Maybe there are legitimate reasons for the official awards of professional sports to be awarded solely for regular season achievements. But we're laymen. We all know that the playoffs are a better indicator of 'value'. (By the way, I stress the 'Valuable' part of MVP, I don't think it's just about the best player)
Let's get the obvious out of the way. Can we all just admit that it was INSANE to include Chauncey Billups in this discussion? He's choking in the playoffs, is only marginally better than anyone else in the starting 5, and in my opinion isn't even close to being the most valuable player on his own team. Ben Wallace is their identity, Hamilton is their clutch shooter, Prince is their clutch defender, and Rasheed is the guy who got them over-the-top when he was acquired midseason three years ago.
Quick hits:
- No one who tanks the second half o####ame 7 to send a message to his team deserves ANY award.
- The Mavericks would be fine without Nowitzki.
- Duncan deserved more credence despite a down-year ... still shouldn't have won.
- Thank God no Nets were given serious consideration.
- Wade isn't taking over like he should.
To me it comes down to Nash and LBJ. Sure, Nash doesn't play defense and he's not coming up big in the playoffs, but what kind of shape would that team be in without him? Would Boris Diaw, Shawn Marion and ... Jason Williams be leading a team into the Western Conference Finals? They wouldn't have made the playoffs. I go with LBJ.
I know that to most people it's between the King and Kobe. It's true that LBJ doesn't play defense at the same level and he has a better (though less active) supporting cast. But the coup de grace comes two-fold:
- LBJ is about to beat the supposed best team in the NBA while Kobe is fake-laughing with the TNT crew.
- Switch Mike Brown with Phil Jackson. What happens?
I still think that Kobe was the MVP. He is clearly the BEST player and the most VALUABLE. However, it is difficult to be on a team seeded 7 to win the MVP race. How about some love for Elton Brand. I think he is clearly the MVP in series with the Suns so far.
switch the lakers supporting cast with the cavs supporting cast, and put kobe in the east and lebron in the west, yeah thats what i thought, we would all be WITNESSES to a postseason without lebron
... For a short while, I am going to forget that there are local sports in the Seattle area. I really don't have much choice in the matter.
The only decent team I have is the Huskies basketball team ... and they're currently handing their future to a 5'8" ballhog ... my hatred of these players has been well-chronicl ed. I hate Isaiah Thomas and I don't want to root for a team with him on it.
