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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.

LeBron James had the last word.

In an NBA playoff series filled with trash talk, hard fouls, 13 technicals, one ejection, one suspension and plenty more, James was everywhere and did a little bit of everything in Game 6. And, in what's become his personal rite of spring, he led the Cleveland Cavaliers past the Washington Wizards.

James compiled 27 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists for his third career playoff triple-double, all the while helping slow Caron Butler at the defensive end, and the Cavaliers beat the Wizards 105-88 on Friday night to close the contentious series.

"Cleveland is advancing. We won the series 4-2. That speaks louder than me saying anything about the fans here, anything about DeShawn Stevenson," James said, referring to the Wizards guard who called him overrated. "Cleveland is advancing. That's all that matters."

It's the third consecutive postseason that the Cavaliers eliminated the Wizards in the first round -- ending each of those series on Washington's home floor.

"Three times in a row. It's tough," Washington's Antonio Daniels said. "But who knows what happens if we have a healthy team? A healthy Gilbert Arenas? If we had Darius Songaila for Game 6 -- who knows what happens?"

Songaila, a reserve forward, was barred from Friday's game by the NBA for hitting James in the face at Cleveland in Game 5, a one-point Washington victory that extended the series.

Cleveland, which reached the NBA Finals a year ago, now faces Boston or Atlanta. The Celtics host the Hawks in Game 7 on Sunday, and whoever wins will have to try to do something Washington certainly could not: stop James.

"We have LeBron on our team, and there are 30 other teams or 29 who don't," Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said, "and that's the biggest difference."

Indeed, James was involved in pretty much every key sequence, including when he was whistled for one of the game's three technical fouls. And when Butler drew another for throwing an arm across James' waist. And when James lit into his teammates at the end of the third quarter for allowing Daniels to cut through the lane for an uncontested dunk.

"We can't allow that," James said. "Not in the postseason."

He was more of a passer than a scorer early, with twice as many assists (four) as shot attempts (two) in the first quarter. That allowed his teammates to get in a rhythm, and Wally Szczerbiak scored a career playoff-best 26 points, Daniel Gibson added 22, and they combined to make 10 of Cleveland's 11 3-pointers.

"He passed up a couple of wide-open shots to get even more wide-open shots for me," Szczerbiak said.

Butler considered the contributions from the Cavaliers' lesser-known players and said: "The thing was we wanted somebody else to beat us, and that's kind of what happened."

Perhaps. But check out these stats: James' triple-double was accomplished before the third quarter was over, and he dished out more assists than the entire Wizards team (11).

"LeBron puts so much pressure on your defense," Washington coach Eddie Jordan said.

James put in work at the other end, too, where Cleveland knew it needed to hound Butler more than it did in Game 5, when he scored 32 points on 50 percent shooting.

Before the opening tipoff Friday, Butler was alone on the court, skipping and waving a hand in the air, encouraging the fans in a sellout crowd of 20,173 to twirl their white towels. Then, taking a breather with Washington leading by six points in the second quarter, the two-time All-Star stood on the sideline and spun his warmup shirt overhead.

But on the court, Butler didn't have nearly as much pep. He entered the third quarter only 2-for-9 for seven points with zero assists or steals, and wound up with 18 points and nine rebounds.

Antawn Jamison led Washington with 23 points and 15 rebounds.

The Cavaliers were ahead 56-48 at halftime, thanks in large part to a 15-0 run during the second quarter and 7-for-12 shooting on 3-pointers. The Wizards? They were 3-for-12 on 3s to that point.

It never really got competitive in the second half, and it didn't help matters for Washington that it didn't manage a fourth-quarter basket until Butler made one 3 1/2 minutes in.

The Wizards didn't learn about Songaila's punishment until after their morning shootaround. That left Jordan with a seven-man rotation, because he already was without Arenas, who ruled himself out for the rest of the season before Game 5 because of his surgically repaired left knee.

Arenas held up Songaila's No. 9 jersey on the sideline, then set it down on a chair in tribute. Some fans in the stands raised signs reading, "Free Darius."

In the end, all that really mattered was that James was on the court.

He ignored the booing and chants of "Ov-er-ra-ted!" from the stands. He set aside his war of words with Stevenson, which wound up dragging in a pair of rappers: James' pal, Jay-Z, and Stevenson's supporter, Soulja Boy. He dealt with Washington's suddenly hard-hitting defense.

"We had a lot of things go on besides basketball in this series, which was fun. But at the same time, we took care of business," James said. "Soulja Boy, DeShawn Stevenson, my big brother 'J,' myself, the crowd, 'overrated.' All that. It comes down to us winning a really gruesome series."

Notes: Szczerbiak's previous career high for the playoffs was 25. ... This was the 30th game between these teams since 2005-06, counting preseason, regular season and postseason. The Cavaliers hold an 18-12 edge. "We play them a lot. You almost know the hotel personnel by name, you know? 'Good to see you again. Good to see you again.' For some bizarre reason, we keep running into each other,'' Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said. "It's good and bad. Good, because we know each other so there's not much surprises. But at the same time, there's some bad blood.'' ... Arenas said before Friday's game he'd be getting his left knee drained of excess fluid.

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Kevin Durant Named T-Mobile Rookie of the year
Kevin Durant of the Seattle SuperSonics is the recipient of the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy as the 2007-08 T-Mobile NBA Rookie of the Year, the NBA announced today.

Durant received 90 first-place votes (545 points) from a panel of 125 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Atlanta’s Al Horford finished second with 390 points and Houston’s Luis Scola finished third with 146 points. Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote.

Drafted with the second overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, Durant averaged a rookie- and team-high 20.3 points – 7.6 points higher than any other rookie – to go along with 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 80 games (all starts). Durant was the only rookie to lead his team in five statistical categories, including points, blocks, steals, free-throws made and free-throw percentage. Durant also blocked more shots than any other guard in the league (75). He is the first SuperSonic player to win the award.

Durant led Seattle in scoring 47 times, including a career-high 42 points against Golden State on April 16. A five-time T-Mobile Western Conference Rookie of the Month selection (November, December, January, March and April), Durant scored at least 20 points 47 times and at least 30 points seven times. Durant represented the SuperSonics in the 2008 T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam, finishing with 23 points.

Throughout the 2007-08 season, for every point scored by the T-Mobile Rookie of the Month, T-Mobile USA pledged to donate $20 per point scored during the month the player won the award to the New Orleans Recovery School District. T-Mobile will donate a total of $49,700 to the school district, with $28,500 coming from the 1,425 points scored by Durant alone during the five months he won T-Mobile Rookie of the Month. This philanthropic component is new to the T-Mobile Rookie Program and builds on T-Mobile’s strong appeal to the nation’s youth as the official wireless partner of the NBA. Other highlights of T-Mobile’s partnership with the NBA include the T-Mobile Rookie of the Year, T-Mobile Rookie of the Month Awards, and the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam, an All-Star competition between NBA rookies and second-year players. During NBA All-Star 2008, T-Mobile Huddle Up and NBA Cares hosted more than 5,000 local students in the lower bowl of the arena to watch this year’s Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam.

The Eddie Gottlieb Trophy is named in honor of Eddie Gottlieb, one of the NBA’s founders who coached the Philadelphia Warriors to the NBA championship in 1946-47.

Attached are the voting results for the 2007-08 T-Mobile NBA Rookie of the Year Award and the all-time list of winners: Year