A great day in LA sports

I sit here writing this post with the biggest fucking grin on my face.

Watching Kobe Bryant accept his long-deserved, long-denied, long-awaited NBA MVP award is one of the greatest moments in LA sports history to me. Obviously, it doesn't rank up there with the Gibson homerun or the Kobe-to-Shaq alley-oop or... well, so many others. But this is so great to see after the season [and summer] that this team went through.

It's almost impossible to imagine that when this season started, we all were faced with the very real possibility that Kobe would be dealt somewhere else and the Lakers would probably be a low seed or a lottery team. Very few ever envisioned this season ending with the Lakers in the second round of the playoffs, with Kobe accepting the MVP Award, and with a very real possibility that the Lakers will move on in the post-season.

Amazing.

But it is reality. As I sit here to listen to Luke Walton jokingly ask if Kobe will be buying his teammates a gift. As I sit here to listen to Tex Winter ask if Kobe likes the triangle offense. As I sit here to listen to Kobe struggle to answer a question in Spanish in a J-Lo-as-Selena fashion while looking at Pau Gasol for help. And maybe most importantly, as I sit here to listen to Kobe Bryant tell the world he wants to be a Laker for life. It's real, you know? In an unbelievable season... you've gotta believe your eyes and ears from time to time.

It has been an honor and pleasure to watch Kobe Bryant mature as a player from the kid throwing up airballs in the playoffs against Utah that made me want to put my foot through the TV screen to the greatest player in the game collecting his first MVP award and trying to push his team to another championship. Oh, and if that's not enough, instead of resting over the summer, he's going to carry his country to a gold medal.

Repeat: He's _going_ to carry his country to a gold medal - there's not a doubt in my mind about that.

And as the details trickle in, we find out that it wasn't even close. As much talk as there was about Chris Paul being right there with him, Kobe has 82 first place votes while Chris Paul had 28. After all the debate, after all the talk - it wasn't even close.

Kobe Bryant is your MVP. Kobe Bryant is _our_ MVP.

Kobe Bryant is the greatest basketball player that I have had the pleasure to see in my life. Now, that statement comes from behind purple-and-gold colored glasses and from someone who didn't get to see Magic, Kareem, Jordan at their primes. But Kobe will be the player that my kids and grandkids will someday ask if I saw. His golden #24 [or #8... or both!] will be hanging from the rafters the first time my kids and grandkids walk into a Laker game.

"Did you ever see him play?"

The question will come, surely enough. And I'll stop and look up at the rafters of the Staples Center [or whatever building the Lakers have moved into by then.] I'll look at the jerseys of Kareem, of Magic, of Wilt, of Chick, of West, of Shaq. I'll turn my head slightly to look at the wall of banners - more than a few more added at that point.

I'll think back and remember it all - all the moments that are unforgettable, all the shots that are unbelievable, all the plays that are unimaginable.

And I'll smile.

"Yeah, I saw him play."

"What was it like?"

"You know that movie I make you watch every March? With the baseball player who breaks the lights with a home run?"

"Yeah."

"Kobe Bryant was just like him - the best there ever was."

Congrats, Kobe... and thanks.