Accepting the MVP

Got a chance to attend the Most Valuable Player trophy presentation of a one Mr. Kobe Bryant yesterday. A whole host of media were there and after Stu Lanz introduced everyone, Phil spoke, followed by Alex Fedorak the KIA Motors public relations director (who presented the trophy to Kobe) and then Mr. Bryant himself. After Kobe said his piece, the media was allowed to ask some questions. The most refreshing part about the whole thing was how much he gushed over the camaraderie he shares with his teammates. Some of the highlights of the question and answer included a question by yours truly as well as one by Luke Walton, Kobe busting out a little Spanish, and his mention of Shaq and Mitch Kupchak.

On a quick side note, during the beginning of the press conference, Phil Jackson had this to say about his star guard: “Let me tell you that I don’t know anyone who deserves it more, who’s ever deserved this trophy more, anybody who has ever worked this hard to accomplish what he’s accomplished in this game as Kobe has.”

W-w-whaa? Didn’t he coach Michael Jordan…A Phil motivation ploy or his honest-to-god opinion? Only the Zenmeister knows.

Okay, let’s start with Kobe’s mini acceptance speech.

Kobe: I don’t know what to say to be honest with you. I think that this is such a blessing and such an honor to be here, and to receive this award. I can go through a list of thank yous starting with my family. They have enabled me to be the best that I can be by training everyday, they give up so much, sacrifice so much for me to be able to train and focus on games. I’m just very honored and blessed for them to be there, see my kids sitting in the front row, my agent Rob Pelinka and my friends and my teammates, the man who brought me here Jerry West. I mean, this is a beautiful day. A very special day for me. And I’m just deeply honored to be here. I couldn’t have won this award without the play of my teammates. This is a team award, this is a team award. This isn’t an award that I could have won alone. If that was the case, I would have won it when I was averaging 40 (laughs). This gets done because we all do it as a unit. So I can’t thank these guys enough. These are my guys, these are my brothers and we have one MVP. I want to thank everybody for coming out and let’s get ready for tomorrow.

The Q&A.

Q, Jim Hill: I’d like for you to talk about how emotional you are today, considering everything that you’ve gone through this past year.

Kobe: To be perfectly honest with you, I’m nervous right now and I don’t really get nervous. I’m nervous, this has been one hell of a year. Starting with the summer and then coming into training camp, us being able to make improvements and play the way that we played and to watch the development of our younger players, watch us step into that new level and then ultimately winning the western conference, it’s been an emotional rollercoaster. It’s been a heck of a journey, like I said earlier, I’m fortunate and lucky to go through this with guys that I enjoy. That we all get along and have this great chemistry and unity and it’s made it all worth while. 

Q: When you look over your career with all the rings and scoring titles, where would this rank among all your accomplishments, your rings included?

Kobe: There’s nothing like winning a championship. I think the special thing about this award is that we have done it together. I can’t stress upon you enough, this is not an individual award. This is us playing as a unit. These guys make me look better than I actually am. Because they improved in the summer. They became better basketball players. They did that work. And in return, it’s given me the opportunity to stand here in front of you and accept the MVP, but I couldn’t have done it without them.

Q: How did you first respond when you heard that you had won and what are you going to do with the trophy?

Kobe: We all just kind of had a laugh about it at our team dinner, and um, we kind of joked about it, ribbed each other about it, then I picked up the tab (media laughter), due to all the pressure, the peer pressure. We just had a good time, but I was extremely excited. 

This is when Luke Walton raised his hand. Kobe laughs and says not to give him the mic.

Luke Walton: Mr. Bryant, congratulations first of all.

Kobe: First of all, don’t ask me a question like your dad would ask me a question (media laughter).

Luke: Since you say that you couldn’t have won this award without your teammates, will you be getting them any sorts of gifts?

Kobe: (laughing) See, you know what, that’s a typical spoiled athlete nowadays. Whatever happened to a handshake and a pat on the back? An ‘At a boy.’ You know I will.

Q, Bill Plashcke: Looking back, would you have handled anything differently last summer seeing how it’s all turned out, or did you think it was necessary to get to where you’re at today.

Kobe: No, I was right the whole time. I’m joking (media laughing). I think there are a lot of things that I would have done differently. I think what should be said, and I don’t really want to say, but I’m going to say it anyway. We have to give a lot of credit to Mitch Kupchak. For the simple fact that he’s put together a great team, he’s made an incredible trade, several incredible trades, he drafted extremely well and he’s put us in this position, helped put us in this position to contend for a championship. You have to take your hats off, give credit where credit is due, as well as Jerry Buss, and we just kind of went on from there.
Here, Tex Winter gets the mic and Kobe jokingly says, “Who invited all these guys.”

Tex Winter: Kobe, I always wanted to ask you this, and this is an opportune time. How do you like the triangle?

Kobe: I love it Tex. In all honesty, but people don’t know, when Phil and his staff first came here, Tex and I used to spend a lot, a lot of time together breaking down film. He as well as Phil and the rest of the coaches are responsible for my evolution as a basketball player and seeing the game differently than I think most of my peers view it or interpret it. You know, I call him Master Yoda for a reason. I love the triangle Tex. It gives us so many options. It’s so versatile. It’s so fluid. It’s tough for teams to lock in. And when you’ve got as great of passers on a team as we do it’s even more of a beautiful game to play, more of a beautiful offense to run. So I really do love it.

Tex: Thank you (laughter).

Q: You  have referred to this season as a journey quite often, how would you refer to the past six or seven months and how high can this journey continue?

Kobe: Well, this is Hollywood, it’s a movie script and the perfect ending would for us to be holding that championship trophy at the end. I believe we have a lot of basketball ahead of ourselves and we’re going to stay focused on that. We’re going to push it and push it all the way to June.

Q: How disappointed would you have been if you had not gotten this award after this spectacular season that you’ve had?

Kobe: Not really disappointed. To be honest I really didn’t expect to win it anyway. To be honest with you, I didn’t think this award would ever come to me in my career. I was just resigned to the fact that it wasn’t going to happen. My focus has always been us winning a championship and going from there. I’m just surprised and deeply honored to be standing here having won an MVP. So I don’t know how disappointed I would have been. I wasn’t really expecting it.

That last question was asked by somebody from Univision. The next question was asked in Spanish by a woman from channel 22 and I’m not exactly sure word for word what the question is, but Kobe answers her in Spanish.

Q: Por que no compandos con ellos y con todo pais…

Kobe: Where’s Pau when I need him (laughter). Hey amigo. Soy muy feliz. Quiero decir gracias a todos mis amigos, todos mis fans, que Los Angeles, que “supported me” (laughter). It’s Spanglish.

He then turned to Pau and said, “You should have written me a cheat sheet.” Pau, smiling, shrugs.

Q: Would you like to be a Laker for the rest of your career. Can you say that now.

Kobe: I would like to absolutely.

He got a round of applause for that answer.

Q: What’s been your biggest difference as a player this season as opposed to other years.

Kobe: It’s just been how well we’ve played as a team to be honest with you. We’ve gelled, I think we’ve just clicked. We have a great team. The development of our younger players and the trades that we’ve made have taken us to another level. I mean, it’s made my game look better. There’s no other way to put it. I’ve played well in other seasons and our team wasn’t as good, but we didn’t have the group of players that we have now. These guys are genuine professionals, they work hard. Things just kind of fell into place. We just went from there.

Q: What have you learned about yourself in terms of patience, perseverance, trusting other people, and maybe, out of dark and despair you never know how close that ring really is?

Kobe: I think the thing that’s important is training camp rolls around and the season begins, for us to have one track, one focus and that’s winning a championship. So no matter all the talk that went around or that was swirling around our team, we managed to stay focused on one thing. And I think that’s a lesson to be learned in terms of no matter what might be going on outside of your unit, once you bunker down, you’ve gotta be focused on one goal and prove it as a team and win that championship at the end then you can accomplish great things.

Q: For years we’ve heard the fans chant MVP when you’re at the foul line. What’s that going to mean tomorrow night when you’re actually the MVP?

Kobe: It’ll feel more special. It’ll feel more special. I don’t know how I’ll feel, I get goose bumps just thinking about it. It’s been a long ride coming here when I was 17 years old. Now I’m standing here, almost 30, I’m an old man. I have tendonitis, stuff like that. I’ve just been through the wars in front of all these people here. I’m very proud to represent this organization, to represent this city, to be MVP.

Q: I know the task at hand is the Utah Jazz, but how sweet would it be to have a Boston/L.A. final.

Kobe: I’m sorry, but I’m going to give you the standard Phil Jackson answer. We just go day to day. That’s all we do. That’s our motto.

And then we come to my Question. Yeah!

Q: Hi, Jordan Ikeda from the L.A. Japanese Daily News. Being ever the perfectionist, what are you going to look to do this offseason to shore up the MVP award for you next year?

Kobe: I have no idea. My mission is to stop Pau from winning a gold medal (laughter). That’s one on my list. Other than that, I don’t know. That’s my focus this summer. I love you man (to Pau).

Q: Talk about being compared to Lakers players who have won the MVP award in Magic, Kareem and Shaq…

Kobe: I think what’s different about the Lakers franchise, I mean, you talk about the great players of the franchise, they’re not just great players who wore a Lakers uniform, you’re talking about some of the greatest of all time. You’ve got Kareem, Shaq, Magic, James Worthy, Wilt Chamberlain, Gail Goodrich, Jerry West—these are some of the greatest to ever play. Anytime you are mentioned in the same breath with any of them, it’s an honor beyond comprehension. Cuz like I said, they’re not just greats within the organization, they’re some of the greatest of all time.

Q: You are a very hard worker, where do you get that from? Your drive?

Kobe: You know, it’s fun for me. I don’t look at it as work. I enjoy it. I enjoy the preparation, I enjoy the work. I enjoy the weight lifting, I enjoy the running. I enjoy all of that stuff. It’s fun to me. It’s pretty easy to go out and do it when you enjoy it.

The most telling part for me is how amiable the guy is in real life. On television, you see him give these same answers during after-game interviews and they somehow seem almost robotic. Here, he was more natural. On T.V. you also see him cursing out the refs, talking trash to other players (yeah, you J.R. Smith) and completely focused and intense during games. He's out for blood. Here, he was just enjoying himeslf.

The part I liked best about the whole ceremony was when Lamar Odom came in decked out in a mish-mash Lakers jacket and a hat (looking stylish as usual). He was a little bit late, just into Stu's opening speech. He sat down, slapped hands with Pau and said his "What's ups" to the rest of the team. Kobe was up on the stage sitting next to Phil. One of his daughters must have been waving to him because he was smiling and waving back at her in the front row mouthing father-to-daughter words.

He then looked up over at his teammates and noticed that Lamar was there and flashed a huge grin winking at him, like he was thanking him for being there. And Odom smiled back, nodded and pointed, almost as if he was saying "No worries, I got you Kobe."

And that's what's different about this year's Kobe and last. That's why the Lakers are going to win it all this year.

But first, game 2 against the Jazz tonight.