what you know about mvp candidates?

clearly not as much as this man, averaging a cool 57.5 points over his last two games. lamar blogom was in full effect at friday's game, believe that.

(as a little post script to our presence there, i would like to submit a person for review as the biggest douchebag ever. he came at halftime and started chanting m-v-p immediately upon sitting down. he turned out to be tolerable because of kobe.)

at this point kobe cannot be quantified by normal means. i guess if i remembered mj in his prime i would call his performance jordan-esque, but i didn't so this is my baseline for "get on my back i'm taking you there" performances. at the end of friday's game with the lakers down nearing the end of the 4th i started to get a sinking feeling; it's usually at those points in games when kobe takes over, or tries to, and the lakes more often that not find themselves losers despite of kobe's attempts at heroics. his heroism usually means attempting damn near impossible shots and rimming them out, but on this occasion it manifested itself as several "forgot about dre" threes, including the tying one in zach randolph's fat face and another spinning away from a double team.

kobe is the last true scorer left in the game, with even the tireless iverson choosing to make nods towards deferring to his younger running mate as the season wears on. kobe is also a throwback to an earlier era, an era in which you did not like your opponents. in fact, you hated them with all your heart and would rather die than see anyone you were up against stride off the court flush with victory. kobe is unique in that he possesses the killer instinct most people only dream about; he will rip out your jugular if it means a shot at victory. and that desire to win can be misconstrued.

he is the utlimate alpha dog. if we accept kevin garnett as the ultimate second banana, always willing to defer, always seeking to make his team better, kobe cannot and will not accept the fact that anyone could ever ever ever be better than he is. that attitude probably doomed his relationship with shaq, but it also gives him a fighting chance in his post-shaq career. he is simply not content to fade into the twilight as a great scorer that cannot win a game of team basketball, even after he's proved himself as pretty much everything possible.

there are 3 banners hanging up in staples in large part because of him, and it is very possible that with a little luck and little personnel moving skill there could be a few more in the rafters before he hangs up his sneakers for good.