NBA MVP Winner: Do the Numbers Lie?
The regular season MVP award has lost its luster, due to disappointing play by MVP recipients.
By. Gregory Calvaire
The NBA season is a grueling 82 game odyssey in which fans, players, coaches, GMs and owners battle night after night in an epic journey to find their teams identity. All while along the way to competing for an NBA championship banner and the precious Larry O’Brien trophy.
On the road to winning a ring, special players grab the reigns of their teams and will them into chains of victories, placing them amongst the top tier of the league’s standings despite their roster, injuries, difficulty of schedule, or inexperience.
These heralded players become candidates for the Bill Russell MVP award, which is significantly more meaningful than a mere congratulation.
The MVP award is an honor that places your name amongst the best players to ever play this game and is also a mandated quota of success, which is therefore bestowed upon the recipient.
To win the MVP award your team must be a valid contender, have a realistic chance at winning the championship and you must be the driving force behind them being a contender.
For example, Vince Carter plays for a contender in the Orlando Magic. However, he is clearly not the reason they are a contender. This was made the most evident by Orlando’s game five Eastern Conference Finals win this post-season regardless of Carter’s dismal six point input.
When a player is given the MVP award, in no way are the fans and the media saying that they are satisfied with the player’s performance over the course of the regular season but on the contraire, it is a cry for more production.
Players that are given the MVP award are expected to ascend to another level in the post-season, and pay back their voters by delivering on the promise they made in the previous 82 regular season games, that they displayed prominence.
The NBA playoffs serve as a litmus test for the recipient of the MVP award; playoff play will either prove journalists correctly chose the right MVP or reveal the inaccuracy of the decision, and expose the player chosen as MVP.
This doesn’t mean you HAVE to win the NBA finals if you win MVP, but you should be the furthest reason from everyone’s minds why you did not win the finals and because you hold the teams reigns, you will be held responsible for any lack of effort your team may put forward.
You were given the award because throughout the season, you showed us you could motivate your team and carry them to victories. So, if they do not show up the playoffs, which we know you are capable of making them do, you are performing below your full capability.
Also your play should not only stay on the same level it was on in the regular season, but it should step up a notch. Your team can not be your scapregoat for losing because your team helped you win the MVP award despite their flaws and weaknesses.
A good example of this litmus test was when Dirk Nowitzki was awarded the 2007 MVP award, only to be beaten by the eigth place Golden State Warriors in the FIRST ROUND of the playoffs.
As the defending Western Conference Champions, the top seeded team in the NBA and the owner of the regular season MVP, ending a season in this manner is inexcusable.
The loss only reminded us that the Mavericks blew a 2-0 lead and home court advantage in the 06 finals to lose to the underdog Miami Heat, and suggested that Dirk cannot propel a team to a championship excusing him of the responsibilities of any real MVP.
In this years playoffs, talk stirred up once again that Dallas might be a contender for the Larry O’Brien, only for Dirk and the Mavs to once again prove to us that they are only a pretender well disguised as a contender. Mark Cuban will have to find fulfillment out of great regular season success for the rest of Dirks tenure in Dallas.
As I previously stated, winning the regular season MVP award does not mean you HAVE to win the NBA finals (although you really should,) but winning the MVP award and sitting at home watching the NBA on ABC in June, is like winning one leg of the Thoroughbred Triple Crown and finishing in the middle of the pack at the following race.
Horses that win the Kentucky Derby are praised until they lose in the Preakness Stakes, making whatever hype they had built up deflate like a popped balloon like a guy winning the regular season MVP award and taking an early bow out of the playoffs.
Suddenly that award becomes meaningless, just like the Kentucky Derby becomes irrelevant when we know there will be no Triple Crown winner at the Belmont Stakes.
Winning the MVP award and falling short of a championship is like chasing a straight-flush in poker and ending up one card short after the river; suddenly you’re left with an Ace and four other cards that mean nothing to each other.
In the past 20 years only four players have ever won the MVP award and followed it up with an NBA finals MVP (Jordan (4), Olajuwon, Shaq and Duncan.)
And only three times have I seen the NBA equivalnce of the Triple Crown be won, which is one individual bringing home the Finals MVP, Regular season MVP and All-Star Game MVP all in one year. Michael Jordan (96,98) did it twice and once by Shaquille O’Neal in 2000.
It has been 10 years since we’ve seen a player unanimously dominate on every level of competition.
Some may argue with this theory which is fair when citing that the All-Star Game is an exhibition game and shouldn’t be counted as a leg of the Triple Crown, however, being called most valuable amongst the most valuable, clearly stands for something.
Also, unlike in recent years, the All-Star games used to be some of the best games of the years.
Hall Of Famer’s egos and competitive natures clashed to make great basketball drama, i.e. Isiah Thomas and Co. freezing out Michael Jordan in the 85’ All-Star Game, or Magic going one-on-one with Jordan and Isiah at the end of the 92’ All-Star game.
Another problem with the All-star game being the third element of the Triple Crown is that the faster pace of play alienates most big men’s game, making it harder for bigs to win the MVP award, but winning all three MVP awards in one year is still a great feat nonetheless.
As much as I can blame past regular season MVPs for not converting their good regular season fortunes into success in the post-season, I hold the voters far more responsible for us not having an undisputed MVP in the past seven seasons.
Journalists should be more disciplined when choosing their MVP recipients and not be swayed solely by incredible stat lines, or just giving the award to whoever’s team has the best record in the league.
Voters should look at choosing an MVP like placing a bet.
The purpose of the NBA regular season and post season is to determine the best team in the league which we then title champions, and the most valuable player is the player who is most likely to deliver his team a championship, making them the best team in the league.
Therefore, voters should place a bet on what player they feel is most likely to win a championship, not whoever is the most entertaining, or who has the best statistics.
Looking at stats over a player’s ability to deliver a championship when voting for an MVP is ignorant. Many factors affect a person’s statistical output, such as a team’s style of play and the player’s freedom in the offense and a lot of stats arent even essential to a winning a championship.
High basketball I.Q, leadership, clutch and will to win are not measured by any statistic, and these four factors may be the most important qualities of an MVP.
These are the first four qualities we use to describe the most valuable player of all time.
As we know, hindsight is 20-20. It is questionable whether the 2010 MVP award was incorrectly awarded. Obviously, not nearly as bad as Nash’s back to back MVP’s that never saw a finals birth, but it’s hard to argue this after watching our 2010 MVP give up in the biggest game five of his career and commit nine turnovers in the following elmination game, while his runner up hasn’t had a bad post-season game yet, despite having fluid drained from his knee and a slew of other injuries that make the MVPs elbow bruise comical in comparison.
This year’s MVP result reminds me of when Malone (27 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 4.5 APG) won Regular Season MVP over Jordan (29.6 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 4.3 APG) only to lose to him in the NBA finals, except we wont be watching the top two MVP vote getters battle it out in this year’s NBA finals… just the runner up.
