Kobe wins a title without the Big Aristotle

On Sunday, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers won the team's 15th NBA Championship with a five game series victory over the Orlando Magic in the 2009 NBA Finals.

The Lakers went into the series clearly more focused and with a game plan to shut the high down the high powered offense of the Magic. The Magic played like they were happy to be there and not for a championship.

Kobe Bryant won the NBA Finals MVP and deservedly so, he scored over 630 points during the playoffs, fifth most all-time.

This series proved vital for Bryant's legacy, as his leadership in the beginning was put to question, but if not for Kobe's leadership this year, the Lakers would have been unable to win this championship.

Now Kobe can get the Shaq monkey off his back and say he has won a title, the first of his four without Shaq Diesel in the center.

Kobe didn't do it on his own, his supporting cast of Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum and Derek Fisher proved too much for the Magic to handle.

Bynum and Gasol did a outstanding job on Dwight Howard, keeping his numbers limited from his earlier performances in the Cleveland and Boston series.

Going back to Legacy, with this win, Phil Jackson now owns the record for most career NBA Finals wins with 10 (6 with the Bulls, 4 with the Lakers), surpassing Red Auerbach's 9 championships.

With the victory, Jackson also claimed his 51st series victory, pointed out by Magic coach Stan Van Gundy after the game.

"Most coaches don't even have 50 playoff victories and he has 51 series victories."

What does this mean for next year, the Lakers core appears to be in tact, while the Magic has reportedly lost free agent Hedo Turkoglu who has chosen to opt out of his contract.

The Magic is now a front runner in the East, even though they lost Turkoglu, they still have a lot to look forward to from the surging performances of Jameer Nelson, Rashard Lewis and rookie Courtney Lee.

The player that served as the surprise star of the series was Trevor Ariza, ironically was a member of the Orlando Magic, then was traded to the Lakers.

As most experts predicted, the Magic has a shot at the Finals next year, but if Cleveland pulls off the blockbuster deal to get Shaquille O'Neal, Cleveland is a shoe-in for next year's Final.

Does anybody think that Cleveland doesn't want to lose Lebron James to the Knicks in 2010, maybe getting Shaq will keep Lebron in Cleveland.