Kobe receives first MVP award of career

LOS ANGELES - MAY 6: Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers admires the MVP trophy during the 2007-08 NBA Most Valuable Player Award press conference.

Kobe Bryant kept saying he couldn’t have won his first Most Valuable Player award without the many contributions of his teammates.

“This is not an individual award,” he said Tuesday. “The special thing about this award is we have done it together.”

Finally, Luke Walton was moved to raise his hand and ask what seemed like a fair question: “Are you going to be getting your teammates any sort of gifts?”

“That’s a typical spoiled athlete nowadays,” Bryant replied, suppressing a grin. “Whatever happened to a handshake and a pat on the back? Whatever happened to an ‘attaboy?”

Everyone laughed, of course. And why not? It’s been a dream season for the Los Angeles Lakers after the chaos that existed just six months ago, when Bryant was booed on opening night and there were daily updates concerning a possible trade destination.

“It’s been an emotional roller-coaster. It’s been a heck of a journey,” he said at a news conference attended by his teammates, club officials, his wife and two daughters. “It’s Hollywood. It’s a movie script. The perfect ending would be for us to hold a championship trophy at the end of it.

“I can’t thank these guys enough. These are my guys, these are my brothers. Let’s get ready for tomorrow.”

The Lakers try to take a 2-0 lead against Utah in their Western Conference semifinal on Wednesday night. Bryant will receive the MVP trophy from commissioner David Stern before the game.

Bryant has heard the fans at Staples Center chant “MVP, MVP” throughout the season. And he’ll certainly hear it Wednesday night.

“It’ll feel more special,” he said. “I get goose bumps thinking about it. It’s been a long ride. I’ve kind of been through the wars with all the people here.”

Anticipation builds when a check of the time reveals that there’s only two minutes to curtain. When the doors open and the crowd files into the theatre, almost immediately, something seems amiss. Rather than the usual waiting for the lights to go down and the play to begin, the audience finds itself right in the middle of an early 20th century Freakshow.

Core Performance Manufactory’s production of Freakshow, by Carson Kreitzer, is quite simply a remarkable performance by an extremely talented and accomplished cast. In the opening minutes of the show, the audience realizes that they are the surreal life spectators of the various oddities and mutants starring in Mr. Flips traveling show. We get an immediate sense that our price of admission will include more than pointing and gawking. This is no casual walk through a side show tent. We are about to become intimate with these unfortunates who rarely feel a connection with the outside world, unless it involves heads turning away in disgust.

The story begins when the talking torso of a beautiful woman, tells us, without reservation, what we are all thinking. Thoughts better left private. But isn’t that the joy of being a spectator? We are privy to the sins of the confessors without the responsibility of giving absolution. Mr. Flip directs his opening comments to the audience and tells us in the confident voice of a carnival barker that he’s not a bad man. Played convincingly by the gifted Kent Williams, Mr. Flip, an ever so aptly named character, reveals alternate sides of the same coin with remarkable deftness. Is he a savior or an exploiter of human misery?

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Rick A. Elina is a playwright based in Plano, Texas and is the Theatre Critic for The North Dallas Gazette.