He was in front of his crowd.
In his city.
And he was playing against the league's top talent on one of the biggest stages in basketball.
Bryant was aggressive from the opening tip, and he kept it up all game long, shooting a game-high 26 shots and finishing with a game-high 37 points. On top of all that, Kobe attacked the glass, grabbing 14 rebounds.
Before the game, Bryant said he was going to stick to jump shots to save his legs, but there he was, throwing down some amazing dunks that raised the home crowd out of their seats.
Kobe won his fourth All-Star Game MVP award, which tied him with Bob Pettit for the most all-time, and after the game, some of the other stars chimed in their thoughts.
One of those stars was Dwyane Wade.
"Kobe was going for MVP tonight," Wade said to the media after the game. "It was that obvious. I think my three-year-old son knew it."
So what if he was? Wasn't LeBron James doing the same thing? The TNT cameras caught James trying to pull his teammates together on the bench, and we all saw him make a huge push to get the Eastern Conference back in the game.
It would be naïve to think that James didn't know he was closing in on just the second triple-double in All-Star Game history. There is no point in commenting about someone trying to win the MVP award in a game where no one plays defense and people either dunk the ball or shoot an outside jumper.
More importantly, doesn't this fit right in with a lot of people's perceptions of Bryant? Many people still see him as a selfish player who only looks for his shot and doesn't care how it affects the team and its offense.
We saw it in the fourth quarter, when an admittedly gassed Bryant forced shots and committed bad turnovers as the East pulled closer on the scoreboard. He knew this ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
