I think Nimo is Really Stephen curry on clutch fans. Dude, if you don't like harden then just say so. If you think curry should be MVP then say it. But stop trying to downplay this award because I think it's a real honor for harden to win MVP voted by his peers. The Media is much more biased than players themselves. The media is on the outside looking in. They don't understand what NBA players have to go through. NBA players voting for harden is because of the respect they have for him this year. They know how hard it is to carry a team in a tough conference like the west. They know harden went through most of the season with a injury riddle team. The fact that the rockets were in 2nd and had the 3rd best Record in the NBA despite injuries to Howard, Jones, Beverly and Dmo shows just how valuable harden truly is. Curry is an amazing player and is probably the greatest shooter of all time. Players know how tough it is to stop him and they all have so much respect for curry's game. But they also know that curry is fortunate to have such a deep and talented team that never have to deal with any major injuries all year long. Curry does not get the defensive attention from other teams like harden. NBA teams know that if they stop Harden, they stop the rockets. With the Warriors, they can stop curry but there is Klay Thompson to account for, then Harrison Barnes, draymond green, Andre Iguodala, and even Curry's backup Livingston is like a Swiss Army knife. Curry is great no doubt in mind. But he doesn't have to carry his team like Harden or Lebron James did all year but he gets most of the credit because he's playing with such a deep and talented team. So in the end, I think players voting means a little more than the media. The Media tends to overrate and underrate players too often. The media doesn't truly know the work put in by these players. The media doesn't truly know how great a player is because they are not the one playing alongside or against them. They are on the outside looking in.
Michael Wilbon goes ballistic on PTI with Harden winning the Player's Choice Award MVP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iknoyh7kHxc(starts at 1:00 min mark) On this clip, Michelle Beadle and Marcellus Wiley got into a heated argument about the players awards, it was so heated that Michelle Beadle ended up playing the woman card, because she was getting outdebated. http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=13302827
The media seems to be losing a lot of credibility with out takes like this. The players don't have the right to pick and choose awards amongst themselves? They're the only reason these media hacks have a job. Don't bite the hand that feeds.
It's great Harden is respected amongst his peers. He has improved his game every season and his defense improved last year. Props to James. Going forward, Rockets will remain exciting to watch and will make more deep playoff runs.
So sick and tired of sports media and their constant belittling of professional athletes. These folks are the ultimate jock sniffers known to man, and they are now offended with their views dont jive with what the jocks think. Hearing the vitriol and absolute BS spewed out by prominent members of the media should clearly demonstrate how ridiculous they sound. Secretly I am hoping that the Rockets run off the best record in the NBA next season, and wipe out the competition...and James Harden put up Stephanie Curry like #s from this season, and see the narrative that runs during the voting period. I can bet that the Rockets will NOT get the amount of love the Warriors and Steph got this season...And in that case, the default MVP will go to Lebron...
I was not prepared for all the hate this award show got. Across the board, the media has disrespected the voice of the players. The way they just dismiss the players and say they have no idea what they are talking about is really surprising. I know these sports journalists have egos but this is ridiculous.
If only... If you read long enough you would have seen that I think Harden should have been the MVP. My comments had nothing to do with that specific award.
It's because they're threatened... in many ways, it's a referendum on their own importance to the league. So they're coming out, guns blazing.
Wilbon and Beadle look like two dopes in those clips. "How dare anyone challenge our opinions!?!?" 2 pompous fools. Beadle's Spurs fandom (anti-Rocket) is showing in her clip. Bringing up the SAG Awards was a nice touch by Marcellus. Beadle just sitting there like someone put a turd in her punch bowl. "I'm not going to watch it." Good! I am not watching you either. And no one was watching you on MSNBC either, or on Sportsnation etc etc etc etc.
ESPN lost all credibility when they awarded Bruce Jenner that 'Coourageous Award" over military men and women who lost limbs serving our country. Makes any other ESPN awards pretty baseless as a result. If that guy is their supreme example of courage in this great country, then what does it say for other ESPN recipients?
I'd like the players to take this to the next level and the media chosen MVP will reject his award publicly. At the same time uses it to promote the players' award as the award he's actually wanting. I know it won't likely happen, as money and endorsements are on the line, but that would be the greatest slap in the face to the media.
Curry is too much of a douche to do that for his fellow players. The media is making his daughter a celebrity right now, you think he's gonna give that up?
The how do you explain the pushing of Michael Sam and Bruce Jenner by ESPN? It's actually the opposite of what you think. The powers behind Disney have a very different agenda.
I wasn't talking about Curry, season is done. I'm talking about future MVPs. The ones most likely to do this are someone like Durant and Lebron, the former being the catalyst of the players' awards and the latter being VP of NBPA.
No it's not actually. If they were pushing players similar to Michael Sam or Bruce Jenner 15-30 yrs ago yrs ago, then maybe you have a point but they are pushing them only in a social and political climate today which is far more accepting of LGBTs than it ever was before - and I'm sure even more so with the demographics they are trying to reach from a sales perspective. I see this more as ESPN trying to cash in on a popular trend - maybe even specifically to LGBTs as a lifestyle demographic they think they can exploit with sponsors. I don't believe ESPN cares about taking a social stand or pushing a social agenda from some sort of ethical or ideological stance - they may take those stands, but only if they can demonstrate that they will make more money off it than the inverse.... I'm not just theorizing either - I worked in a large marketing firm for a decade working with top US retail brands(not ESPN or Disney though) and I can tell you that large corporations move in that manner and I have no reason to believe Disney/ESPN is any exception to that. The programming and what they cover on the program is just a means to the end of attracting highly specific demographic markets. If anything, I would think Disney and ESPN are better at it than most.
