Why LeBron James is the Midseason NBA MVP

When LeBron James announced that he’d be “taking his talents to South Beach” on July 8, he became the most hated player in the NBA, and the Heat became easily the most hated team.

Is LeBron James hated? Yes. Was he wrong in leaving Cleveland for Miami? Maybe. I thought it was a great decision, but that’s very debatable. Whether he was or not, it doesn’t change the fact that he is still the league’s best player.

In my opinion, LeBron is the league’s MVP.  Yes, he has two of the best players in the league playing with him, but I still think he is more valuable to the Heat than any player is to their team.

As far as scoring goes, LeBron’s points per game have only been down a few this year, and that’s with two guys who score over 18 points a game. Last year in Cleveland, he didn’t have anyone averaging 18 points.

LeBron has missed two games this year, back-to-back games last month. Miami went 0-2 without him, including a 28-point loss against the Nuggets.  

Meanwhile, there have been two games where Bosh and Wade have been out and James has played. The Heat won both those games, a 17-point win over the Raptors, and a win over the Pistons that LeBron won basically by himself.

Those are the kind of things you really have to look at to see why this guy is so valuable to this team.

Also, I know it’s pretty stupid to look at last season for this year’s MVP, but Cleveland had the best regular season record last year. This season, they are currently riding a 23-game losing streak, and are 8-42.

If LeBron can be that valuable to the Cavaliers, he surely can be the league’s most valuable player no matter what team he’s on.

Yes, Derrick Rose is great, but I think we’re giving him too much credit.  You can argue that he’s not even the best player at his position in the NBA.

As far as Durant goes, I don’t think he really compares to LeBron. Oklahoma City has gone 3-1 without him, including a win over the Eastern-leading Celtics. 

At the end of the day, we’re still only a little more than halfway through the NBA season, and a lot of things will most likely change during this half. You can make an argument for a lot more players, like Stoudemire, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul, but I really do think LeBron is the MVP at this point.