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