"As someone who has held an MVP vote more years than not in the past decade, one of my great professional fears is 20 years from now, we look back on James’ magnificent career and wonder how it’s possible the greatest player of his generation — arguably the greatest of all time — could retire with only four MVP trophies. That in itself isn’t reason enough to vote for him. The MVP isn’t meant as a career achievement award. But it does demand us to take a deep look at James every spring and make sure we can justify not voting for him." This is why LeBron will get most of his votes. Instead of looking singularly and objectively at this season, people are carrying baggage from years gone by, which allows them to justify starting with the conclusion that the award is LeBron's to lose. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If they switched places, LeBron would be the unanimous MVP without question and not a single voter would be bothering with the mental gymnastics necessary to shoehorn Harden into the conversation.
"The MVP isn't meant as a career achievement award, but I will now proceed to treat it as a career achievement award"
Bron stans are devoted, I’ll give them that...they’ve even resorted to saying that Lebron deserves it more than Harden because he has more total points even tho Harden averages 30.4 ppg to Lebron’s 27.7, total rebounds, total assists, and triple doubles Any mention of the numerous advanced stats that Harden leads in and the fact that the Rockets have won 65 games while the Cavs are at 50? Nah. Harden is also 2nd in RPM behind Chris Paul Harden has also been better than Lebron defensively this season...yes Bron stans, it’s true
The stupidity of that quote boggles the mind. How many players in the history of our league have retired with 4 MVPs? Jordan (4) Kareem (6) Chamberlain (4) Russell (5) This guy obviously has no sense of NBA history if he thinks having “only” 4 MVPs is a black mark on LeBron’s career.
Westbrook just secured another trip-dub season AND the Thunder have 1 more win than last season. Does this mean he automatically should win it again? LOL The Thunder actually got him help and his Thunder are still low seed in the playoffs. But that shouldn't matter, right?
Here’s what I don’t understand for the life of me: WHERE was all of this Lebron chatter during Curry’s MVP seasons? You could literally argue the same thing then. If anything his involvement in the sheer volatility of the Cavs team is totally ignored. Hey the team was bad and he was a huge reason why they were bad but he dragged them out of being bad because he’s so good even though he’s a huge part of why they were bad. At this point any vote for Lebron is simply a vote for Not Harden.
Wrap it up, it's over the Westbrick has done teh impossible and is now the only one in NBA history to average a BACK-TO-BACK Triple double season. he totally deserves the MVp once more. Just thinking about Harden being rob last season over triple doubles is insanely infuriating.
Updated: This is for keeping track of the voters who have stated their vote either in print or on television. Harden- 17 Zach Lowe, ESPN Kevin Arnovitz, ESPN Ramona Shelbourne, ESPN Cassidy Hubbarth, ESPN Sam Amick, USA Today Ben Golliver, Sports Illustrated Sean Deveny, Sporting News Kevin O'Connor, The Ringer Steve Aschburner, NBA.com John Schuhman, NBA.com Shaun Powell, NBA.com (No vote last year. He was in a column with 4 verified voters. Probably has a vote.) Sekou Smith, NBA.com Chris Broussard, Fox Sports Kurt Helin, NBC Sports Bill Simmons, The Ringer Mike Wilbon, ESPN Will Guillory, NOLA.com (No vote last year. Claims to have a vote on Twitter.) LeBron- 3 Jeff Zillgitt, USA Today Stefan Bondy, NY Daily News (No vote last year. Claims to have a vote on Twitter.) Jason Lloyd, The Athletic Cleveland (No vote last year. Claims to have a vote in article.) David Aldridge has stated that he will not reveal his vote early. Remaining votes- 79 This was all that I've found so far. I've been searching Google news for NBA MVP, James Harden, LeBron, etc. and referencing the names here: http://official.nba.com/wp-content/...-Most-Valuable-Player-of-the-Year-Award-1.pdf If anyone wants to take this list and run with it, feel free.
Yea but how did 13 anonymous Cleveland Cavaliers vote for MVP???? How stupid is this? How pandering is this? Who cares aside from ESPN, who 13 Cavaliers voted for?? My god the idiocy of that outfit. Hmmm I wonder how the Rockets player would vote...... "ESPN conducted an anonymous poll with 13 Cleveland Cavaliers players Wednesday to see how they would vote for the six major awards and none of the results were unanimous, including LeBron James for MVP, who received 12 votes (James Harden getting the other). No instructions were given (i.e. not being allowed to vote for themselves or their own team, etc.). The rest of the awards went to: Rookie of the Year - Donovan Mitchell (7 votes), Ben Simmons (4), Co-ROY for Mitchell & Simmons (2); Most Improved Player - Victor Oladipo (11), Clint Capela (1), Nikola Jokic (1); Defensive Player of the Year - Rudy Gobert (5), Josh Richardson (2), Paul George (1), Andre Roberson (1), Marcus Smart (1), DeAndre Jordan (1), George Hill (1), Capela (1); Sixth Man - Lou Williams (12), Fred VanVleet (1); Coach of the Year - Quin Snyder (4), Brett Brown (3), Terry Stotts (2), Mike D'Antoni (2), Dwane Casey (2).
This is the real nugget. Would one of Harden's teammates vote someone else for MVP? not a good look for LBJ.
