With the season about two-thirds over, everybody is talking about the same old thing: That minuscule award that only the fans really care about.
That undefined, irrelevant, overrated award that allegedly is given to the most valuable player of the NBA season.
Perhaps the award would mean more if it actually followed some template-- if it had some specific criteria outlining its recipients.
But it doesn't.
Some say the award goes to the best player in the NBA.
Wrong. Were that the case, the conversation would only consist of LeBron and Kobe every year.
Some say the award goes to the best player on the best team.
Again this is incorrect. Otherwise Tim Duncan would have a shelf-full of them. Or maybe Chauncey Billups would.
Some say the award goes to the player that makes his teammates the best. This may be getting closer, however nobody can argue that Dirk deserved it more than Nash last year if this were so.
Well, nobody really knows what exactly the award means. So when I decided to join the debate by writing this article, I came up with a criteria of my own:
The award should go to the player who gets the most done, with the least help. If this player were taken from his respective team, they would be sunk.
So, no offense to Kobe Bryant who is, in my mind at least, the best all-around player the NBA has seen since MJ
.
No offense to Steve Nash who is not only my favorite player, but also the most creative offensive mind since Pete Maravich. Anybody who knows basketball knows that he exemplifies efficiency on the scoring end of the court.
No offense to Tim Duncan, who is in the conversation for being the best power forward in NBA history, and has had his team atop the league his entire career.
No offense to Kevin Garnett who, despite being a great all-around big man, is perhaps only the third most valuable player on his own team.
No offense to Chris Paul who is giving Nash serious competition as the best PG in the NBA.
No offense to Yao Ming who is having his best season to date, and finally emerging as the great center he has the potential to be. (Even though if his team misses the playoffs, one could argue he fits the criteria I have specified due to his recent season-ending injury.)
No offense to Dirk Nowitzki. Although I continue to question whether he deserved the award last year, he is an offensive machine, and has made huge strides in his post-play, while continuing to be the most deadly sharpshooting big man in the NBA.
No offense to Carlos Boozer who continues to make me pull my hair out every time his team plays my Suns, and simply wow me every other game.
No offense to Baron Davis who is the unquestioned leader of the quickest, most frenetic offensive team in the NBA.
No offense to Dwight Howard who has developed into the best center in the NBA, while leading his team to the 3rd spot in the East.
No offense to Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace who probably suffer in the MVP voting simply because they play on the same team.
No offense to AI or Carmelo who are both among the top five scorers in the NBA.
No offense to any other great player who I have left out.
In my mind, the award has only one worthy recipient. LeBron James is without doubt the player in the NBA who is most valuable to his team. Without LeBron, Cleveland wouldn't make the playoffs, even in the lowly eastern conference.
Without LeBron, the best Cavalier would be an old 13 point, 9 board a night center (Zydrunas Ilgauskus) that cannot create his own shot.
LeBron puts up 30.2 points, 8.1 boards, and 7.5 assists per game. He leads the league in scoring, and has immensely improved at the defensive end.
Take him away and the Cavaliers are in the conversation with Miami, Memphis, and Minnesota for being the worst team in the NBA.
With him, they are among Boston, Detroit and Orlando as the only teams contending for the Eastern Conference Title.
LeBron should have won the MVP last year when he took his team farther than even they believed they could go. Unfortunately the MVP doesn't include the playoffs.
Even so, NBA fans—don't make the same mistake again.
LeBron led his team to the playoffs and eventually the Finals last year, by himself. This year he is doing the same.
LeBron is hands down, my MVP thus far, and barring a serious injury (God forbid), I see no reason why that would change.
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7 months ago
good choice.
from 7 months ago
Based on your articles...why am I not surprised???
7 months ago
touche
7 months ago
Bleacher Report is becoming rants for biased and disgruntled fans. To the writer of this hack job, Lebron isn't hands down anything. The MVP is not a stat driven award. The Cavs are currently the 15th best record in the league; that alone dismisses him from serious consideration.
You want to make up an award for the best stats, then go ahead and paper mache one for him.
This is the MVP award, and Kobe has his team with the best record in the much tougher wester conference.
Kobe is your season MVP, whether you like it or not.
7 months ago
Carry a crappy team in the East isn't even in the same league as carrying it in the West. By your criteria, Kobe should have already won it. People will always take the MVP and twist the prerequisites to match the player they lean towards. It happens every year. Seriously, how does Nash win the award twice and he doesn't play a lick of D. That's just sad.
7 months ago
Does Dirk really make the players around him better than Nash does?
7 months ago
Jeremy you sound like someone who wants to make up the All - Stats MVP award and name the recipient yourself. I have nothing but love for Lebron and he is in the running for the MVP with Chris Paul but Kobe Bryant is the and should've won it before. Giving the award to Dirk Nowitski was just as wrong as giving it to Steve Nash twice. The same argument about where the Cav's would be without Lebron can be made for the Lakers without Kobe Bryant or any team without their best player for that matter. People will always make up their own prerequisites and match them to the player they feel should be the MVP. The MVP award needs to be awarded after the playoffs and as much as it appears to be an individual award it is closely tied to team success. Keeping that thought in mind Kobe Bryant has his team at the top of the much tougher western conference with a 40 - 17 record. Before the season started no one including Kobe Bryant would've predicted that the Lakers would play this well and even make the playoffs and now the best record in the west that is evidence of MVP level play. I'm not ready to crown the Lakers the NBA champions at this point but I do feel they are the favorites to come out of the western conference but STILL need to go out and accomplish that task. Kobe Bryant has the Lakers in position to do that and when the team is healthy and at full strength will compete in the playoffs for said championship with Kobe Bryant already named the MVP for this season.
7 months ago
If that were your criteria than Kobe should have won every year since Shaq left L.A. He has carried this franchise when they were very crappy, and now is finally getting the help he deserved long ago. Look at Wade he can't even carry a less-crappier team than the Lakers of 05 and 06 to the play-offs in the lowly East. So on your criteria alone Kobe should have three MVP awards.
7 months ago
Offense to Kobe Bryant.
7 months ago
MVP!!MVP!!!MVP!!!MVP!! Why is that every game in everybody elses home they chant the same thing. Contagious isn't it. When you're the best, the best follows you. Noone cries MVP for the Lowly Lebron"Lame" James. He's a wanna be a and will always be a follower. It takes a certain type of person to lead people. Lebron DEFINATELY isn't leading anyone to anything except the LOSING column. Can you read? I SAID LOSER!!! The MVP this year will Be Kobe Bryant...ALONG with a 4th Championship Ring!
7 months ago
Lebron ain't Michael Jordan!
Kobe owns Lebron. Lebron fears Kobe.
Lebron will not surpass MJ and Lebron will not surpass Kobe.
Kobe is 29 years old, yet he still dominates Lebron in every aspect of the game!
from 7 months ago
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!! Kobe owns LBJ?? Anonymous must be taking this year off in watching the NBA.. LeBron owned Kobe this year on BOTH sides of the court... I am biased,but I could not agree with writer more!! With the criteria he made in his article, you can't give it to anyone else...
7 months ago
i think kobe should win, but i like the piece jeremy. your argument is solid. he should def be considered. sorry you got so much crap for this one.
7 months ago
Perhaps Kobe should've got the MVP one or two of the last three seasons. But this season, with Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, without Kobe the Lakers would still be a solid 4 or 5 seed in the West.
Kobe has yet to miss a game this season.
The Lakers are 10-1 so far with Pau Gasol.
They were 24-11 with Andrew Bynum.
In the eleven games that they have played with neither Pau or Andrew, they are just 6-5.
By himself LeBron led his team to the Finals last year.
Without Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe has never made it past the first round of the playoffs.
Why don't all you Kobe-worshipping critics hiding behind your anonymity, that have the nerve to call me biased, go suck on that for a while.
7 months ago
If this is the case, Kobe should've won the award for the last two years. He carried a team with Smush Parker, Kwame Brown to play off in the west conference (not east).
But again, God knows what the criteria of MVP is. and again, who cares??
7 months ago
Jeremy,
If you want to play with stat, do it fair and square. it's not just simply 10-1, 24-11 and 6-5. Check out who the opponents were during the 5 losses.
Name any players that can carry a team with Smush Parker, Kwame Brown as starters in west conference to finals!
My name is Carlos and Yes I have the nerve to call you biased.
7 months ago
I'm a die-hard Suns fan, Nash is by far my favorite player, and I'm willing to admit that Kobe probably should've got the mvp at least one of the last three years:
But when I write an article supporting my opinion that LeBron should be this season's MVP, I am biased.
Yeah ok, you are right. That makes perfect sense.
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