Boston Celtics: Move over, KG! Paul Pierce is the Team's Real MVP

John McDown — Sun, 18 May 2008 18:26:27 -0400

Put away your stat sheets and MVP voting ballots. I won't need them where we're going.

All we need to look at is a Game 7 where a 66-win powerhouse was on the ropes with the sensational and already legendary LeBron James coming full-force to knock them on their behind and put them out of commission for the summer. It's the players who come out for these games that we need to remember.

The regular season provides a stage for players to make themselves known. With an 82-game sample size, you really have to respect anyone who can sustain a level of play for that long.

It's the playoffs, though, that really takes great players and turns them into legends.

It's the guys who prepare for the big games that make their legacies the most memorable.

It is the players who can still do what they please against a defense that has been studying their moves on film in a hot and stinky locker room for 48 hours.

It is really a matter of will, separating talented winners from talented losers.

So when Paul Pierce goes into tonight's game and says to himself, "I'm not only going to take on the responsibility of guarding LeBron, I'm also going to stick it to him on the other end." That is a big-time approach. You think this guy is scared of King James? I don't. Pierce had an iron will in Game 7 that is legendary.

This didn't stop James from throwing up a big game. I don't think anything or anyone really can stop him when he wants to have a big game. He, like Pierce, gets up for the big games.

What Pierce did do was play him evenly. He took on the challenge. He guarded James. He took the big shots, and he made those big shots.

This is a big deal because the Celtics have three stars. Garnett, Pierce and Allen all have been the lone stars on their respective teams for years. So going into this season, they've decided to defer to each other for the sake of the system, and up until this point, it's worked perfectly.

Game 7 against King James, however, it would not have worked. One of those three had to step up. Somebody had to go blow-for-blow with LeBron.

There is no way they could have been successful by continuing to defer to each other. The Eastern Conference Champions were making their final push.

Pierce decided to break off and be a little selfish. That takes balls, but it needed to be done. They needed a leader. They didn't need someone to scream and yell in the first half on a defensive play. They needed big shots and someone who could somewhat offset what LeBron was doing.

If not for Paul stepping forward, all three would have gone back to the losing reputation that they had gained throughout their careers.

I hope Garnett and Ray buy him dinner Monday night. He saved their butts.

Next time I see the Celtics in a game preview, I better see "Paul Pierce and the Celtics" because in Game 7, against the Eastern Conference Champions, in a head-to-head match up with LeBron freaking James, Paul Pierce earned his stripes.

Lakers: The Real Reason Kobe Bryant Is the NBA MVP

John McDown — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:39:06 -0400

Upon receiving his first career MVP, Kobe said he wasn’t sure if he would ever win one.

In fact, he stated a few weeks ago that the award has changed so much over the years. It used to be an individual award, but now it’s based on leadership, team success, making teammates better, and other outside factors.

Well let’s take a look at things that actually matter in determining the value of a player.

Everybody knows about Kobe scoring 81 points in a game. There was the time he scored 62 on the Mavericks in only three quarters. He scored 30 points on the Jazz in one quarter just a week after Kirilenko decided to compliment his own defense on Kobe. There are too many instances to count.

What do these historic performances have in common? They’re demoralizing. They were also blowouts by the time Kobe was finished. You would be a fool to argue that Kobe isn’t one of the most explosive and deadly scorers in NBA history, but see, that is just one of his great abilities.

Let’s rewind a few years, when Kobe was a sidekick to the diesel. He was the second option.

Sure, he was probably the best second option the NBA has ever seen, but he was still a second option. So in the eyes of many, he was riding the coattails of an all-time great center.

What people failed to see was how he excelled in a role that was not at all limited to scoring.

Did you know that Phil Jackson said his overall floor game was better than that of one Michael Jordan?

Did you know that he has led three championship teams in assists per game?

Sure, the actual numbers weren’t breathtaking (five to six assists per game for those three years), but the fact that he was basically the point guard on one of the NBA’s great Lakers dynasties is rather impressive for a guy known for scoring and his inability to involve teammates and be a leader.

Oh, and that point guard gives you about 25 to 30 points per game, by the way, and since your franchise player can’t hit free throws, he is your go-to guy in the final six minutes. This has yielded several memorable performances that has given him the reputation of ultimate finisher.

The variety of things he has accomplished over the course of his career has made him the most feared and respected man in the game.

In a poll that Sports Illustrated did earlier this year, they asked 242 NBA players who they fear playing against most. Kobe finished at the top of the list by a large margin. He received 35 percent of the votes, and a distant second place finished at only 12 percent.

What all this does is paint a picture of what he can do when he needs to. It speaks of the depth of his basketball abilities and basketball IQ.

Look, value is not about what you’ve done in an allotted amount of time. It’s about what you are. It’s about what you can do. A dollar is still worth a dollar even if you only need 75 cents of it.

Kobe may not have used his entire arsenal this season, but it’s still there at his disposal. He can’t lead the league in assists like Chris Paul, but he can run a team from the point and be successful. He has done it and won a title.

He didn’t lead the league in scoring this year like LeBron, but he has before.

He wasn’t defensive player of the year like Garnett, but he has proven that he is one of the best defenders in the league when he wants to be. He has shut down premiere players on more than one occasion.

He was never the leader that Tim Duncan or Steve Nash has been, but he is now.

Doesn’t that scare you? He can do anything he wants to do, and up until this point in his career, he has.

Kobe has the league in his grips right now. Anything is possible for this gym rat. If you want to talk value, it’s not even close. He is too complete, too experienced, too determined, too smart, too talented, and has too huge of a presence.

Bleacher Report - Articles by John McDown

Boston Celtics: Move over, KG! Paul Pierce is the Team's Real MVP

Lakers: The Real Reason Kobe Bryant Is the NBA MVP