http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25140450 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/sam_amick">@sam_amick</a> clippers players were voting on these tonight</p>— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) <a href="https://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/585693176645754880">April 8, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> To clarify, this does NOT affect the awards that the media votes on and the NBA gives out. Still, it will be interesting to see if the players vote differently than the media.
This is actually great. I know the media probably won't give much coverage to it, because it would be shooting themselves in the foot. But it's a great perspective to have. If this picks up traction in the coming years, Harden being the player's MVP could sound a lot better than Curry being the media MVP.
Cool. I'm sure politics/friendships will still have an impact on the results, but it will be fun to see the votes regardless.
I'd rather they did the end of season awards like this instead of just having media members vote. The only people who I would trust to actually know who the best players are would be the guys who have to prepare to play the guys who are up for the MVP/MIP/DPOY/COY. Coaches and players have to know who all other players on other teams are, media members in general don't watch all the teams enough to know who the deserving players really are.
Hopefully these awards come out before the medias do so the media knows who to vote for for MVP - Harden.
Probably gobble up some sloppy seconds from Brandy's brother? Either that or David Stern doesn't like black people or Beyonce had the best jumpshot of ALL TIME.:grin:
My guess is that the results will be pretty similar to that of the current awards. Can't see, for example, someone who finishes 10th in the official award finishing 1st with the players' vote. This is mostly just a gesture and tactic by the union to get its members a little bit more engaged. The union wants to show that its new leadership is listening to its members. Also, the very act of getting a ballot and filling it out gets guys into the habit of interacting with the union, which interaction will be important when we have a lockout in 2017.
We collectively complained all year about how Curry is unfairly favored by the media and the NBA. We then post tons of reports on how Dwyane Wade, Anthony Davis, Lilliard, even Mark Jackson all mention Harden as their pick for MVP. I think we can deal with a little player bias in the face of all this media bias. Give me two MVPs going forward. And we should label them accurately as well. Ten years from now let's look back on this year's award winners. Media voted MVP: Curry Player voted MPV: Harden Ideally I think it would be nice to have a player + coach + Gm voted MVP, DPOY, etc... There is no way that would be less biased than the media.
It doesn't look like a power play to me so much as a member-engagement effort. Gives the union membership more pride in the organization and a reason for the union to exist outside of CBA negotiations and objecting to league suspensions.
Players would be the worst evaluators for something like this. They would consider at best a 4 game sample-size to make their determination.