Dwayne Wade: The NBA's Real MVP

(Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images)

How could you not vote for Dwayne Wade when the guy plays for one of the worst teams in the NBA and takes them to a fifth seed in the East?

Of course when the MVP voting comes along, no one is able to look past team records and LeBron James wins the MVP while Kobe Bryant gets second place.

Where is the respect for the NBA's scoring champion? Wade is the guard who blocks more shots then most centers and would have over 10 assists per game, too, if his supporting cast could hit a wide open shot once in a while.

The MVP is supposed to be the most valuable player to any team, so then please tell me who can possibly be more valuable to their team than Wade is to the Miami Heat who owned the league’s worst record last year?

With Wade injury free this year, the team that couldn’t get beyond 15 wins last year surpassed that benchmark before the start of 2009 season and clinched a playoff spot in early April.

So you have to wonder how the Heat's star got overlooked in the MVP voting. Out of the three main MVP candidates, Wade is by far the best competitor when it counts. When he gets thrown to the floor a few times, he still puts up a 30 points.

In a game against the New York Knicks, he got thrown to the floor and cut open his lip; afterward, he scored 24 points in the fourth quarter to give the Heat the comeback victory.

When you compare Wade to the MVP winner James, the statistics are in Wade’s favor. He has more points per game, more assists per game, more steals per game, more blocks per game, and a higher field-goal percentage.

Although James' stats are also impressive and his talent and skill as a basketball player are some of the best in the history of the game, I think Wade matches the true meaning of MVP for the 2008-09 season better than James.

With all that said, Wade had my vote as the league’s MVP. We can only hope for the sake of the NBA and the Miami Heat that he can put up another spectacular season to finally get the trophy he deserves.

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