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NBA MVP Bloggers' Choice
Robyn74 posted 4/3/2009 from ballhype.com
The annual NBA MVP award is great fuel for commentary and criticism. As with college football's Heisman Trophy, the MVP is discussed and disputed for weeks before the winner is announced. And, like the Heisman award, courtside commentators like us rarely seem to agree unanimously on who should win the honor. While a player's stats and season-long performance are paramount, unfortunately the numbers don't always indicate the intangibles, like a guy's overall contribution to his team's success.
With only 123 MVP voters, there are plenty of valuable perceptions that won’t get to see the light of day. So, before the NBA announces who "the media" choose as their winner and hands off the coveted Maurice Podoloff Trophy, we gathered some opinions of our own. The bloggers below offer up their chosen honoree, along with the top three runners up. If you don't agree, chime in with your own comments and keep the conversation going.
User: mookie
Site: A Stern Warning
MVP: LeBron James-Cleveland Cavaliers
Don't even mention Mo Williams—there is no one on the Cavs that even resembles a player that can carry a team. Take LeBron out of this lineup and they crumble. Isn’t that the definition of Valuable? His numbers are phenomenal and he has improved every facet of his game. His swagger is deserved in dragging this Cleveland team to the league's best record.
Runner Up: Kobe Bryant-Los Angeles Lakers
Bryant is ultimate scorer. He can do it all, seemingly at will, driven with an intense desire. The only thing separating his and James' seasons is the way that the latter has driven his team to new heights that would not have been attainable without his presence. Take Bryant out of LA and you still have Gasol, himself a former franchise player in Memphis.
Second Runner Up: Dwyane Wade-Miami Heat
Potentially his has had the finest individual performance by any player in many a year. He is penalized through his team's relative lack of success, potentially unfairly, as he has taken them to places that they have no right to be (namely the playoffs). A guard averaging 1.4 blocks per game? Ridiculous. The Olympics were just a warm up for what has been a magical season by Band-Wade.
Third Runner Up: Brandon Roy-Portland Trailblazers
Cast your minds back. Nobody, outside of the staunchest one-eyed Blazers supporters, expected Portland to be where they are now. Many predicted a repeat of their 2007-08 performance, struggling to grab a playoff spot. Whilst they've added some solid potential-laden rookies, the only consistent factor on a nightly basis (yes, you heard right Mr. Aldridge) has been Brandon Roy. He does it all and in such an understated way that he almost shrugs off attention. GMs globally would kill to get this guy on their roster.
User: RedsArmy
Site: RedsArmy.com: The Voice Of Celtics Fans
MVP: LeBron James-Cleveland Cavaliers
The term MVP is usually up for some debate. Is it the most valuable guy to his team, or the best player in the league? Well, LeBron is both. Take him off the Cavs, and what do you have? Spare me any debate, this guy has been the MVP since day one.
Runner up: Dwyane Wade-Miami Heat
Carrying... flat out carrying Miami. Again, take him off the team and how bad are the Heat? Horrible. He's personally responsible for them making the playoffs.
Second Runner Up: Kobe Bryant-Los Angeles Lakers
OK, so I've got the same three guys everyone else does. And maybe Kobe Bryant is a victim of both his success and general hatred. But even as a Celtics fan, I know this guy is deadly. And there might not be anyone in the league better with the game on the line.
Third Runner Up: Rajon Rondo-Boston Celtics
Homer pick? Sure. Fourth best player in the league? No. But he IS the guy that makes the defending champs go. People who haven't watched the C's might say KG, Ray Allen or Paul Pierce are the MVP's of the team. But people who watch the Celtics on a regular basis know they are at their worst without Rondo...and they're at their best when he's got his game working. That's an MVP to me.
User: Newsboy1956
Sites: Le Basketbawl and Slam Dunk Central
Bill Gates says that "Life Isn't Fair" and I’m afraid that is true. We have been asked by BallHype to provide our 2008-2009 NBA MVP as well as three consolation selections. I personally believe that there are five candidates that deserve to be mentioned; however I am a team player and I play by the rules. Unfortunately that makes my job just a little bit tougher! Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This!
Different NBA observers have different parameters as to what constitutes an MVP. To me it is literally the Most Valuable Player; not the best player in the league, the one who means most to their team. A few years ago I was offended when the Major League Baseball Writers Association awarded the American League MVP to Alex Rodriguez when he played for the last place Texas Rangers! With or without A-Rod the Rangers would have been in last place. His personal stats were amazing, by far the best in the league; but where was the value? So to me personal numbers come in second to what you mean to your team.
And so with the explanation out of the way let us then proceed to the three runners up and our MVP Choice:
Third Runner Up: Chris Paul-New Orleans Hornets
CP-3 is the point guard of his generation; if he stays on course not only will he end up in the Basketball Hall of Fame he will become legendary. He will be talked about with the likes of Bob Cousy, Tiny Archibald and Isiah Thomas the greatest of all time. Paul is averaging a double-double for the season 22.9 points and 10.9 assists per game. However the Hornets have not come close to scaling the heights they hit last year and with that CP-3 falls to number four.
Second Runner Up: Dwyane Wade-Miami Heat
Yes Pat Riley made the acquisition of the trading season picking up Jermaine O'Neal and Jamario Moon for the Playoff drive. But the reason that "Riles" made the move was due to one man D-Wade. Wade has been the reason that the Heat went from a Lottery team last year to a legitimate contender this year. The Heat will most likely lose in the second round of the Post Season but it will be D-Wade that gets them that far.
Runner Up: Dwight Howard-Orlando Magic
In the "Golden Age of the Point Guard" Superman is a reminder of when Behemoths ruled the Association. D-Howard has no legitimate competition in the pivot position and he has yet to peak! Realistically the Magic should have dropped out of the top three teams in the Eastern Conference when they lost Jameer Nelson for the year. Somebody forgot to tell Howard that!
MVP: LeBron James-Cleveland Cavaliers
I was extremely fortunate to be at the right place at the right time for three NBA seasons. Those happened to be the first three years that LBJ was in the Association; I covered him as a Radio Reporter as Sports Director for Metro Networks in Cleveland. I was also fortunate enough to cover him for the two games played at the Q Arena as the "Chosen One" played in the 2007 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. LeBron was amazing his first campaign in the NBA and he continues to grow in leaps and bounds each season. Without LeBron James the Cleveland Cavaliers are the team heading to Seattle to take the place of the Sonics. With him the Cavaliers may win their first NBA Finals in June.
User: WithMalice
Site: With Malice…
MVP: LeBron James-Cleveland Cavaliers
Quite an amazing season that LeBron’s having, he’s Atlas with a few cast-offs, yet the Cavs will likely head into the post-season with the Association’s best record.
Runner up: Kobe Bryant-Los Angeles Lakers
Whilst there are some that boast a better stat-line than Kobe, the Lakers are perhaps the pre-eminent favourite to take the title. And although LA are a rich cast of players, Kobe’s brought them to where they are.
Second Runner Up: Dwyane Wade-Miami Heat
Wade's amassed an amazing set of stats this season, but at some point in time, someone's gotta take ownership of the substandard season Miami are having. That's all yours too D-Wade.
Third Runner-up: Dwight Howard-Orlando Magic
I’m a Laker-fan. The Celtics don’t scare me. Neither do the Cavs. But the Magic does. And that’s all Howard. The Dwight-mare.
User: The People’s Champ
Site: The People’s Champ
MVP is always a subjective award although it shouldn't be. It's about the player who is most valuable to his squad. A team with 31 wins doesn't have an MVP because chances are they would suck almost as much without him. Here is my criteria:
1- He must play for a winning team.
2- He must make his teammates better—that can be by a number of factors, whether he gets them better looks due to his passing, gets them more fast break and transition hoops because of his defense and/or rebounding, or teams need to gear up to stop him that they need to double and triple him which causes more foul trouble, easier looks, etc etc.
3- He can not have a severe deficiency in his game. It's why Dwight Howard and his putrid FT% keeps him off this list.
MVP: Lebron James-Cleveland Cavaliers
The stats tell one story. Leads his team in points, assists, rebounds, blocks and steals. His squad tells an even more telling story. They have the best record in the East and besides Mo Williams who was a nice player in Milwaukee before turning All Star this year with Lebron, would be fighting for lottery position without The King.
Runner Up: Dwyane Wade-Miami Heat
Leads the league in scoring. Leads his team in assists and steals. Who does he play with? Jermaine "washed up" O'Neal? Udonis Haslem? Meanwhile Wade has these guys fighting for the 5th position in the East. With Wade missing 31 games last season and injured for muchof the 51 he player, they finished with 16 wins.
Second Runner Up: Chris Paul-New Orleans Hornets
He scores (22+PPG), he leads the league in assists at close to 11 a game and is also the games best defender at the point guard position, averaging almost 3 swipes a game. He shoots over 50% from the field and is leading his team to another 50+ winning season despite his second best player (David West) missing a lot of time dueto injury and his Center being non existent this year (Tyson Chandler). CP3 is the man.
*Unsung MVP-Brandon Roy-Portland Trail Blazers
When talking about the best guards in the game, invariably the first names that get brought up are Wade, Paul, Kobe and Nash. Rarely do you hear Roy’s name being brought up with them although you can make a very good case he's right up there with them all. He is the leader of a 44-27 team. He leads them in scoring, assists and steals and is as cool as cat as there is. He shoots 83% from the line and is a great clutch performer. He shoots 90% from the line in clutch situations and turns it over only 2.6 times per 48 clutch minutes (Kobe is at 3.0, LeBron is at 5.1 and Wade is at 4.2). He is the guy you want with the ball in his hands with the game on the line.
User: AEM
Site: The Fifth Corner
When I decided to do this post about the National Basketball Association MVP for BallHype, the first thing that popped into my mind was the title of one of the best westerns I have ever seen: "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". Since I knew that I just had three players I was going to talk about in this post I tried to make a correlation between the movie's name and the trio of players. Hopefully I did a good enough job that it will make some sense, if not I apologize in advance.
Second Runner Up: Kobe Bryant-Los Angeles Lakers
In my little MVP/Western Movie mixology the role of “The Good” goes to Kobe Bryant, and the good stands for the conference he plays in. Before any lover of the Eastern conference comes at me and says that the team with the best record is in their side of the bracket, look at the number eight teams for both sides, Dallas (West) has eight more wins than Chicago (East). But on to why I think that Bryant could be the MVP of the league: in a conference with some great teams he has brought his team up to be the best of the West. I won’t put numbers in this post because frankly I would bore you, so I will let the experts of the NBA break down what each stat means. I will go with what I have seen from Bryant, he has gone from the role of being "Robin" to finally being "Batman". In other words, he is now the top man on the team instead of the sidekick, and that to me is a step that isn't easy to achieve, especially when you consider all the past baggage that has surrounded Bryant, his ex teammate and his coach. In other words he has grown up, and grown up a lot. I will finish with this on Kobe, in a world where athletes love to soak up the attention at this year's All Star game he had no problem letting his ex team mate Shaq take it all in while Kobe (once again) played second fiddle.
Having said all of that, Bryant is the third place finisher in my voting.
Runner up: LeBron James-Cleveland Cavaliers
After "The Good", let's go to the "The Bad". And here I have to say that there is plenty of bad to go along with the candidate, which is LeBron James. Bad can be the conference he is in, for the way that the front office has handled bringing in some talent to keep their prize possession in Cleveland, and finally with the many hints/ways that James has shown/made people feel that he is gone from the Cavs when the times comes. I know that the voting for MVP comes down to what the players do inside the court in those 48 minutes, but that is for the bloggers that follow the game and for the analysts that are paid to comment in any and all ways how the games went. For me, a passerby who watches more for the fact that my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has plenty of players in the NBA the way I look at the Most Valuable Player is by what they do as a whole, from the court to outside of it. And while I am not saying that James' hints of leaving are overwhelming, they are there and everyone knows about them. His talent on the court is undeniable, just like Bryant's, and so it's a pleasure to watch him on the court doing what he does best, which is play the game.
With that being said, James is the second place finisher in my ranking.
MVP: Dwyane Wade-Miami Heat
And now for "The Ugly" (and hopefully it's not my writing). I took that word for last year's wins of the team he played for: 15 out of 82 games, meaning an 18.29 winning percentage. That is ugly, if not worse! By now you must have figured out that I am talking about Dwayne Wade, another player (like Bryant) who had to go from "Robin" to "Batman" and just like his counterpart on the Lakers, he also had to deal with Shaq in the process. The difference there is that Wade became Batman before Shaq left the team, while Kobe did so once the big guy left the squad. And maybe I am biased in this choice because Wade has something that neither LBJ or Kobe have, and that is the college experience. The fact that he played this game for several years on a big stage without being paid makes me feel better about him than the other two. Also the fact that he is the underdog in the real chase for the MVP makes me pull for Wade, and lastly because his spotlight is a lot dimmer than the ones put on the other two players in this article.
In the end, Wade is my selection for MVP.
But before I end this, I'd like to say something about these three men. I appreciate them for who they are, human beings that have athletic abilities that almost no one else will ever achieve. All with their little outbursts, with their mistakes/failures and victories/successes. I am not one to put any athlete on a pedestal, and this comes from a person that has walked the same halls as people such as Michael Jordan, Lawrence Taylor, Mia Hamm, Dean Smith, Roy Williams and I could go on and on and on. But there is one thing I am most proud of, and that is watching every minute of every game of the Olympics, and there Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade did get put on the pedestal, the gold medal one, and they did it not for the pay, but for the love of the game and for the love of their country, and that was truly special to me.
Username: Sports2Debate
Site: Sports2Debate
The 2009 NBA MVP Race, Who Will Win? Sports2Debate posted this question to their users. How the players ranked once the votes were tallied:
MVP: Lebron James-Cleveland Cavaliers
Runner Up: Dwyane Wade-Miami Heat
Second Runner Up: Two-way tie between Kobe Bryant-Los Angeles Lakers and Dwight Howard-Orlando Magic
