by David Snipes

Created on: April 26, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

The MVP race in 2008 is largely down to four players - Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Kevin Garnett and Chris Paul.

Lebron is still a dominant force in the NBA. Unfortunately, though, his defense is still suspect and his team has not risen to the top of the NBA as have the other three players teams. Voting on the NBA MVP does not adhere to the "If this player left how would that team do" standard. Lebron's team would be FAR worse than the other three.

Garnett has won defensive player of the year and the Celtics have made the single biggest turnaround in NBA history. Yet Garnett did miss eleven games and didn't even go 20/10. True, he might be considered the most important player in the NBA, but he just doesn't have the stat line to bolster his MVP credentials.

That leaves Kobe Bryant vs Chris Paul...

The fact that Kobe has a tendency to take over games makes analysts come up often with the MJ comparisons. As valid as that point may be, the ability to take over a game is NOT a valid reason to give a player an MVP. Chris Paul gets my vote for MVP - you may know him as the man that is DESTROYING a Hall of Famer in the Playoffs. During the regular season he went 21 PPG and 11.6 APG as well as getting over four rebounds a game. Paul shot 36% from beyond the arc. Kobe went 28 PPG and 5.4 APG and pulled in six boards. Kobe also went 36% beyond the arc. Paul has 6.2 more assists and almost a steal more per game than Kobe, while Bryant drops 7 more points and 2 more rebounds each game than Paul.

CP3 has a 44 Efficiency rating - Kobe a 36 on ESPN.com. But what makes CP3 a better candidate is that he elevated the ENTIRE team. The Hornets got 17 more wins than last year; the Lakers improved by 15 games. But the Hornets added NO ONE - unless you want to count a 6-8 rookie forward scoring 3.8PPG - and that hardly is going to account for 17 more wins. As a point guard he touches the ball more than any shooting guard in the NBA. The Lakers pulled off an ALL-TIME heist and STOLE an All-Star and were 28-16 before the trade - and went 29-9 WITH Pau. Kobe might not even get unanimous MVP on his OWN TEAM... well, I am not being completely serious, of course, but Bynum and Odom both stepped up their games this year and are critical to the teams success.

For the Lakers, it all starts and ends with Kobe...

but Chris Paul is my MVP this year.

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