Kobe Bryant won the first MVP award of his stellar NBA career earlier this week, edging out Chris Paul by 206 votes.So, was Paul robbed? I don’t think so, but I’m sure Hornets fans and some of you beg to differ. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time an NBA award hopeful got cheated. To this day, I still think they did Carmelo Anthony dirty in the 2003-2004 Rookie Of The Year race. Lebron registered 20.9 PPG, 5.9 dimes and 5.5. boards off 41% shooting from the field while Melo posted 21 PPG, 2.8 assists and 6.1 rebounds, shooting 42% from the floor. Minus the assists, the numbers are pretty similar, but Melo lead the Nuggets (43-39) to the playoffs while Bron’s Cavs (35-47) missed the postseason. Still, Bron won by a landslide. At the very least, it should have been close.This year’s MVP race was just that…close. Being that they play different positions, unlike Bron and Carmelo, it’s trickier to compare Bryant and Paul statistically. But both are indispensable to their teams. Kobe was initially expected to be traded at the start of the season. Picture a Kobe-less Lakers squad. Forget a no.1 seed, dudes would have missed the playoffs. The same goes for Paul and the Hornets. No CP, no postseason. But the Lakers and Hornets ended with nearly identical records, 57-25 (+15 from 07) and 56-26 (+17 from 07), respectively.Again, the numbers are close, but this time so were the votes. Kobe deserves it, but if Paul won it, I wouldn’t be mad. What do you guys think? Was CP3 robbed? Perhaps some of you think Garnett should have won. Speak on it!

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