Idk if it was a joke, but it was purely statistical... How often do we say that good numbers on a bad team is fools gold. Well you've got real gold on a bad team so ALL of his numbers were (purposely) inflated. Westbrook played all of last season trying to get his, and he accomplished a pretty amazing regular season stat-line. I don't blame people for giving it to him because of the historic implications, but the fact that if he had averaged 1 less rebound a game, he probably wouldn't have won it is what gets me. One more rebound a game made him the MVP, and that's ridiculous...
I mean I get and agree with the inconsistency complaint ... generally ... But have more of a problem with the random nut jobs that vote for some guy who clearly isn't the MVP. Because while I wouldn't necessarily agree with it, I think it can be at least a fair and consistent argument to say "I'll generally vote for the guy with the best stats and impact on winning... BUT to the extent one puts up a truly dominant performance in one of those categories, I can be swayed to choose that over an otherwise consistent measure". Or to put it more clearly, had Russ averaged 2 rebounds a game last year and say 7 apg, but also averaged 45 ppg ... I think he STILL would have won the MVP. I think the bigger reason why he shouldn't have won was what the video further explains, which was the CONTEXT of those stats. Uncontested rebounds. Completely inefficient scoring. Worst A:TO of any player to ever average over 10 apg. That type of stuff. Which is not "team-first". All of which is no painfully more obvious when you see what Victor Oladipo was able to do. I mean, at the end of the day, the guy drove KD to leave. Just the off-season prior. I mean even before the playoffs started KD was leaning that way. That's pretty f'ing damning. Personally, I don't care what kind of stats Russ put up. Absent the Thunder being a 60+ win team that still dominated without KD, that alone disqualified Russ as the MVP in my book. Cause he was actually the reason, indirectly, the team got much worse. Doesn't let KD off the hook for being a pansy, but you get my drift.
Why couldn't this be made last year?! Would it have made a difference? Doubt it.. I'd like to give a BIG FAT Ffffff-YOU to Jon Barry and his whole family. Screw you Doris Burk I'm glad Pop made you cry.. And Ernie can suck a dick..
The argument would be that the team was "good enough" to make the playoffs and such. It wasn't even as disputed as the year before when the players gave Harden the award. I don't think stats alone should win the MVP, so I agree that he shouldn't have won it, but it was not a joke.
stat padding, stat chasing, stealing rebounds & shots from your teammates, passing only to get to double digit assists, not defending to rebound instead.. they're all a joke
Conspiracy. Last year reminds me of 2005-06 season but in reverse. Nash won his 2nd in a row (SECOND not first) over Bryant who scored a high of 35.4 ppg (most since Jordan in the mid 80s). Phoenix had on;y 7 more wins that season than the Lakers and neither team had the best overall record in the league. Bryant should have definitely won that season. If you take that into account on how that unfolded then no way should Westbrook had won last season due to roughly the same disparity in wins and extremely close stats. Harden was a notch better in almost every stat over Westbrook except for rebounds and points (which were not much more). But again, if Harden would had won last year we may not have seen this Harden come out with a vengeance this year. There is ABSOLUTELY no way Harden will be denied a THIRD time when he should win it easily.
Reddit is fun to post on about this. They have a despise for Westbrook due to how him winning opened up new boundaries.
Book it.... AP's TIM REYNOLDS will vote for LeBron. He did it last year and was THE ONLY ONE to do so with the Harden/Westbrook/Kawhi race. Reynolds had Westbrook 2 and Harden 3 last year.
This video is a masterpiece and I am glad it got its own thread. Calling out the inconsistency on these voters is well deserved.
Good video. I don't have a problem with people who thought Westbrook should have been MVP last year, as long as they also thought Harden should have won in 2015. It's the inconsistency and double standards that piss me off.
