LeBron James wins fourth MVP

[Gehrig]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/LeBron-James-wins-4th-MVP-award-050513

Should not come to any surprise to anyone.

 

[Canuck Pappy]

Should have been unanimous

 

[LongTimeListener]

Who voted for Anthony?

Also I saw another note that five voters left Durant off their five-man MVP ballot.

 

[Uncle.Ruckus]

Also I saw another note that five voters left Durant off their five-man MVP ballot.

Those five should lose their vote.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

The same thing happened the year Shaq won it. It should have been unanimous, but one person voted for Iverson.

I thought they said there has never been a unanimous winner. That's amazing that all those years Jordan won it was never unanimous.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Gary Washburn of Boston Globe voted for Anthony. Wrote column today defending vote, not a bad defense, either. Sorry, no link I am at work computer.

 

[Songbird]

Haven't read the column. I don't have a problem with Carmelo getting that vote.

Yes, LeBron is the best player on the planet but we always get into the debate of "Most Valuable".

And let's throw away the whole " ... it's called playing in the East" because LeBron plays in the East.

LeBron has become Jordan/Magic/Bird/Kareem/Isiah/Shaq. It's been pretty cool to see him put the mental with the physical and spiritual and whatever else. When the time comes we'll have that "Best Ever?" discussion. Right now he's the greatest player on the planet.

But you know what: Carmelo probably was More Valuable.

This was his best season for the Knicks, who had 12 fewer wins than the Heat. But the Knicks *do* play in and won a much tougher division. The 3-4-5 teams of the Atlantic had 109 wins and Boston made the playoffs, whereas the Wizards, Bobcats and Magic of the Southeast had 70 wins (none made the playoffs). So if we're going to use strength of schedule as a variable, Carmelo had a tougher path.

But I have no problem if that variable isn't used in the discussion.

What if the Heat didn't have LeBron and the Knicks didn't have Carmelo for an extended period of time? Who wins more games? Dwyane Wade carries the Heat. He carried the Heat before LeBron showed up. Won a title, too. Who carries the Knicks in Carmelo's absence? Jason Kidd? J.R. Smith? Terry Shumpert?

But maybe that's not a valid variable either. I'm not sure we ever really know what the variables are. I'm leaving points, rebounds, assist, blocks, steals, whatever, out of the equation because hey, Durant was 0.6 points away from winning his 4th straight scoring title -- won by Carmelo.

That all said, if we we're talking Most Valuable, the truest answer is probably Kobe Bryant: Lakers go 7-75 without him pulling that scrapheap of **** for 48 minutes every night. It's not ****ing wonder his Achilles' tore in half.

Anyway, if we're giving the trophy to the Best Player it's LeBron -- and there's not even a second place.

But Carmelo was More Valuable than the Best Player.

Here's Washburn's column, which I haven't read yet:

http://b.globe.com/ZzPr4r

 

[Guy_Incognito]

What if the Heat didn't have LeBron and the Knicks didn't have Carmelo for an extended period of time? Who wins more games? Dwyane Wade carries the Heat. He carried the Heat before LeBron showed up. Won a title, too. Who carries the Knicks in Carmelo's absence? Jason Kidd? J.R. Smith? Terry Shumpert?

Anthony played 67 games, it's not a hypothetical.

And I know the Knicks are desperate for a second scorer, but probably not this desperate:

 

[Songbird]

Iman. Iman.

IMAN!

 

[Songbird]

What if the Heat didn't have LeBron and the Knicks didn't have Carmelo for an extended period of time? Who wins more games? Dwyane Wade carries the Heat. He carried the Heat before LeBron showed up. Won a title, too. Who carries the Knicks in Carmelo's absence? Jason Kidd? J.R. Smith? Terry Shumpert?

Anthony played 67 games, it's not a hypothetical.

And I know the Knicks are desperate for a second scorer, but probably not this desperate:

His Batting Average on Baskets In Play was better than Punto's will ever be.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I hate the overinterpretation of the word valuable. I want the best player to win.

Obviously, if you take Anthony away from the Knicks, it's going to hurt more than if you took James away from the Heat, but I'm not going to blame James because he has a better supporting cast.

I think Durant is the guy who, if you took him away from his team, the team would just immediately go into the ****ter...

LeBron is the best player. I'm glad he won.

 

[Songbird]

Thunder are loaded, and Westbrook could easily put in 30-35-40 a night in Durant's absence with the other pieces doing their things.

And yeah, I agree, I'd rather just have the Best Player in Basketball award. Makes it pretty cut and dry.

LeBron is the Best Player.

 

[BTExpress]

How on earth did these awards get named "Most Valuable" instead of "Most Outstanding" in the first place?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Well, first it was all copied from baseball, and obviously the assumption was that valuable and outstanding were synonymous concepts. Of course, it was the NBA that demolished that idea in the great Russell-Chamberlain debates of the early '60s. If I had a vote, I'd of picked James, but Washburn's point in his column was that not just Anthony, but Durant, Curry, etc. could and should have gotten a vote or two as well, since the difference in performance and value between them and James wasn't THAT different as to merit near-unanimity.

 

[heyabbott]

Well, first it was all copied from baseball, and obviously the assumption was that valuable and outstanding were synonymous concepts. Of course, it was the NBA that demolished that idea in the great Russell-Chamberlain debates of the early '60s. If I had a vote, I'd of picked James, but Washburn's point in his column was that not just Anthony, but Durant, Curry, etc. could and should have gotten a vote or two as well, since the difference in performance and value between them and James wasn't THAT different as to merit near-unanimity.

except for the fact that James was better, even if only marginally, than Melo, Durant, Curry ...

If you could reduce to an equation. James might have been better by only 10 one hundreths of a point. But he's still more, objectively valuable or outstanding. So he deserved every 1st place vote.

Those who vote to deny someone unanimity or to prevent someone from getting into the HOF on the 1st try are merely attention whores.

 

[LongTimeListener]

At some point yesterday, Deadspin heard from someone's boyfriend's sister's girlfriend that Dan LeBatard was the non-James voter. So they sicced their minions on LeBatard. Whoops! Wasn't him!

http://deadspin.com/dan-le-batard-didnt-vote-for-lebron-james-for-nba-mvp-492822353

 

[Mizzougrad96]

That's one of the reasons why I like how the NFL has the MVP and the offensive player of the year and very frequently, it's not the same person.

There have been a few times in baseball where the guy doesn't have stats that would typically merit winning a MVP, but they made a difference from the previous year and they win the award.

Gibson in 1988 jumps out at me. To a lesser extent, Larkin in 1995.

When I was covering baseball, I asked a seamhead whose opinion I really respected what was an example of the best player winning over someone who was clearly more valuable and he said Mattingly beating Brett in 1985.

 

[JC]

You are punishing Lebron for having better teammates. Switch Anthony and Lebron and the Knicks record improves while the Heats would not.

 

[Versatile]

There have been a few times in baseball where the guy doesn't have stats that would typically merit winning a MVP, but they made a difference from the previous year and they win the award.

Gibson in 1988 jumps out at me. To a lesser extent, Larkin in 1995.

Kirk Gibson was sixth in the NL in WAR, within 0.6 WAR of leader Orel Hershiser. Barry Larkin winning it over Greg Maddux is indefensible, but he, too, was very close to all the other position players, finishing sixth overall at 1.6 behind Barry Bonds but only 0.7 behind Reggie Sanders.

Neither of their MVP victories is particularly scrutinized beyond saying pitchers deserve more recognition.

 

[BTExpress]

You are punishing Lebron for having better teammates. Switch Anthony and Lebron and the Knicks record improves while the Heats would not.

Yeah, that seems more fair than "Take LeBron off the Heat and they still make the playoffs, but take Anthony off the Knicks and they're a lottery team."

Take the teammates out of the equation. Entirely.