Kobe Bryant or LeBron James: Toss-Up At MVP

Stop the foolishness!

The MVP award of the 2008-09 season will go to either Kobe Bryant or LeBron James.

If you want you can make arguments for whomever your heart desires, but when it's all said and done, it will go to either one of those two. No one else has a shot. Nope, not one, not even a little bit.

First of all, in order to win the MVP award your team must be among the top records in the NBA.

If you look at just the last twenty MVP winners, you will see that ten of them came from the team with the best record in the league, eight of them came from the second-best, and only two of them came from third.

And those two players are Kobe Bryant last season and Steve Nash from the 2005-06 season. So only recently has the player from the third best team has had a shot at MVP.

I’ll repeat for emphasize for those of you who don’t get it: your team must win games! Therefore, if your team isn’t winning games, you will not win MVP. I don’t care if you score 81 points and average 35 points for the season. If your team does not win games, you will not win the MVP award.

Since it is fairly early in the season, I will take a look at the top four records in the league. You have the: Boston Celtics (.875), Cleveland Cavaliers (.867), Los Angeles Lakers (.833), and the Orlando Magic (.800).

This is the part where you go, look, the Magic are just as good as any of these teams and they just edged the Lakers in a close game a couple weeks ago. Why can't Dwight Howard get any love for MVP?

I mean, come on, this guy is having a monster season, leading the league in rebounds and blocks at 13.6 RPG and 3.6 BPG, while averaging 19.9 PPG at 55 percent from the field.

That's an outstanding stat sheet for a center and any coach would love to have Howard on his team but he is no match for Le-obe.

Can you imagine the outburst if Dwight Howard wins his first MVP over LeBron James—I’m sorry, King James?

There is no chance of that happening. He is too strong of an influence on the NBA to get beat over Howard this season.

Think about it, who has been the talk of the NBA season? LeBron James. Who has the MVP ballot in their hands at the end of the season? Those very same people hugging LeBron James' basketball sack.

I expect the Magic to cool off soon and distant themselves a little from the top three which will leave Howard in third place at the end of the season.

I can totally see him holding up an MVP trophy one day; it just won't be in 2009.

Next up, you can go after one of the Big Three. You got Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Also, if you’re a hardcore Celtics fan, you might even throw in Rondo, you know, just for laughs.

Because none of these players will win MVP.

Yes, they do have the best record in the league and have a very good chance at finishing that way for the second-straight season, but no player on that team will win MVP.

The leader of that team is Kevin Garnett so if a Celtic is going to win the MVP award, it is going to be Garnett.

Think about it, when Ray Allen got traded to the Celtics, no one had them winning a championship. Then Kevin Garnett got traded there and it’s lets all see who can hold on to the Celtics’ basketball sack longer.

Also, Pierce’s teammates make him better—it is not the other way around. He is a good offensive force, but he is not a leader.

Don’t tell me that he won Finals MVP, because so did Tony Parker. That doesn’t mean you’re the leader. He was by himself with the Celtics his whole career and didn’t do anything special. He was also on the brink of demanding a trade before Garnett and Allen came along.  

So it’s settled, Kevin Garnett is the only MVP that can come out of Boston.

Kevin Garnett already won an MVP award when he was with the Minnesota Timberwolves. LeBron James has never won an MVP award.

This means that James already has an edge over Garnett and this also means that LeBron’s Cavaliers can be in second or third place and he’ll still have a better shot at MVP than Garnett.   

I know it sounds stupid, but this is the logic used to determine the MVP winner.

It is this kind of idiotic logic that kept players like Michael Jordan from winning three straight MVP awards.

It gets old having the same MVP for more than two seasons. You need someone new and fresh.

Who’s newer or fresher than the fresh king of Cleveland?

So why does LeBron James deserve MVP?

Well how about leading his team 26-4 start while being undefeated at Home. Is that enough wins for you guys?

If it isn’t, then how about 27.5 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 6.4 APG, 2.0 SPG and he is doing all this while shooting 51 percent.

The only person that can stand in his way is Kobe Bryant.

Bryant is the reigning MVP so at the end of the season people will be like, well is he worth the back-to-back? He is good enough for that kind of honor?

Well, is he?

He is averaging 26.3 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 4.2 APG at 47 percent shooting.

This isn’t as impressive as LeBron, but there are things to consider which will make stat sheets futile at the end of the season.

LeBron is a very powerful small forward. The Cavaliers offense revolves around him and he can take it to the rim with brute force—hence the high shooting percentage.

Kobe is a more finesse shooting Guard and takes more jumpers because of this. He is also a better shooter than LeBron.

Just because you average a higher shooting percentage doesn’t necessarily make you the better shooter. It all depends on where you take the shots.

But I’m not trying to downplay LeBron James here. If he can get to the rim the way he does, he doesn’t need that much of a jumper, but it always helps.

All I am saying is that it’s not going to come down to stats.

It’s going to come down to how well the individual player can use his own unique talent to win games and make noise.

Remember, there are still two very important Laker-Cavalier matchups coming up, and you better believe that they will influence MVP votes.

At the end of the season it will come down to wins, these two matchups, and how much noise the player will bring for his team.

The more you keep your team in the headlines, the better your shot at MVP.

Since I am a Laker fan, I am going for Kobe, but if LeBron wins it. It will be well-deserved.