The MVP Race

The Award

The decisive stretch of the NBA regular season is upon us and it’s shaping up to be an interesting finish in both the East and the West. Teams are busy clinching playoff spots, jostling for favourable post season seeding or scrapping to propel themselves into the conference’s elite eight.

But the battle for the playoffs isn’t the only big story in the NBA at the moment. This year’s MVP race has, it seems, been the subject of debate since opening night. While the league’s top guys are putting the finishing touches to stellar seasons in an attempt to solidify their MVP candidacy, the sportswriters’ barrage of statistical analysis, biased assertions, heated remonstrations and largely meaningless comparisons have reached an overwhelming level, and rightly so.

From LeBron’s statistical beast of a season to Kobe’s emergence as a true leader to KG’s winning ways, the award is hotly contended to say the least. And that’s not to mention Chris Paul, who has quietly established himself as the best playmaker in the league. Everyone’s got an opinion on this one and everyone’s got a favourite.

Yet the MVP decision usually courts question marks and controversy, particularly in a season such as this were no player has shown emphatic superiority. It is an award with no consistent, substantiated set of criteria. Every year the definition of an MVP seems to shift; a trend which has thrown up some surprising, if not questionable, results (see Nash, Steve).

The problem word is "Valuable." How do we judge value? Is it the player with the highest statistical output? The best player on the winningest team? The player most indispensable to their team? The best player in the league? It is an intrinsically subjective subject.

It is, however, easy to narrow down the field. Sure, the year has been littered with impressive performances - Kevin Garnett (we’ll get to him later), Amare Stoudemire, Dwight Howard, Deron Williams, and Tracy McGrady have all had fine seasons in their own right. But there are three players that have clearly separated themselves from the pack - Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Chris Paul.

To stack these guys up and compare them against each other is a difficult task, and somewhat of an erroneous one. Each of them has a huge impact on every game they play, but in different ways. They play different positions, have different skill-sets, different body-types and different attributes.

For their own teams, each player is the leader, the best and most talented basketball player, and the most effective box-score stuffer. Simply put, they are indispensable to their respective organisations and this has been demonstrated by consistent excellence throughout the season. With all that established, what really matters is how successful their team is.

Taking this on board, let’s look at the main candidates and see why Kevin Garnett, despite winning more games than the other three, shouldn’t be the MVP.

Despite his assertions to the contrary, the Big Ticket is the best player on the best team this season. Yes, Garnett said he’s "got Paul (Pierce) for MVP this year," but the 2004 MVP has been known to get a little carried away from time to time.

It is the off-season addition of KG that has the Boston Celtics heading for a 60+ win season and has them playing the kind of D that prompted Tracy McGrady to offer this little gem after the Celtics snapped the Rockets 22 game winning steak: "In my 11 years in the NBA, that's the best defence I've ever seen."

Both literally and figuratively, the presence of KG has been huge, but Boston’s regular season dominance and transformation from an irrelevant squad to a title contender has more to do with team than individual. P-Squared’s uber-efficient year and the sweet shooting sugar Ray have played a big part in the Celtic revival, as has the effective play and timely brilliance of the team’s crew of role players.

While Beantown are the league leaders, KG cannot be the 2008 MVP. He suits up with two other all-stars every game night; players who are capable of carrying the scoring load, providing veteran leadership and steering Boston to victory, a fact demonstrated by their 7-2 record without him.

LeBron James; get the man some help.

We are just five seasons under the reign of King James and the global takeover is well on its way. In the past year, LeBron has graced the cover of Vogue, hosted the ESPYs and topped a Forbes list. The man is everywhere - including the top ten of most statistical categories.

If we’re talking numbers, LeBron is this year’s MVP. Sure, he hasn’t had to compete for shots with his team mates and playing in the East won’t have harmed his stats, but posting roughly 30 points, 8 boards, 7 assists, 2 steals, and a block per night while shooting 48 per cent from the field, is no joke.

However, LeBron has history to contend with if he is to receive his first MVP trophy. Aside from the lockout year in ’99, only one player (Moses Malone) has won an MVP on a sub-50 team in the last 25 years. The Cavs will not win 50.

In the ’88-’89 season, Michael Jordan put up 32.5 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds a night and even registered 10 triple doubles in the last 11 games of the campaign. Yet the Bulls won just 47 games and the G.O.A.T missed out on his second straight trophy. Magic Johnson, despite having inferior, albeit very healthy per-game averages, took home the MVP silverware.

Even if LeBron were to go statistically buck-wild in every remaining regular season contest, it would still be hard to justify his case for MVP considering the Cavs middling record. Cleveland is simply a below average team made average by a well above average player. LeBron does everything for the Cavs. Now it’s time for his running mates to up their games and do something for him.

CP3 or Mamba. Who will it be?

There have been a fair few eyebrow raisers in the NBA this season; the young, overachieving 76ers, the Bulls futility, Drew Gooden’s facial hair, the sight of the geriatric Dikembe Mutumbo blocking dunk attempts of players a quarter of his age.

But the biggest surprise of them all has been the Hornets. Led by Chris Paul, who is on course to be the first 20 point/10 assist guy since Tim "foot in mouth" Hardaway during the ‘92-’93 season, New Orleans are likely to win one of the most talented and tight conferences in NBA history.

It’s hard to believe that a six foot, 22 year old guard in his third NBA season would have such a positive effect on a team. Consider this; Steve Nash won the MVP trophy two years running with fewer steals (and the inability to stay in front of his man), a worse assist-to-turnover ratio, superior team mates and fewer points per game than CP3.

With Kobe, the MVP chatter got considerably louder when Pau Gasol was dealt to the Lakers (in one of the most lopsided trades ever) and the team subsequently climbed to the top of the West. But when the bearded one went down, the Lake show kept on notching up the wins while Kobe continued to attract double and triple teams on the regular.

Mamba managed to steal the media limelight before the season started with his ego-stroking trade me, trade me not narrative, but since game one, he has been totally focused and rabidly determined in the face of all the on court adjustments he has had to make.

For a guy that has been hyped as the best player on the planet for the past few years it is strange to think that Kobe might win his first MVP this season. If he were to take home the trophy, it wouldn’t be a bad time considering that he’s playing the finest basketball of his 12 year NBA career.

Paul and Bryant have been the catalysts for two of the better teams in the best conference. It has been said before, but the only way to separate the two and determine the 2008 MVP is to give it to the guy whose team has the best record.

If we assume the panel of sportswriters and broadcasters who decide the contest concur, the remainder of the season just gets even more interesting.