LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was named this season's National Basketball Association's Most Valuable Player here on Tuesday, marking the first time the flamboyant playmaker has won the award.

Bryant, who said he had given up hope of ever winning the award, matched 1997 MVP Karl Malone of Utah with the most years in the league before winning the award, each having finally taken the honor in their 12th NBA campaign.

"I didn't think this award would ever come to me in my career," Bryant said. "I had resigned myself that I was never going to have it. I'm surprised and deeply honored to have it, to be standing here as the MVP."

Bryant was challenged for the honor by star turns from some of the NBA's top talents, including NBA scoring champion LeBron James of Cleveland, New Orleans guard Chris Paul and Kevin Garnett, who led Boston to the NBA's best record.

"I don't know anybody who deserves this trophy more," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "I don't know anybody who has worked as hard as Kobe has."

Bryant received 1,105 points, including 82 first-place votes, from a North American media panel with 10 points first first, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth and one for fifth-place votes.

Paul was second with 889 points, 28 from first-place votes, with Garnett third on 670 points with 15 first-place votes, James fourth on 438 with one first-place vote and Orlando's Dwight Howard fifth on 60 points.

"This is a team award," Bryant said. "I couldn't have won this without my teammates. If I could have won it alone, I would have won it when I was scoring 40 (points a game)."

The season began with Bryant accusing Lakers management of not doing all it could to improve the club and making, then retracting, comments about wanting to be traded. Now Bryant admitted the management moves worked.

"There's a lot of things I would have done differently," Bryant said. "We've gelled. we've just clicked. We have a great team. The development of our younger players and our trades have taken us to another level."

When the Lakers made a February trade for Spanish big man Pau Gasol from Memphis, Bryant became much happier and a much more complete all-around player who averaged 28.3 points, second in the NBA, 6.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists.

"This has been one hell of a year," Bryant said. "Obviously we had to make improvements to play the way we had to play. To watch us step into that role, to be among the elite teams in the NBA, it has been an emotional roller coaster a heck of a journey.

"We have this great chemistry in the unit. It has made it all worthwhile."

The Lakers missed the playoffs in 2005, the season after Shaquille O'Neal departed for Miami after a feud with Bryant, and were ousted in the first round in each of the past two seasons.

Bryant, 29, won three NBA titles in a row with the Lakers alongside O'Neal starting in 2000. But it was O'Neal that won NBA Most Valuable Player honors in 2000 and such accolades helped develop a rift with Bryant.

"It has been a long ride," Bryant said. "I'm almost 30. I'm an old man. I've kind of been through the wars."

Bryant joins three-time MVPs Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and O'Neal as Laker MVPs.

"You are talking about some of the greatest of all time. These are some of the greats that ever played," Bryant said. "Any time you are mentioned in the same breath with them, it's a high honor."

This year, the Lakers won the top seed spot in the Western Conference and swept Denver in the first round of the playoffs.

Bryant's focus remains on helping the Lakers claim their 15th NBA crown, which would be one shy of Boston's record.

"No matter all the talk that was swirling around our team, we stayed focused on one thing, winning a championship. That's a lesson. If you keep your mind on your goals, you can accomplish great things," Bryant said.

"It's Hollywood. It's a movie script. The perfect ending would be for us to be holding that championship trophy. But there's a lot of basketball to play."

Bryant faced personal troubles in 2003 when a woman accused him of sexual assault at a Colorado mountain resort where he was a guest and she was an employee.

Bryant, who is married, admitted having sex with the woman but insisted it was consensual.

A criminal case against Bryant collapsed in 2004 when the woman refused to testify against Bryant. A secret settlement in 2005 brought an end to a civil lawsuit in the matter.