Kobe Bryant Wins NBA All-Star MVP

LOS ANGELES -- It was clear early in the 2011 NBA All-Star Game that Kobe Bryant was looking to make sure that no one else would come into his home building and steal the show. Not only was it clear to the fans, but the players noticed, too.

"You could tell he started out from the start -- he wanted the MVP," Amar'e Stoudemire said afterward. "He was not passing the ball, at all."

Bryant opened the game with 11 first-quarter points, and ended up with 37 and 14 rebounds as his Western Conference squad pulled out a 148-143 victory over the East. The performance earned him MVP honors, which marked the fourth time in his career that Bryant has taken home the game's trophy.

Bryant tried to deny that he might have been gunning for the MVP.

"No, not really," Bryant said, when asked if that might have been the case. "I really wanted to come out and play hard, though. I feel like we have a sense of responsibility and we are voted in for what we do during the season, which is play hard ... (The fans) want to see us go at it and see us compete and that's what I try to do and that's what I try to tell my teammates to do."

The fact that Bryant chose to take the scoring into his own hands wasn't surprising -- that is, after all, how he plays the game. But his aggressiveness in attacking the rim was certainly something different, and his multiple slam dunks -- including one where he narrowly avoided a chase-down block from LeBron James -- were certainly a pleasant surprise.

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Bryant's first dunk of the night might have been his best: a reverse, two-handed slam that he was able to throw down after beating Derrick Rose baseline off the dribble.




Bryant pointed to the young players in the league -- specifically Blake Griffin -- as the reason for his unusually dunk-heavy performance.

"You want to know the influence of Blake, look at all the dunks I had tonight," Bryant said. "Just being around so many young players gave me so much energy, to see them bouncing around and all that stuff. Just re-energized me for the night. But the fourth quarter, man, I had nothing left. I exceeded my dunk quota for the game."

Bryant scored just three points in that fourth quarter, and had three turnovers in the period as the East came roaring back late to cut a 16-point deficit down to just two before it was over. But he did have five of his rebounds in the period, which was something Griffin and Kevin Love, the league's leading rebounder this season, teased him about.

"I told them, I said, 'I'm the double-double king,' " Bryant said. "Because I started stealing all your rebounds. In the locker room (at halftime) Kevin says, you've got six rebounds, and I said, I've got more than you. It was probably the first time and the last time. So after that, I just started stealing rebounds left and right."

Scoring, rebounding, high-flying slam dunks -- Bryant had it all working in this one, what is likely to be his last All-Star game in Los Angeles. He's been the main attraction in this city for so long that the thought of someone like Griffin -- whose popularity is rising rapidly around these parts -- becoming more popular than Bryant while he's still playing seems like a crazy one. But Bryant seems ready to embrace the changing of the guard.

"I've had my time, and it's (Griffin's) time now and it's these younger players, the Durants and so forth, to step forward and carry the league. I'm on my way out, so it's important for them to carry the league."

That may be the case for the future. But for tonight, Bryant carried the NBA's showcase event, and carried home the game's MVP for the fourth time in his career in the process.

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Video of Kobe Bryant's complete post-game press conference: