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Kobe Bryant has won the NBA's MVP award for the first time, the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site Friday night, citing anonymous sources familiar with the outcome of voting by media members.

The newspaper reported that commissioner David Stern will be in Los Angeles next week to present the trophy to Bryant.

"We have not been told anything by the league," Lakers spokesman John Black told The Associated Press.

Bryant, who entered the season as the league's two-time defending scoring champion, had finished third in the MVP voting twice - after the 2002-03 campaign, when he averaged 30 points for the first time, and again last season, when Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki won the award.

Bryant averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.84 steals while playing in all 82 games despite tearing a ligament in his right pinkie finger in February. A hand specialist recommended surgery, but Bryant decided to put it off until after the Olympics this summer.

He led the Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference and a sweep of Denver in the first round of the playoffs. The Lakers open the second round Sunday against Utah at Staples Center.

Bryant, second in the NBA in scoring behind Cleveland's LeBron James, will be the first Lakers player to win the MVP award since Shaquille O'Neal was a near-unanimous choice in 2000. Other previous Lakers to win the award dating to 1956, when it was first presented, were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, who each won it three times. Abdul-Jabbar also won three with the Milwaukee Bucks.

The AP reports: Kobe Bryant has won the NBA’s MVP award for the first time, the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site Friday night, citing anonymous sources familiar with the outcome of voting by media members. The newspaper reported that commissioner David Stern will be in Los Angeles next week to present the trophy to Bryant.

Games like this are why you can't trust box scores. You could look at the numbers, see that Kobe Bryant scored 49 points, and think you had the story of the Lakers' 122-107 victory over the Nuggets in Game 2 of this opening round playoff series. You'd have no idea that Bryant and the Lakers were at their best during a five-minute stretch at the end of the third quarter when Kobe made only one shot.

That's when he took over the game in a manner reminiscent of a guy sitting in the baseline seats at Staples Center: Magic Johnson.
The score was tied when Bryant found Luke Walton for a layup and a foul. The next time down the court, Bryant fed Vladimir Radmanovic for a dunk. Three possessions later he threw the ball to Walton for a 3-pointer. All that giving brought him a gift in return, when Pau Gasol tossed an alley-oop that Bryant appeared to stop in mid-air before throwing it down. And Bryant closed out the quarter with a pass to Sasha Vujacic for another 3-pointer. Four of Bryant's 10 assists in that little stretch.

A 10-point advantage for the Lakers heading into the fourth quarter. Kobe's quarter.

"It's just about forcing them to make choices," Bryant said. "I knew in the third quarter they were going to try to zero in on me a little bit, try to Ttake me out of my groove.

"We're very used to those types of defenses. So my teammates are used to making cuts and taking advantage of it. I felt like it kind of softened them up for me to go back at it in the fourth."

A bunch of Walton and Vujacic body blows before Bryant could unleash the haymakers. The game's greatest closer put this one away with a flourish exceptional even by his standards, scoring 19 points in less than 4 ½ minutes.

After Bryant hit a 3-pointer to give him 46 points and put the Lakers up by 17 with 2 ½ minutes remaining, he took advantage of a pause while Carmelo Anthony shot free throws. Bryant walked by Marv Albert and Reggie Miller in the sideline announcer seats, pulled out his imaginary six-shooters and blew them off.

Nuggets guard J.R. Smith made the mistake of saying something to him, which only brought more pain. Bryant went at Smith the next time down the court, got a layup and-one to get to 49 points, one shy of the playoff career high he set against Phoenix in 2006.

"Better learn not to talk to me," Bryant said of Smith's jabbering. "You shake the tree, a leopard's gonna fall out."

The Nuggets shouldn't say anything to anyone right now. They picked up two more technical fouls in the fourth quarter, the first at a time when the Laker lead was still in single digits.

"As a team, I think we lost our focus, lost our composure," Carmelo Anthony said.

Sometimes it seems as if the Nuggets don't care if they win the series. In the second quarter George Karl sat Allen Iverson for what seemed as long as an afternoon at the DMV (in reality it was four minutes and 15 seconds). And even though Lakers backup big man Ronny Turiaf sat out with a sore throat, the Nuggets didn't make a point of attacking the Laker frontcourt players to get them in foul trouble.

Instead it was Denver's Kenyon Martin who fouled out halfway through the fourth quarter.

The Lakers know their way to win, and it requires getting everyone involved through the first three quarters. In the first quarter, Bryant had 20 points but the Lakers only had a one-point lead to show for it.

"Defensively, we couldn't find the combination of what to do," Phil Jackson said. "We were just a step behind defensively, they were attacking with a lot of confidence."

It wasn't that Bryant dominated the ball. He got transition baskets. He scored when the defense rotated away from him. One time a loose ball bounced his way, he gathered it up, didn't see anyone around and he calmly shot a 3-pointer.

And when a guy's shooting 60 percent, common sense dictates he should be taking all the shots. But that's not what got the Lakers to the top of the Western Conference this year. This was the season when a three-point drop in his scoring average coincided with a 15-win increase in the standings.

"You definitely play better when you're touching the ball and you're involved," said Walton, who had another big playoff performance with 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists. "Basketball is so much of a rhythm game and just being in the flow, not even realizing what's going on. When you're involved and touching the ball and making passes and making plays, it makes you involved in defense. You can read the court better, you can do all of the little things. It definitely helps."

Those were the Lakers of the third quarter, much more similar to the way they played this season.

Now the Nuggets need to make more adjustments. They went with Martin on Bryant again, but replaced Anthony Carter with Linas Kleiza in the starting lineup to avoid the size mismatches that allowed Pau Gasol to score 36 points in the first game. They tried zone defense. They put Smith on Bryant. None of it worked.

"The way he was going we could have put 10 people on the court and it probably wouldn't have been able to stop him," Allen Iverson said.

It's not about throwing everyone at Bryant. It's the way he has used every player on his team that's made the Lakers more of a threat this year, and certainly a class above the Nuggets in the first two games of this series.

J.A. Adande joined ESPN.com as an NBA columnist in August 2007 after 10 years with the Los Angeles Times. Click here to e-mail J.A.

Can we end all this now, please?

Stop pretending, or demanding, there's some great debate here?

What there is, is a clear and obvious choice.

Kobe Bryant is your league MVP.

Got that? There is no monster controversy. No great injustice to be done, unless Kobe is inexplicably stiffed.

All these people down on Kobe have run out of excuses to turn away.

Make his teammates better - check. Have to win the division - check. Absolutely must finish with the best record in the West - check.

He is not simply the most talented player in the NBA, he is its most valuable. Not just the greatest show, the player who gives you the best chance to win.

He has enjoyed a career season. Led a Lakers team many weren't sure could make the playoffs to the best record in the most competitive conference in NBA history.

Yet every time you hear about some supposed poll, it's really, really close. Could come down to those second- and third-place votes. Might not be decided until the convention.

What a crock. His critics are searching for some justification to not give him an award he has plainly earned.

The problem is many voters - I do not have a vote - simply do not like Kobe. They think he's spoiled or a ball hog or calculating or arrogant. Hold animosity from Denver. Resent him personally.

Hey, it's not a popularity contest. It's an award for being the NBA's Most Valuable Player. You don't have to invite him to the backyard barbecue, just recognize his achievement.

Early on when the talk of Kobe and the MVP started to heat up, his detractors started championing LeBron James. James had all these gaudy numbers to support the pretext.

Of course, to truly be an MVP, you must be on an excellent team. Should be on one of the top teams.

James' Cavaliers fell 20 games back of Boston in the weak East, and there went that campaign.

Then the main challenge over the second half of the season emerged as New Orleans point guard Chris Paul.

Paul has enjoyed a truly marvelous season. He's averaged 21.1 points, and led the league in assists (11.6 per game) and steals (2.73).

And he gets all these bonus points because the Hornets went from 39 victories to this year's 50-plus.

The theory here is, Paul has less talent to work with than Kobe, which although might be true, it isn't that significant.

Peja Stojakovic, David West and Tyson Chandler aren't exactly three guys drudged up from the local playground.

It should be noted that last season Stojakovic played in only 13 games and West 52, so credit for that dramatic turnaround doesn't go solely to Paul.

And as to that unequal talent, Stojakovic has appeared in three All-Star games and West one. Kobe has a single teammate who has appeared in one All-Star game, Gasol.

Kobe's numbers need no explaining. His 28.3 points per game were second-best in the league. He added 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.9 blocks. And really, who would you most want to take the game-winning shot as time expired?

You want to hand out bonus points, Kobe deserves plenty for playing much of the second half with a finger that needs surgery. He sucked it up and kept playing. That's what MVPs do.

What we can agree on is, this is not a lifetime achievement award. This isn't John Wayne winning an Oscar for "True Grit."

Kobe remains the most talented player in the game, but has never been MVP. You don't get the award for a body of work, though it's best to have something significant to legitimize your resume. This is Paul's third year.

Kobe has enjoyed a tremendous career, but deserves the award based simply on this season.