NBA MVP RACE
With the NBA season approaching playoffs, the big question on everybodys mind is “Who is the leagues MVP?” According to an article on NBA.com, Kobe Bryant is in first in the standings followed by LeBron James. The author says in the article how in the past three years the leagues best player (according to stats) has NOT won the MVP.
This year LeBron leads Kobe in almost all categories including Points Per Game, Rebounds Per Game, Assists Per Game, Blocks Per Game, and has a higher Field Goal Percentage. If this years MVP choice follows the past 3 years, Kobe is still on his way to winning his first MVP.
One issue that is often disputed with the selection of the MVP is that numbers no longer matter. I believe that numbers are not everything, especially in the NBA today. I believe the selection should be made by who is the most efficient. Shooting Percentage is more important to me than PPG. Even after saying this, I think Kobe deserves the MVP this year. He has done more for his team overall than LeBron. The whole process of choosing the MVP is extremely objective. The MVP award is becomes inflated to me and not worth as much because it is such an objective decision.
This would be the first MVP award that Kobe achieves in his entire 12 year career even though he made the all-star team every year of his career. This year seems to point towards Kobe winning it. In the beginning of the year he was skeptical about the Laker team. Kobe was thinking about being traded because of the lack of support his team was giving him. After experiencing this, Jerry Boss, the Lakers Gm decided to go out and get Kobe someone to play with and put together a team capable of going all the way this year. The Lakers signed big-man Pau Gasol as the latest edition the the starting line-up. Kobe responded to this by saying “It shows a great deal of commitment from the organization,” and continued “It’s a matter of us just gelling now and putting it together,”… “We’ve got a great bench. We have a lot of length, a lot of versatility. Now it’s time to walk the walk.”
After this key edition, the Lakers moved to the top of their division, making a strong run to the playoffs, Kobe still leading the whole way. Kobe has put together some spectacular games lately playing like he has something to prove. He showed great perseverance when he played a couple weeks with a broken finger. He just wrapped it and continued to play excellent basketball.
This could be the year for Kobe to finally achieve the one award that he never has, the MVP award. At this point of the season he has showed me enough to get my vote. He is playing confident and trying to prove to people that he has a name among the all-time greats. Kobe is trying to leave behind his legacy with extreme determination this year and he gets my MVP vote.
