Kobe Bryant wins his first MVP award

LOS ANGELES — Finally, an MVP award for Kobe Bryant.

Regarded as the NBA’s best player for several years but never its most valuable, Bryant earned the honor at last on Tuesday after leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference.

He entered the season as the league’s two-time defending scoring champion. He had finished as high as third in the MVP voting twice — after the 2002-03 season, when he averaged 30 points for the first time, and last year when Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas won.

Bryant received 82-first-place votes and 1,105 points in the media vote. He was followed by New Orleans’ Chris Paul (28 and 889), Boston’s Kevin Garnett (15 and 670) and Cleveland’s LeBron James (1 and 438).

Los Angeles rose to the top of the West despite key injuries and following Bryant’s trade demands last spring after his team was eliminated in the first round by Phoenix for the second straight year.

Bryant averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.84 steals while playing all 82 games despite tearing a ligament in his right pinkie in February. He put off surgery until after the Olympics.

The knock on the 29-year-old Bryant had been that he didn’t make those around him better — not anymore.

“He’s deserving in this particular season with all of the question marks and everything going on coming into the season and the uncertainty,” teammate Derek Fisher said. “Not only did he statistically have an MVP type of season, everybody can reasonably say they were better this year because of what he did. He met the so-called criteria, elevating his teammates’ games.”

Word leaked last Friday night that Bryant had won the award.

“I didn’t know if it was going to come in my career, but to have the moment come now is special, especially to share it with the group of guys we have here,” he said the following day.

Bryant, second in the NBA in scoring behind James, is the first Laker to win the MVP award since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000. Other Lakers to win since the award was first presented in 1956 were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson

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Bryant and O’Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive championships, from 2000-02, and a berth in the finals in 2004. The Lakers hadn’t won a playoff series since until sweeping Denver in the first round last month.

Bryant and O’Neal were often at odds during their eight years together. Assistant coach Brian Shaw, who played for the Lakers from 1999-03, has noticed a big difference in Bryant.

“He’s a much better teammate now than he was in the championship days. That’s a credit to his maturation. There were definitely times when he was not a good teammate,” Shaw said.