Does Kobe Deserve MVP?

Bryant's love for the game is what sets
him apart for the rest of the pack.

Los Angeles Laker guard Kobe Bryant has not been talked about much this season as the league's Most Valuable Player, something he seems to be in the thick of every season.

Chicago's Derrick Rose is the favorite to came home the honor in 2011 and rightfully so. Rose has taken a .500 Bulls team from a year ago and made them part of the Eastern Conference's elite. As for Bryant, he might be putting together one of his best season rather quietly.

Despite Bryant's numbers are not off the chart, averaging about 25 point per game along with 4.5 assists, he is playing some the best basketball of his career.

As a team the Lakers are surging since the break winning 15 of their first 16 games. Los Angeles currently sits comfortably as the No. 2 seed in the West, only trailing the NBA's best team, the San Antonio Spurs.

The Spurs were once up as many as nine games on the Lakers for the West's top spot.

During this recent run by the Lakers, they embarrassed the Spurs on their home floor back on the March 6, 99-83. Now, with only nine games left in the regular season for Los Angeles,  they find themselves only three games back of the Spurs in the loss column. A month ago if you would have said the Lakers had a chance to catch San Antonio for the best record, you would have been called crazy. That is no longer the case.

San Antonio has suddenly dropped five of their last eight games, including the one to Los Angeles. Bryant has been at the core of it all. His passion and will to win has enabled the Lakers to make this recent surge and possibly catch the Spurs.

If Bryant and the Lakers are able to catch them you can ensure Bryant will be a top candidate for the MVP Award. The Lakers have been heavily criticized all year with their sometimes lackadaisical play.

Now, led by their captain, Bryant has helped lead them to best record since the midway point in the season and is getting them positioned for June. The Lakers play San Antonio one last time this season in Los Angeles, coming the final week of the regular season, April 12. If things continue to way are they headed, that game could decide the fate of the best record not only in the Western Conference, but throughout the NBA.

Bryant and the Lakers will be ready and so will San Antonio trying to avoid yet another bite from 'The Black Mamba'.