Kobe’s therapist

When Kathie Lee Gifford and Regis Philbin split, there was one underlying question. It was a given that Regis would move on and continue his undoubtedly infamous career, but everyone wanted to know how Kathie Lee would do without Regis. \nThis has an uncanny resemblance to the Shaq and Kobe split in 2004. \nWe all knew Shaq would continue and dominate a clearly smaller Eastern conference, but how would Kobe do without his sidekick?\nLuckily for the basketball community, Kobe took a different route than Kathie Lee. Excluding the fact that both Kobe and Kathie Lee have been referred to as “dirty,” Kobe has been less like Kathie Lee and more like Will Farrell in “Elf” – still great, but with much less talent to work with than he had in “Old School.” \nSince, for Lent, I gave up cheering for the Pacers, I recently became Kobe’s therapist, molding one and only one thought into his mind: Shoot. OK, I don’t celebrate Lent. I just can’t watch the Pacers anymore, but that’s why I’ve turned my attention to my Kobe, and my therapy is the reason for his success.\nHe’s amazing. He’s arguably the best player in the game right now, despite some unintelligent people wrongly comparing him to MJ. But does Kobe ever get the credit he deserves? \nLet’s explore.\nLast year the MVP race was between the same three (maybe four) players that it is between this year: Kobe, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and maybe LeBron James.\nLast year, my MVP was Kobe, hands down. He scored 82 points in a game and out-scored Dallas (the NBA Finals runner-up) through three quarters one game by himself before he sat out the fourth quarter, showing his unselfish, team-player side. He was the leading scorer in the league, he brought an undeserving team to the playoffs that was a few good plays away from taking out Phoenix in the first round, and he should have been holding that trophy at the end of the season. But was he? No.\nThis year is the same thing. He’s scored more than 50 points eight times this season, four of which were in a row – he’s the only player to do that besides this guy named Wilt who was an OK scorer. He averaged over 40 points in March. He’s still the leading scorer of the league, his team’s currently in the playoffs and he should be holding that trophy at the end of the year. But will he?\nProbably not.\nWhy? \nBecause he’s Kobe. \nDespite everything he tries to do, his reputation is poor at best, he has some skeletons in his Eagle, Colo., closet, and he just doesn’t look quite the same in that No. 24 jersey.\nThe NBA and the media won’t allow Kobe the trophy, and there’s nothing Kobe can do about it except keep shooting, scoring and winning.\nWell, I take that back. He could try buying the voters $4 million, purple diamond rings.