Black Mamba has only one Regular Season MVP? That’s crazy!
By: Paolo Manuel C. Fule
The NBA Regular Season MVP is one of the most
prestigious awards or recognition in the world of basketball and one of the barometers of an athlete’s
greatness. But as puzzling as it seems, one of the most decorated NBA players
of all time—Kobe Bryant-- has only one Maurice Podoloff trophy. Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar holds the record for the most number of Maurice Podoloff trophies
with six, followed by His Airness Michael Jordan and Bill Russell with five
each. Lebron James already has four in his career, while Magic Johnson, Larry
Bird, and Moses Malone have three each. Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, and Steve Nash
have two, while Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose have won
one each.
Yet Kobe Bryant only has a single NBA regular
season MVP trophy around his much decorated name. The Black Mamba is a five
time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers, having won a three-peat with
recently retired Shaquille O’ Neal in 2000, 2001 and 2002, and a back-to-back
championship in 2009 and 2010 against the Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics,
respectively.
Born Kobe Bean Bryant August 23, 1978, he is
an American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association
(NBA). His parents named him after the famous beef of Kobe, Japan, which they saw on a restaurant
menu.
He is a
thirteen-time member of the All-NBA team and eleven-time All-Defensive team, and is the youngest player ever to receive
defensive honors at 18 years old. At the 2008 Olympics,
he won a gold medal as a member of the USA national
team. In 2009, Sporting News and TNT named Bryant the NBA
player of the 2000s decade. We hope that this is not the last
time we are seeing Bryant at his best, and even with just a single regular
season MVP, he still s one of the greatest players in the history of the league.
Truly impressive as the years go by, we want to see him carry his Los Angeles
Lakers to another fruitful NBA playoffs next year, and hopefully, another ring
for the celebrated career of my idol player, the one… the only… Kobe Bryant.
Email
the author at: paolomanuelfule@yahoo.com
or text 09184059751