Will KB24 keep his promise?

Kobe Bryant was spinning through the whole wheel of emotions after David Stern handed him his first Most Valuable Player trophy.
Appreciative, emotional, grateful, excited. And then, at the end of his speech to the adoring Staples Center crowd, Bryant switched back into the cold-blooded hit man we're used to seeing this time of year.
"We're going to play until June," Bryant vowed.
June is the NBA calendar codeword for the Finals, the professional equivalent of the first Monday in April for college hoops.
Bryant didn't seem to care that the Utah Jazz were standing along the baseline the whole time, that any continuance of the Lakers season would have to come at their expense. It's almost as if the Jazz are the details, not the obstacle. The Jazz have had two cracks at the Lakers now, following the Denver Nuggets' quick exit, and no one has been able to dent the Lakers' offensive efficiency.
The Lakers are the only undefeated team in the playoffs. They're the only team to score more than 100 points each game. And as far as this series is concerned, they're the only team with two players who own championship rings. (Utah center Mehmet Okur has a ring from his two-year stint with the Detroit Pistons.)
It's the leadership of those two ring-bearers in particular, Bryant and Derek Fisher, that has the Lakers up 2-0 in this series. But it's the collective efforts of this entire team that has Bryant envisioning the Lakers on the court in Month 6.
The Lakers lead all playoff teams with an average of 26.5 assists per game. They're shooting 49 percent from the field. Their offense is breathtaking at times, with its rapid ball movement and end result of shots dropping straight through the net.
"We believe in ourselves," Bryant said. "We have a high basketball IQ, collectively. That's why I believe we'll be playing in June. Because we all think the game extremely well. We play as a unit at both ends of the floor. That's what you need to play into June."
To symbolize the togetherness of this team, Bryant called all of the players out to join him at the middle of the court at the end of the ceremony.
It was a nice photo op, but it's actually the opposite of the way the Lakers have operated this season. They've been about team first, then closing with Bryant. He took them home Wednesday, finishing off the Jazz with six points in the final four minutes, playing a game of cat-and-mouse with defender Andrei Kirilenko, drawing more fouls (he has attempted 35 free throws in the two games) and telling courtside observer Denzel Washington, "He can't guard me, D."
"He's the guy that made the difference when it came down," Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan said of Bryant. "They gave him the basketball and cleared out the side, and he just beat us."
Bryant scored 34 points, right at his playoff average, in a comfort zone that allows him to get his buckets but while not starving his teammates of the ball. Fisher made seven of 10 shots (including four of five 3-pointers) for 22 points and defended Deron Williams, who was a non-factor until the final quarter, when it was too late.
Another double-double for Lamar Odom (19 and 16 rebounds), 20 points from Pau Gasol, and 12 points off the bench for Sasha Vujacic. The Lakers shot 57 percent from the field and even higher -- 64 percent -- from 3-point range.
"Execution, that's what the triangle's all about," Odom said. "We want to continue to get better and better at it."
It was during Phil Jackson's year away from the team, when the Lakers tried Rudy Tomjanovich's offense and Bryant found second defenders attacking him from all sides, that Bryant gained a better appreciation for the triangle. It allows him to get isolations on the wing, gives him more area to work with more space between the defenders. The key is Bryant hasn't chosen to isolate himself from the team, or even the league at large, anymore.
"I think that there are times where [players] don't realize what they do for the game and what the game does for them until after they're retired," Stern told reporters before the game. "And it's always rewarding for me for players either before or at their prime to come to have an understanding of what the game has done and continues to do for them, what it means to them, really, and what their performance means to others. And I get the strong sense that Kobe has reached that point this season."
It all resulted in a trip to L.A. for Stern so he could preside over the ceremony. Laker fans have been chanting "MVP" for Bryant over three seasons now, and now that their demands had finally been answered they were even louder. There was an unusually high energy level in the building, which the Lakers credited for their fast start.
Bryant made a rookie MVP mistake when he walked off the court holding the trophy. Standard procedure is to leave it on the table for others to remove.
"I didn't know," Bryant said. "I'm new to this.
"Next time, I'll leave it."
He was laughing about this. Not nearly as serious as when he talked about playing into June. As festive as this night was, the underlying message was that trophies are nice, but banners are even better.