좀 슬픈 글: 코비가 MVP를 못받는 이유

[거북이의 힘!]

Why Kobe won't win the MVP

---

By Scoop Jackson
Page 2

Last week, my partner in crime wrote a column about how uncomfortable she will be when Kobe Bryant receives the 2008 MVP award. Well, no disrespect to Jemele (Ms. Hill to those of us who know her), but Kobe Bryant will not win the MVP this year. And if recent history proves consistent, he might finish behind Alonzo Mourning in the voting.

	Kobe Bryant is to the MVP what Ralph Nader is to the presidency.

Truth is Kobe Bryant will never win the MVP of the league. He is hated too much. Hated by those who cast votes. Hated too much by those he plays against. And the two All-Star Game MVPs he's won, well, they don't count in this scenario. Voting Kobe as the best basketball player in the world for a day is one thing, honoring him with that same title for an entire season … in the infamous words of Bobby Brown's ex-wife: "Oh, hell to the No!"


Writers won't honor Kobe like that, not even when in good consciousness they want to or would like to. As one writer said to me when the subject was brought up in conversation, very apropos for an election year, "Kobe's electability quotient is zero." In other words, he's Ralph Nader.


How is hate justified? Easy, by being consistent. Which is why this year will be no different than the past two. Because if we are honest (and this goes to Jemele's point), if we look at what Kobe Bryant has done in the past two seasons without winning the MVP, there should be no way he can win it this year. Which leads us back to the hate: A man averages 35.4 ppg, the eighth-highest average in the history of the league; he gives you 5.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.8 steals; he has 27 games of 40-plus points, has one month where he averages 43.4 ppg, scores 81 in one game and outscores an entire team in another (the 62-point game against Dallas where he sat out the fourth quarter); he is on the all-defensive first team (something not one of the other players in the MVP running is included on); and he leads a CBA-built team to the playoffs. The man has a season that no one is likely to see for another generation and he comes in fourth in the MVP voting that year.


That same man, the very next year, averages 31.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.4 steals for the "fedora trick"; he has 10 games of 50-plus points, only the second person in NBA history to do so in a single season (including a four-in-a-row stretch that hadn't been seen in more than 20 years); he makes the all-defensive first team again; and this time he takes a YBA-built squad to the playoffs. In a season that many claim is more "complete" than the season before, the man this time comes in third in the MVP voting.


How bad is it for Kobe? In a 2004-05 season in which Kobe averaged 27.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 6.0 assists, P.J. Brown -- yes, you read right -- received more MVP votes than he did, and Brown received only one vote. How many games did the Hornets win that year? 18.


(And it's not just the sportswriters. In that never-to-be-seen-again 2005-06 season, the GMs around the league, who have their own MVP voting, had Bryant fifth on their ballots.)


And nothing is going to make this season any different.

	Kobe Bryant finished behind P.J. Brown in the 2004-05 MVP voting. Yes, you read that correctly.

So yes, there is an "earned the right" clause that goes on in all MVP voting, just as there is that same "clause" that exists in all professions and walks of life. But it will not apply to Kobe Bryant. Not this year or any other year. He's not Denzel, and this isn't "Training Day." And although there are those who say that Kobe is in a different place now, that the world does not "resent" him the way that it did, that the Colorado incident is behind him and that the Kobe who wears No. 24 is different than the one who wore No. 8, their delusion will only make the situation worse. For it brings false hope. In sticking with the Academy Awards analogy: Kobe Bryant is Martin Scorsese … before "The Departed."


So the reality is this: As nice -- and I mean nice in a This-dude-is-on-some-beyond-Steve-Nash level -- as Chris Paul's game has been all season long (his full name during broadcasts and highlight shows has become "MVP candidate Chris Paul") his season can't compare to Kobe's past two. Yes, he's elevated his team to a height that no one expected, but can you name one player on the Lakers (not including Kobe) over the past three years who is as good or has played as well as David West has this season? Hell, name one who has played as well as Peja Stojakovic or Tyson Chandler.


Plus how will the voters justify not giving CP3 the MVP in a season when his numbers are better than Nash's were the two seasons he got back-to-back MVPs? Paul's 21.5 points, 11.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 2.5 turnovers are better in totality than the 15.5, 11.5, 3.4, 1.0 and 3.3 Nash put up in 2004-05 and the 18.8, 10.5, 4.2, 0.8 and 3.5 he posted during the 2005-06 season. And CP's team is in position to do what Nash's team did when he came back to Phoenix: earn the top seed in the West.


So if Nash won 62 games and the West in '05-06 with inferior numbers to Paul's, how does the league not give Paul the award if his team wins 60 and has the best record in the West? And trust, CP3's electability is off the charts compared to Kobe's. His MVP approval rating is sic, while Kobe's is sick. So Chris, congrats, enjoy the Maurice Podoloff. The voters love you.


And that's not necessarily because of who CP (or KG if you want to toss him into this conversation) is as much as it is because of who Kobe is: the "8" they love to hate. Someone less understood than a villain, and someone for whom those who vote have less tolerance when it comes to separating what he does from who he is. It's the same reason why upon eligibility into the Hall of Fame, Roger Clemens will receive more first-ballot votes than Barry Bonds. It will have more to do with how much more Roger was/is/remains beloved than Barry by those who will have the power to vote them into immortality than it will race or the level of crime either one committed while playing.


Is it right? Fair? Impartial? No. It's life. And for Kobe, it's become his life.


In sports, in the end, whether we want to acknowledge it honestly or not, athletes put their legacies in the hands of those who have the power to hate them. And in those situations, what they do on the court or field, whether we are talking MVP or Hall of Fame (or Oscars), what they do takes a backseat to who they are. Their careers become a popularity contest, a "likability" raffle lying in wait for the hate to die. Which it never really does. And in the past five years in professional sports, no athlete (with the exception of maybe Bonds or T.O.) has been more hated and hated on than Kobe Bryant.


Don't believe me? Watch what happens when he doesn't win the MVP … again.


Scoop Jackson is a columnist for Page 2.

번역하기엔 좀 길군요 ;;

[황산벌99]

방문/ 읽을수 없어 슬픈글이네요

[laker for life]

크하하하하하하!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[No.3 Ariza]

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 심각한데 ㅠㅠ

[kidd the best]

푸하하하ㅏ하하하하ㅏㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ 죄송합니다 .. 웃으면 안되는데..ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ

[laker for life]

번역하기엔 좀 길군요...무책임하세요 거북님 ㅎㅎ

[[LAL]크리스밈]

헐.. 정말 내용중에 있는 코비는 리그에서 제일 미움받는 선수고, 싫어하는 선수에게 MVP표를 주지는 않을 것이다. 그것이 올시즌만이 아니라 코비의 앞으로의 커리어에서도 절대 MVP를 받을 수 없는 이유다란 내용은...-_- 에혀... 불쌍한 코비네요.

[Make & Take It]

대충 정리해보자면: 지난 2시즌간 코비는 리그 역사상 길이 남을 기록을 세웠음에도 불구하고 MVP 투표에서 각각 4위, 3위를 기록했으며 이것은 곧 올해 코비가 MVP 받을 가능성이 없음을 시사한다. 04-05 시즌엔 PJ 브라운이 코비보다 더 많은 표를 얻었는데 그 때 PJ 가 받은 MVP표는 1표, 그가 속한 호넷츠는 십팔승 했다. 폴이 호넷츠를 아무도 예상치 못한 순위에 올려놓은 것은 인정하나 지난 3년동안 코비의 팀메이트들 중에 데이빗 웨스트, 아니 페이자나 챈들러 만큼 활약한 선수가 있었는가? 그리고 올해 만약 폴에 MVP 를 받지 못한다면 더 낮은 스탯을 기록하고도 2년 연속 MVP 수상한 내쉬 케이스는 어떻게 설명하겠는가?

[Make & Take It]

때문에 이번 시즌 MVP는 CP3 가 될 것이며 코비보다 투표자들에게 사랑받을 폴에게 먼저 축하의 말을 건낸다. 코비가 악역으로서 인정받지 못하는 건 마치 로저가 베리 본즈보다 HOF에서 더 많은 표를 받을 것과 같은 이치이며 이것은 실력과 관계없이 로저가 베리보다 얼마나 더 사랑받는지에 관한 것이다. 이것이 공평한가? 아니다, 하지만 이것이 현실이고 코비의 현실로 다가오고 있다. 현실적으로 MVP던 HOF던 (오스카던) 그들이 무엇을 이루었나보단 그들이 누구인지에 대한 평가가 먼저이고 그들의 커리어는 인기 컨테스트가 되어가고 있는 것이다.

[kb24-cho]

근데 코비가 mvp를 받아야 하는 이유를 쓴 글도 많습니다...

[HaBeFuN]

폴좋아하는놈은 폴 옹호하고, 코비좋아하면 코비옹호하고 이건 당연하죠. 그리고 이 칼럼니스트는 약간 뻘소리하는거 같네요.. 그냥 결과로 가르켜주면 되는겁니다.

[▒Jumping_Up＊KOBE＊]

나는 코비가 싫다를 삐이이이이잉 둘러서 말하네요 ㅋㅋ

[거북이의 힘!]

차라리 MVP를 안받으면 Final MVP를 받겠다며 플옵내내 분코모드를 볼수도 있겠군요. 후훗

[브라이언트(리브스)]

근데 코비를 왜 싫어하는지 이해를 못하겠네요...

[[LAL]trashtalk]

Scoop Jackson이 얘기하는 건 코비가 못 받는 이유를 나열한것이라기 보다는, MVP시상의 맹점을 꼬집는겁니다...결국 MVP는 최고기량상이 아니라, 최고 인기상이라는 얘기고, 그러기엔 코비가 너무 안티가 많다는 얘기...역시 Scoop Jackson...비판력 좋군요, 예전 Slam객원편집장일때도 좋았는데...

[천사 가을]

방문) 코비가 아무리 잘해도 절대 투표하지않을것이다 라고 대놓고 지껄이는 인간들이 투표권을 지니고 있는데요 성적 이런건 핑게일뿐이죠 우승만 했으면 좋겟네요