan Henderson and the Cavs still have a very capable squad. Without Lebron this team is basically the Milwaukee Bucks, the eight-seeded Playoff team out East.

Pull Kobe Bryant off the Lakers and you have a huge mess. The Lakers go-to scorer would be Odom, who defers more than a timid first date. The rest of the team would be Brian Cook, Mihm, Brown, Smush Parker, Luke Walton, Devean George, Sasha Vujacic and two washed-up veterans in Aaron Mckie and Jim Jackson. Not a very imposing group. This team would have been the Portland Trailblazers with Lamar Odom playing Darius Miles. Actually, the Lakers would have been worse. At least the Blazers had a low-post presence in Zach Randolph.

Add all this up and it is easy to see why Kobe Bryant should be the 2005-06 NBA MVP. He is more like Mike than LBJ (down to even the tongue, scowl and off-the-court problems), and is a “King” on anyone’s court, especially his own. There is no doubt in my mind that when you remove all of the extracurricular garbage Kobe Bryant is left standing as the most indpensable, unstoppable player in the entire NBA. The problem is that everyone would rather keep hitting snooze. Well, my snooze button is off and I hear the alarm. Kobe Bryant is the best basketball player in the world. He’s been here for ten years and we still don’t see it… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…