NBA MVP 2012: Why Carmelo Anthony Will Never Win Elusive Award

If LeBron James was the best player on the floor during the Miami Heat's 33-point thrashing of the New York Knicks in Game 1 of the two teams' first-round Eastern Conference playoff series on Saturday, than Carmelo Anthony was easily the worst.

Miami was plus-35 during the 32 minutes James was on the court, while New York was minus-35 for the 34 minutes Anthony was in the lineup. Anthony finished with a modest double-double, 11 points and 10 rebounds. Unfortunately, he shot 3-of-15 from the field and helped the Knicks to a brutal 35.7 percent shooting afternoon as a team.

Despite all of his basketball greatness though, the 27-year-old Knicks' superstar will never claim the coveted but elusive NBA MVP Award.

Anthony is one of the league's top scorers. He averages an impressive 24.7 points per game for his career, which has spanned nine seasons thus far, but he has never developed his ability to make others around him better. He has yet to ever truly overachieve and maximize what's around him, for whatever reason.

Though it can show up in the form of assists on the stat sheet (Anthony averaged 3.6 APG this season), it is more so a rare ability that few gifted scorers possess.

It's the trait that helped Steve Nash to back-to-back Maurice Podoloff trophys in 2005 and 2006. Even the past two winners, Derrick Rose and LeBron James, did more with less and made others better, and their teams won games because of it.

In different ways past MVP winners Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki opened things up for their respective teams, providing a decoy which allowed for other players to shine. Despite him being on the same talent level as past MVP winners, Anthony has not been able to do the same.

Anthony has played nearly a decade in the NBA, but has only one trip out of the first round of the postseason to show for it (2009 Western Conference Finals with the Denver Nuggets).

Anthony wants to win undoubtedly, and he has proven he can win. But, he is missing a key element to his game, one critical to forming an MVP player: the ability to overachieve.

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