Kobe Not in Discussion for MVP; Are You Kidding?

Sources say it is a two man race for the MVP, or should they have said for the MPP, Most Popular Player?

And the winner is......? The NBA's most prestigious individual reward probably has the most inaccurate voting system. You tell me how can reporters and broadcasters get to vote for the NBA MVP? So a bunch of non basketball players that are bias gets to determine who is the best player of the league. And speaking of the best player, what determines the MVP? Is it the most valuable to his team, the best player on the league, or is it the most VALUABLE to the LEAGUE? 

Lets get back to the race. Lebron James and Kevin Durant supposedly are the two battling for the MVP award. I don't  have a problem with Lebron (27.1, 7.9 rpg, 6.2 apg) and Kevin (28.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 3.5 apg) being in the race, but I do have a problem with excluding everybody else especially Kobe Bryant. A few might throw Tony Parker's name or even Kevin Love (one of my favorite players), but leaving out Kobe is outrageous. Kobe is averaging 27.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg, and 4.6 apg which he has been wounded all season long. Who in they right mind thinks he doesn't belong in this race.

Remember I'm not excluding individual stats and that alone should have Kobe in the race but lets take a deeper look at this. Let focus on the supporting cast. Durant has probably the most explosive teammate in the league in Russell Westbrook (23.5 ppg, 5.4 apg) and the unanimous 6th man award winner James Harden to help anchor the load. Lebron on the other hand has arguably a top five partner in Dwayne Wade and the last of the BIG THREE, Chris Bosh  . Meanwhile Kobe has Andrew Bynum who's still trying to prove himself and Pau Gasol who's play has dropped considerably. Factor in this; Oklahoma City was predicted to be the top seed in the west and Miami was predicted the top seed in the east and slated to win it all. Both teams are 2nd in their respective conferences and their squads remain in tact from last year. The Lakers weren't even the best team in their own arena according to "basketball experts" and predicted to finish 6th at best. So the Lakers are third in the west and they lost key veteran players and took on a totally different scheme offensively and defensively from a new coach. Yet still I don't hear Kobe's name in the MVP conversation.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that they don't deserve the MVP but not mentioning Kobe's name is preposterous. Although Jordan won the award 5 times in his career, he probably could have won it 9 times. So I guess it's a compliment to Kobe that he probably is expected to perform at this level.