Kobe Bryant, Your 2007-2008 MVP

Congrats to Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers for getting his first MVP award. While the MVP race was very close down the strectch between Kobe and Chris Paul, I believe that Kobe's team record and his "lifetime achievement" ultimately pushed him over the edge. Unlike some of his detractors, I do believe that Kobe deserves the MVP based on his performance THIS YEAR alone. But, I also believe that Chris Paul was certainly deserving as well, thus if he would have won I would have no complaints whatsoever. Here are his stats for this season:

PPG: 28.3
FG%: .459
3pt%: .361
FT&: .840
RPG: 6.3
APG: 5.4

SPG: 1.8

BPG: 0.5

While his stats aren't quite as impressive as his previous years, his leadership ability has improved tremendously. He is more trusting of his teammates hitting opens shots that in years past. That is the main reason, to me, why he deserves to be the MVP. Others may argue that Kevin Garnett and Lebron James should have won the MVP. While KG did play on the team with the league's best record, he did play in the Eastern Conference. What would the Lakers, Hornets, or Spurs records be if they were in the Eastern Conference? Some argue that Lebron James should win it simply because they believe that he is the best player in the league. I don't think that criteria should be used, since Michael Jordan would have won the MVP at least 10 times. Plus, the debate of whether or not if Lebron is better than Kobe is a totally different debate, a topic I broke down in a previous post here. Lebron James also put up some of the most historically impressive stats. But based on the statistical criteria, Kobe should have won it the last couple of years. For the past 20 years, no MVP was awarded to a player who played on a team that won less than 50 games. Are the writers going to break that trend and all of a sudden award the MVP to Lebron? I would definitely like to hear some of your opinions of the results of the MVP voting.