So it looks like Kobe Bryant is our 2007-2008 NBA MVP. Kobe is our MVP even though LeBron joined Oscar Robertson and Michael Jordan this season to become the third man in NBA history to average at least 30 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists per game.This is so far beyond dumb that it’s hard for us to get worked up about it.
By every measure LeBron is having a better season than Kobe, and I don’t think it can be questioned that the if the two players switched teams, the Lakers would be better, and the Cavs would be worse. (Would any Cavs fan trade LeBron for Kobe? No.) Anyone who wants to argue this point must explain why LeBron has elevated his Playoff game in each year of his career and was able to singlehandedly lead the Cavs to the NBA Finals last season, while Kobe has struggled to lead a stronger supporting cast to a .500 record for the last three seasons without making a peep in the playoffs. Kobe proponents point to the Lakers better record in a better conference. Kelly Dwyer, in two excellent posts at Yahoo Sports about why LeBron should be MVP, responds well to this:
“[Kobe] shouldn't be handed an MVP just because Andrew Bynum can ball now and the Grizzlies decided to hand the Lakers Pau Gasol. Meanwhile, James is just destroying people in Cleveland. Pulling in more rebounds on a team that owns the boards even without him (there's not a lot of stray rebounds to go around) and racking up assists on a team that can't shoot straight (44.1 percent, 24th in the NBA).
And yet, those who still consider Bryant to be having the better season than LeBron have no issue overlooking the fact that Bryant scores less, shoots worse, rebounds worse, assists worse, and plays on a team that averages fewer possessions than James' team. To them, Kobe's better because ... well, he just is.
The, "LeBron plays in the East!" cry is getting a little old. LBJ averages 29.8 points, 47.4 percent shooting, 7.1 assists, and 7.9 rebounds against Western teams. When James plays, the Cavs are 16-11 against the West. Kobe averages 29.7 points, 48.8 percent shooting, 6.5 boards, and 5.4 assists (again, in games with more possessions) against the West -- awesome -- but for some reason lets his averages go to relative pot against the East. You'd think it'd be because of the Lakers blowing Eastern teams out, but Kobe actually averages more minutes per game against Eastern squads than against Western outfits, and contributes less. Weird.
Worse, James is going to get burned by voters who will credit him for MVPs likely won from 2009-2019 and hand it to Kobe just because he's playing "unselfish" basketball."
LeBron dominates while carrying a bad team on his back, putting up better stats than Kobe in all major categories. He's nearly averaging a triple double in the playoffs, while playing with a bad back. Kobe is less productive on a better team. Kobe’s award makes clear that the NBA MVP award has become a lifetime achievement award like the kind that they hand out at the Oscars or Grammys. Dumb dumb dumb.
The least we can do about this injustice is make a play on the Jazz to beat the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals. We’re not crazy about Utah; we’re concerned with Carlos Boozer’s poor play against Houston in the first round (and with the fact that he is a traitor), we’re pretty sure that the Lakers have a deeper bench; and we know that the NBA is salivating over the prospect of a Lakers/Celtics NBA Finals. But even aside from Kobe’s stupid award, these Lakers just don’t appeal to our Brownstown sensibilities. We think that Kobe’s MVP award might have the same effect on him that the Heisman trophy has on college players playing in big bowl games. Plus, Utah’s Deron Williams is dope, we’d take Mehmet Okur in a fight over anyone on the Lakers roster, and, perhaps most importantly, don’t eff with Jerry Sloan. Finally, this play goes well with yesterday’s series play on the Magic because the Jazz are 3 to 1 underdogs, which means that we’d come out substantially ahead even if these two plays split. All reason enough to wave our Jazz hands. The pick: Utah Jazz +300/100 over the Lakers to win the series.
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5 comments:
The NBA MVP isn't about the numbers; it's political an can be influenced by groupthink. In fact, I'd argue that the MVP has arguably been the wrong choice for the last four seasons.
Four years ago, Nash won for the first time over (basically) Shaq, which seemed at the time to be a cop-out against picking Kobe or another shooting guard with similar numbers because it was easier to isolate Nash in a league with fewer great point guards than SGs. I wrote a column advocating Shaq for MVP back then, and there was a lot of chatter, which is one reason that I think Nash ended up winning back-to-backs — the voters looked at his numbers the next year, saw everyone did basically the same thing (except Shaq, who slipped), and thought this would legitimize the previous selection.
Well, that backfired when Nash put up an actual MVP season last year, only to put the voters in the awkward position of not giving the award to him because they don't want to hand out three MVPs in a row to Steve Nash. Instead, they gave it to Dirk, which was really just a way of moving the hardware around the league. I'm not going to take shots at Dirk, but Nash's season was clearly better (as was LeBron's, probably).
This year, you have the media DYING to finally give the award to Kobe because he's the "consensus" "best" player in basketball. I'll believe it when I see it, but when I look at the league, I (surprise!) see one MVP candidate above all others, and that's KG. And I think that if KG had NEVER won an MVP before, he'd be a lock this year, the thinking being that the younger player (Kobe) would always have another chance. That's the same bias that's going against LeBron right now, the implied sentiment being that now that Kobe's MVP out of the way, LeBron can clear his trophy case. In a way, the Kobe MVP is the best thing that can happen to LeBron's long-term MVP case, as LeBron is now the highest-stature player without the award (as Chris Paul is behind LeBron in stature). Simply put, barring injury, I would be astonished if LeBron didn't win the award next year.
If KG were the only All-Star caliber player on the Celtics, averaged more points, more assists and significantly more rebounds than Lebron I would agree with Bryan. What was the Celtics' recored with KG out of the line-up?
Personally, I'd take a championship to a MVP trophy anyday. I think C.C. would agree.
While I fully appreciate that LeBron has nothing to work with, I don't necessarily buy the "KG had more All-Stars to work with" argument, simply because they won 19 more games. It would be one thing if they won the same amount of games, but they won, I would argue, a proportionally similar number of games given the supporting cast.
I would not call Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and even Rajon Rondo proportional to what the Cavs currently have by that number of wins. Just my 2 cents. Lebron is 100% the focus of our offense and obviously the other team's defense. This really hinders him some games. Did you see how good Lebron played during TEAM USA play this past summer?? He would be insanely good off the ball or with some sort of true PG. I think he really is the all-around best player in the league and made his team much better than KG or Kobe. If you would have given the award to Chris Paul I would not argue. I just don't think Kobe deserved it.
I'm not really arguing against LeBron so much as I'm arguing against Kobe, by the way, but I would factor in KG's Defensive Player of the Year award into consideration for the award. But I think the real determining factor for me is that I was born about 2 miles from the stadium.
Also, I LOVE Chris Paul. For that matter I love LeBron too. I think there are only two types of NBA fans: LeBron guys or Kobe guys. I'm solidly in the first camp.
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