Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike Brown backs Kobe Bryant as MVP – NBA Update
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike Brown certainly knows a thing or two about MVP’s.
He was the man in-charge when LeBron James won two consecutive at Cleveland Cavaliers and this season, he is coaching Kobe Bryant, the leading scorer in NBA so far this season. However, Bryant’s name is nowhere to be seen in the
race to MVP and that has not gone down well will Brown.
"He definitely should be involved in the MVP talks," Brown said. "I think it's hilarious that he's not. You talk about everything new in a shortened season and everybody saying he's 85 years old or whatever they're saying and he's
leading the league in scoring.”
Bryant has had an eventful season so far. He started off with many questions hanging over the effectiveness of the innovative procedure on his troubled knee. That went well but soon he injured his wrist and many believe that he
should have gone through with a surgery on that. But, being Kobe, he played through pain and ensured that the Lakers do not derail early in the season.
The wrist injury was however not the only testament of his unbreakable will. In the All-Star game, the Black Mamba suffered a broken nose and concussion like symptoms after being hard fouled by Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade. Yet two
days later, Kobe was back, albeit in a protective mask, to lead his team, which honestly has gone through many changes in the last four months or so.
Phil Jackson is no longer there to mentor him, Lamar Odom got traded to the Dallas Mavericks, Pau Gasol has not been in his own courtesy of trade rumours and to make the matters worse, impact players like Metta World Peace and
Matt Carroll have been disappointing. In the midst of all the crisis, Bryant has been the lone man fighting and has literally been the backbone of the Lakers offense. More importantly, he has helped Brown is settling down.
"It's everything," Brown said. "I mean, Who plays with the injuries that he's played with? Who puts up the numbers that he puts up? Who goes through the amount of changes that have happened to his team in the shortened season?
Nobody. Name one person that has played with the injuries and done what he's done in the history of the game. Not in the last four years or three years, in the history of the game."
Bryant is presently averaging 28.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game, but in last ESPN rating, his name was at a low 7. At the moment the MVP race is a two way battle with LeBron James - 27.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, 6.8
assists and 1.8 steals per game - and Kevin Durant – 28.1 points, 7.9 rebound and 3.3 dimes. The two small forwards also hold the edge because they are not the lone superstars in their respective teams and putting up these numbers is not as easy as it is for
Bryant.
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