Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 1:15 pm  |  25 responses

Polladaday:Did Kobe deserve Finals MVP?

Despite a less than stellar offensive performance, Kobe Bryant received his second straight Finals MVP last night. Kobe graciously acknowledged “the Spaniard” in his acceptance speech, but was it enough?

Did Kobe Bryant deserve the Finals MVP?

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  • http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:OzhW3M1GBSKkgM:http://fashionsensei.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/jackie-moon.jpg Jackie Moon

    Of course he did. Pau played better than Kobe at times, but they were only at the home games. Kobe showed up more consistently. The MVP is for the Series, not just home games.

  • Lawrence

    AMEN

  • http://slamonline.com tina

    I think only Kobe can garner so much hate when winning lol

  • Arek

    ooooo myyyy gawdd

    are you guys serious!?!??

    where was Pao in those 3 games in Boston?

    not to mention pao shot 5/16 last night and he missed so many freethrows in the 4th..

    the fact is we won last night because of a team effort, everybody hit big shots, from fisher, to bryant, to artest, to pao to vujacic at the end with 2 freethrows

    I can’t believe this shit

  • jumpman3224

    co-sign Jackie Moon

  • ATN

    Not a Kobe fan but he is the heart and soul of the Lakers but Pau was the Defibrillator in the Finals. So MVP for the Finals I think could have gone to Pau.

  • http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:OzhW3M1GBSKkgM:http://fashionsensei.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/jackie-moon.jpg Jackie Moon

    FYI – according to Kevin Ding at OCregister, the media vote was 7-2, Kobe vs Pau (how come only 9 people vote? How do they choose?)

  • Jay Cutler

    All I will say is, I hope the morons stop comparing him to Jordan now. CASE CLOSED.

  • http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:OzhW3M1GBSKkgM:http://fashionsensei.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/jackie-moon.jpg Jackie Moon

    @Jay Cutler Maybe so, but the Celtics? KLOSED.

  • http://hoopmixtape.ning.com/ Simon S.Y Lawy

    yeah, Celtics=KLOSED

  • LD

    I like how Bill Russell said he never cared about MVP awards because it was a political award because reporters vote for it. Only championships matter because it’s the only thing in the NBA that you earn. But yet the Finals MVP is named after him.

  • http://www.twitter.com/gerardhimself Gerard Himself

    Absolutely. Gasol was a bit more inconsistent, and although Kobe’s shooting percentage ain’t pretty, his D was there every single game.

  • http://All33sports.blogspot.com Aznballa3

    If anyone was better than kobe, it was ron not pau. Kobe grabbed all those rebounds at the end while pau jus stood there and pau missed waaay too many freethrows.

  • Drew

    Yeah he didn’t play a great game last night in Game 7. He choked bad on offense. However, you can’t discount his defense and his rebounding. Also you have to look at the whole series as a big picture. He’s the leader of the team, he had the overall best stat averages on the team. He’s the clear MVP of the team. Period.

  • Joe

    This is what I learned about Pau’s D. A one-legged KG is too much for him (still), and Sheed one month removed from weighing three hundo is too much for him. Pau’s D is really no better today than three years ago, he’s almost helpless (and hapless) at times. Ron was the MVP of game 7 clearly. But that doesn’t happen if there is no KB24 in games 1-6. How two guys voted for Pau only reaffirms all of the Kobe apologists conpiracy theories.

  • Str8in It Out

    Joe’s lost. I saw KG struggling vs Gasol and the C’s tripling down in the series when he was up against Pau. KG was open on the other end bc he was helping to guard the perimeter when he was playing at the PF if Bynum was on the floor. And no one looked healthy on either team. Injuries are even in the discussion at this point in the season. As long as u cross the finish line, its all good.

  • LA Huey

    Finals MVP to Kobe. Can’t even “play wit it”

  • Ali Saadat

    You also have to take into account that Kobe carried the majority load into the Finals and then had a great series.

  • http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2010/03/paul-pierce-and-the-celtics-hearing-boos/ L

    Thank you very very much Slam for agreeing with me. Pau deserved it more but of course Sternbot wants money so Kobe won it….

  • Lawrence

    @L: i disagree,…kobe deserves the MVP award..and why Pau?! probably the reason why you thought of this because kobe had a poor performance during game 7! Let’s remember that the Lakers were competing with the boston celtics who won the 2008 nba finals against them…they used multiple zone defenses during that time against kobe, and last night if you’ll notice every time kobe dribbles the ball a help def comes…the boston celtics planned that type of defense and it worked well… artest was the MVP of the night.but overall it was still a team effort why the lakers won game 7….

  • Joe

    Str8in It Out – I clearly said Pau’s D. If you think KG was struggling you weren’t watching the rest of the season. KG actually raised his season averages across the board, save for rebounds -1.7 and fg% -.010, in less than two minutes more playing time in the finals. If that’s struggling for a clearly over the hill player after a very long season, and against someone touted as the leagues most skilled big man (in his prime) then you’re right Pau for MVP. BTW everyone saw that after game 2 KG was taking Pau to the rim with regularity, and also I would bet KG had more dunks than Pau in the series too, by OUTRUNNING Pau down the court for lobs, on one good leg!?! And whoever was hurt pau was not. In fact besides Bynum and Kobe no laker was. Lastly when Bynum is on the floor Pau IS the PF. If you’re saying anytime KG ran down the court for a lob he wasn’t on Pau, you’re the one who is lost.

  • http://www.threadsandkicks.com.au Eduardo

    I’m a big Kobe fan but Pau Gasol picked up when Kobe fell short. First two games he shut down KG and collected a lot of rebounds. If he had shot the ball as much as Kobe he would have gotten the points too but the offense and Kobe won’t allow Gasol to get anything close to having over 20 shots per game, even when Kobe is shooting poorly.

  • Double J

    Wow SLAM are you just trying to stir up the pot? I’ve lost some respect for you in putting this poll up. It’s just rediculous to think that Pau deserved it more, go back and look at the footage and stats. This is Kobe’s team and that is Kobe’s award.

  • Randy

    Kobe nuthuggers are unbeleivable. Pau ate Garnett alive in this series and only had one bad game. Pau took only 12 shots a game and averaged over 13 rebounds a game. Kobe took 25 shots a game and actually had two really bad games Game 3 when he shot 10-29 and Game 7 when he went 6-24, monopolized the ball while taking lots of bad shots resulting in 4 errors and just two assists. He did grab 15 rebounds but hey , Gasol grabbed 18 against the Celtics physical bigs. And get this, Kobe shot 40% fg for the series and not even once in seven finals games, shot 50% or better despite taking 25 shots a game.

  • http://www.twitter.com/JoshElam JE

    It was pretty close in the games the Lakers won, but Kobe still deserved it. Wouldn’t rule out Pau winning it next year, though.

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