MVP! MVP!
>> Sunday
Okay, first off, let me admit something - I don't really know the first thing about NBA basketball. Well, I know the first thing, ya know, like how points are scored and stuff, but beyond that I'm not much good to anybody. I follow basketball with only the most casual of glances and don't put nearly the effort into researching it as I do to pro football and baseball.
However, I'm still gonna put my two cents into the argument over who deserves the NBA MVP this year, partly because I like reading my own words and partly because I don't have much else to write about and don't feel like studying for finals.
Anyway, I'm gonna side with Vinnie and say that it's a pretty big sham-ola that Steve Nash won the MVP again this year. Maybe, as some suggest, he deserves it more than he did last year (because he played this year without Amare Stoudamire), but I think it's irrelevant to justify one MVP award in comparison to a previous one.
There are a lot of guys this year that are pretty deserving of the award, including Kobe, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade and others, but after doing a little bit of research, I've decided the award should have gone to LeBron James.
You've got to understand, by the way, that I hate myself for having to support a guy as hyped up as James (come on, how lame are those "We are all witnesses" ads?), but the numbers speak pretty loudly to me.
I'm making this assessment based on a few things. First of all, LeBron played seven more minutes per game (42.5 to Nash's 35.5), which demonstrates that his teammates needed him out there more than Nash's did.
Second, the most obvious number: points. LeBron averaged 31 points a game this season compared to Nash's 19. That's a ridiculous difference, and 31 points a night shows that James simply dominated the competition, even though defenses were certainly keying on him every night. Nash simply doesn't pose the same offensive threat that LeBron James does. Also, James provided an offensive boost to the Cavs by getting to the line an average of ten times a night, compared with Nash's 3.5.
A lot of the arguments for Nash center around his "unselfish" style of play and the fact that he's a great passer. But, when you compare the two, Nash's assist numbers don't vastly exceed LeBron's (10.5 to 6.6). Also, it's worthy noting that James is an excellent passer and sets up his teammates with the same effectiveness if not the same frequency as does Steve Nash.
Why didn't we start this earlier when I could have given a meaningful opinion on like the Cy Young or the NFL MVP? Dammit!
Anyway, that's it for me. Don't forget to take the grain of salt when you finish reading this post, and make sure to tip your waitress. Try the veal. Rimshot!
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3 comments:
I have a feeling both of us will have full length novels written after the next Cy Young is announced. Oh shit, an even more frightening thought--the day when HOF voting is announced...look out.
What the hell are you trying to be Bechtel? Turning the players' names into links to their ESPN profiles. Not only is this a clear attempt to make us/you look more professional than we/you actually are, it is an insult to our reader(s?) to say, "Since you're too retarded to find Steve Nash or LeBron James' profiles, I'll provide an easy button."
Not bad, not bad...but 2006 NBA MVP should've been Kobe.
What Nash has done the last two years has been pretty good so sure I'd give him the award ONE year but not back to back years. To put him on the same list with Jordan, Duncan, Russell, Chamberlain, Kareem, Moses Malone, and Larry Bird is just...wrong. The Stockton piece that Nathan wrote the other day adds to this. What he did has been done before, most recently by Jason Kidd. The Nets were a shitty franchise and then this guy came along and turned them around and took them to the finals consecutive years but lost out on the MVP twice. Steve Nash has not taken any of his teams anywhere close to where Stockton and Kidd have taken their teams.
Lebron was simply awesome. What is he. 20? 21? It's ridiculous that I'm here typing this crap right now and he's in the playoffs dominating the league..and he's one year younger. HOLY SHIT is he good...but not good enough to win it this year. Zydrunas Ilgauskas was arguably the best center in the East before Shaq came back, Donyell Marshall was pretty good for Toronto and Chicago the last couple of years, Larry Hughes got his money(although he was injured for most of the season), and Damon Jones was lights out for the Heat last year. Lebron had a more than decent supporting cast. Sure they all played like crap this year but the Cavs did put together a pretty good team for LBJ to play with. He also played in the East where there is only one dominant team(Detroit) and two so-so teams(Miami and New Jersey) and I doubt he had a winning record against those teams.
To me the East is a joke...so I'm going back West... to Los Angeles...to the Lakers...to #8...soon to be #24...Black Mamba...the 2006 MVP...Kobe Bean Bryant. He carried this team (selfishly?) for 82 games. A team comprised of Sasha Vujajic, Luke Walton, Brian Cook, and Devean George. A team whose big free agent moves where to draft a high school center -Andrew Bynum- who wouldn't provide immediate help, an aging Aaron Mckie who has done nothing in the league for a couple of years, a pussy -Kwame Brown- and a guy named Smush. That roster sucked man but Kobe carried them all the way to game 7 agasint the Phoenix Suns. Nobody thought they'd make the playoffs, much less get that close to advancing to the 2nd round(where they would've beaten the Clippers and then who knows what would've happened against Dallas).
While King James has surpassed expectations, Kobe did the same with a joke of a team in a much harder conference competition was *clearly* alot better(although I can't prove this right now).
Steve Nash and ALL CANADIANS SUCK
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