LeBron James 2006 NBA MVP?
Kobe Bryant is the likelier choice but is he the best player in the league?
The NBA has unwritten criteria for choosing its MVP. Trouble is, the MVP is rarely the most valued player in the league.
How do we measure a Most Valuable Player in a team sport, like professional basketball? Doesn't MVP imply that the player has more value than anyone else? In other words, if this MVP was on any team in his respective league, no matter how well that team performed throughout the season, he would still be valued the most. Right?
Of course, we know that this is not how the NBA looks at MVPs. It has unwritten criteria. Here's how the league's MVP policy would look if publicized. The NBA's MVP must:
- Play for a winner - a playoff team
- Be a media darling
- Lead the league in at least on major statistical category
- Have several years in the league
Before you start running to the NBA archives and looking for past MVPs who disprove my criteria theory, consider this simple proof. There are many so-called experts saying that Cleveland's LeBron James is not the league's Most Valuable Player.
This alone is absolute proof of the criteria theory. LeBron is without logical dispute the NBA's MVP this season. I'll grant that he plays for a winner, but he is not, for some unfathomable reason, a media darling. He's not a category leader in any statistic, although he's in the top 10 in virtually everything. And he's also only in his third year, straight from high school, which some people hold against him.
The odds-on favorite for the MVP award is Kobe Bryant - the poster child of the criteria theory. For some bizarre reason, NBA reporters and writers love this guy - one of the most selfish basketball players to ever lace up the sneakers. Kobe wouldn't pass the ball, if he had four brothers playing alongside him.
If the MVP trophy went to the guy with the most value, LeBron James would win this year, and he would have won last season, too. The most sensational performer since Michael Jordan has taken a franchise that was one of the worst in all of sports and made it a legitimate title contender. Although value should not be judged on stats alone, consider that only one other player in history has career averages of 25 points, six rebounds and six assists. That player is Oscar Robertson. LeBron and Oscar are in a class by themselves.
Aside from these astonishing numbers, though, LeBron leads the league in both points and field goal percentage in the fourth quarter, when the best, most valuable, players step up and carry their teams. He makes more old-fashioned 3-point plays (the kind where you score and get fouled) than anyone. In fact, the next closest player is 20 behind LeBron in a category that underscores how truly unstoppable a player is.
So, the NBA's Most Valuable Player criteria will probably guide the decision once again, and Bryant will win the MVP award.
Just to make sure they get it right in the future, though, I recommend my own personal, foolproof system. At the end of each NBA season, both fans and media members alike should ask just one question. Based on the entire season, looking at every facet of the game, who is the most unstoppable player in the NBA - the one you want to lead you to victory in game seven of the NBA finals?
If you say a name other than LeBron James, I'm guessing you haven't seen him play very much. Watch the playoffs, then ask yourself again. Pretty simple, huh?
