No Shaq, no problem for the Los Angeles Lakers, who defeated the Orlando Magic yesterday to win their first NBA championship since 2002. Kobe Bryant led the Lakers to their fifteenth title with a 99-86 win in game five of the finals as they took the best-of-seven series, 4-1.

It was the Lakers' first championship since their biggest star, Shaquille O'Neal, left for the Miami Heat in 2004 and Bryant admitted that scepticism about whether a Los Angeles without "Shaq" were good enough to lift the trophy had become a burden.

“It was like Chinese water torture. I would cringe every time [I heard those comments]," Bryant said. "I was just like, it’s a challenge I’m just going to have to accept because there’s no way I’m going to argue it. You can say it until you’re blue in the face and rationalise it until you’re blue in the face, but it’s not going anywhere until you do something about it.

“That’s the biggest thing. I don’t have to hear that stuff anymore. I think we as a team answered the call because they understood the challenge that I had, and we all embraced it. It finally felt like a big old monkey was off my back."

Bryant, 30, scored 30 points at Orlando's Amway Arena yesterday and picked up the finals' Most Valuable Player award with a point average of 32.4. The victory gave Phil Jackson a record tenth NBA title as a head coach - four with the Lakers - surpassing Red Auerbach, of the Boston Celtics, who won nine in a ten-year span. The Celtics hold the most team titles, 17 The Magic were in the finals for only the second time in their history and the first for fourteen years.

Jackson paid tribute to Bryant's development as a player. "He’s learned how to become a leader in a way in which people want to follow him,” he said. “That’s really important for him to have learned that because he knew that he had to give to get back in return, and so he’s become a giver rather than just a guy that's a demanding leader. That’s been great for him and great to watch."

The Lakers' triumph sparked wild celebrations outside the Staples Centre, their home arena, but the party got out of hand and some revellers damaged police cars, threw rocks and bottles at officers and started bonfires in the street. About 25 people were arrested after the crowd splintered off into neighbouring streets when police tried to call a halt to the gathering. A garage was looted and cars, buses and a television news van were damaged. A victory parade is planned for Wednesday.