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#3 Kobe Bryant, 2005-06
A lot of people dismiss Kobe Bryant's 2005-06 season as one in which he chucked his way to 35.4 points per game, and that he did not deserve the MVP award because the Lakers' record was not good enough. Quite evidently, they haven't watched that season unfold in front of their eyes - Kobe mania was almost at its peak at the time, and for absolutely solid reasons.
For starters, Kobe played with Kwame Brown, Luke Walton and Smush Parker in the starting lineup. With all due respect to those players, they're all bonafide scrubs. The lone average player in that starting lineup was Lamar Odom, which meant that Kobe dealt with regular double- and triple-teams on offense whenever he got the ball.
He still ended up averaging 35.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. In total he scored 30+ points in a whopping 54 games, with several streaks of 4 or more games with 30+ plus points. Of course, he also outscored the entire Mavericks team (#2 seed in the West) by himself through 3 quarters, 62-61, other than dropping 81 points on the Raptors in possibly the only regular season game through the season when he wasn't regularly double-teamed.
In 80 games through the 2005-06 season, Bryant led the Lakers to a 45-35 record and the 7th seed in the Western Conference. Without him, it is conceivable that they could have matched the Sixers' 10-72 record or been worse, as they were unable to attract any big-name free agents to support him, or effect any trades.
