to your first response, b/c he felt he was the sidekick, that was why he ousted shaq. he wanted to be the man, and playing with shaq, that would never happen. he would always be the sidekick. so now you know how wade was thinking at the time. good to see that you are putting your psychology degree to use. i mean, wade couldn't have said himself no? we can use pau gasol.
You don't get it. Kobe said he was the sidekick, but he really thought he was the top dog. That's why he ousted Shaq. No, he couldn't. Not if he was sitting next to Lebron in front of the media, and Lebron just announced that he felt he was the MVP of the league. My advice to you is to stop believing everything you hear and start using some common sense.
Yeah. I'm actually going with wekko on this one. A few years back, when we had a healthy Yao and McGrady, McGrady called Yao the best player on the Rockets despite the fact that it was obvious McGrady was a more important piece to this team. He was even in a higher ranking in terms of MVP if I was correct. Teammates need to respect each other, not a lot of players toot their own horn.
just last year, kobe said he was the sidekick during the first 3 championships to ESPN or something. he never admitted it during their time together b/c he was cocky. he knew he was the sidekick. he WANTED to be the top dog and that was why he did it. he thought he CAN be the top dog and playing with shaq will never legitimize his superstardom from the youtube interviews, they were not next to each other. they had their own media circles. but i guess you like to use your "imagination" to see how that situation plays out. that's "common sense" i suppose. mcgrady said that early into the season b/c that was yao's team. therefore, mcgrady deferred. JVG called him out on it and mcgrady started playing differently. now that was out of respect. tmac played like yao was the best player. JVG said stop that nonsense. 2 totally different situations.
and i don't know why we're talking about this anyways. lebron will wind up being a top 3-4 MVP candidate. wade isn't. there's your answer.
I don't remember JVG calling McGrady out for deferring to Yao. In fact, McGrady deferring to Yao was a big part of Yao's development. And like you said, McGrady came to the Rockets as the most talented player, yet called it Yao's team (and Yao the best player as well). In fact, I recall McGrady saying that sometime around 2007 as well, not when he first came in. I can guarantee you, if Yao and McGrady were next to each other, they would call the other person the best player in the team if they were asked. Lebron of course, has no problem calling himself the best. His ego is well recorded, and he isn't exactly the most modest player out there. What was Wade supposed to say after Lebron? I think I am the MVP too?
during the TNT game vs the mavs before tmac exploded for 48 points, and others can chime in on this, it was stated that JVG told tmac to stop deferring or something of that nature and "be yourself... be the best scorer in the L." his offense took off from that point on for the rest of the year. he was averaging 20 points per game before then b/c he deferred to yao. he averaged around 28-29 points to end the year. he said this was yao's team when he first came in b/c yao has been the cornerstone here. that was out of respect. in 2007, you can argue yao was our best player b/c more of the offense went through him, and tmac was more of the facilitator. just to discount your argument, dwayne wade LAST YEAR said lebron can win the MVP every year if he wanted to. they were not teammates back then. i think wade truthfully feels lebron is the better player period.
They've been teammates ever since 2006 when they decided to team up together when they became free agents.
That's what I have a problem with. Kobe said Lebron was the MVP as well. They are all just words. You don't honestly think Kobe believes what he said do you? The term MVP amongst players is literally the best player award, a lot of players would admit Lebron is a better player than them, and they will call him MVP as such. But we all know MVP doesn't go to the best player in the league. The idea is to promote your team, not yourself. That's how being modest works.
my prediction for the MVP votes: 1) rose 2) howard 3) lebron/kobe 4) lebron/kobe 5) dirk 6) durant 7) paul then you also have manu and aldridge. wade will be around 8 or worse, which is a shame b/c he's been the 3rd or 4th best overall player this year.
the year where wade averaged 30 and 8, he said he was the MVP. so no, it's not modesty. if wade thought he deserved it, he would have said it.
I think I would need a link to that to believe it. And let me get this straight, you think Wade would say "I deserve to be MVP too" beside Lebron? For that matter, Lebron also said Rose deserves MVP. Since you are not a fan of Rose being mvp, are you going to dispute Lebron's statement?
sure we can dissect how we want what players say. i can spin it one way, and you can spin it one way. we can agree to disagree. so that's why we should watch the games. to any obvious NBA observer, lebron is #1 on that team. you can argue whether wade is #1b or #2. but lebron is #1. and that's why lebron will be higher on the MVP voting than wade. just like how durant will be higher in the MVP voting than westbrook.
lebron #1 and as you said "arguably" wade #1b IMO, does not equate to lebron being the undisputed or clear leader of the heat
Bill Simmons said it better than I could: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/110408&sportCat=nba A. Chicago's MVP has been its tenacious defense (not Rose). That's fine except for the part that every true contender assumes the personality of its best player. Russell's Celtics won 11 of 13 titles because he cared about winning more than anyone ever ... until Jordan, whose teams won six titles because he cared about winning more than anyone other than Russell. Bird's Celtics teams assumed his personality; they were all terrified of letting him down. Magic's Lakers teams assumed his personality; carefree in those early years, then more and more hardcore as the years passed. Duncan's Spurs teams reflected him and his coach: cerebral, classy, competitive in the cleanest way. Kobe's best quality these past three years has been that he's gotten Gasol, Bynum and Odom (three guys who, mentally, could have gone either way) to care about competing as much as he does. This is what great players do. So for anyone to say that Rose -- who's stuck in fifth gear for every minute of every game, to the point that Chicago's biggest concern might be that he doesn't have an extra gear for the playoffs -- doesn't directly affect Chicago's defense is insane. Have you ever been to an NBA practice? Earlier this year, I went to an Oklahoma City practice and was stunned to see Durant and Westbrook going full-speed through every drill like it was Game 7 of the playoffs. I asked Scotty Brooks about it afterward; he smiled and said something like, "When your best players care that much, everything else falls into place." That's what happened in Chicago with Rose. He sets the tone day after day after day; everyone else eventually fell into place. When your best player cares that much, it's contagious. B. Speaking of advanced metrics, if you're using them to make the case against Rose, I submit the following two lines: Player A: 27.2 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 4.2 APG, 54% FG, 76% FT, 28.4 PER, 16.6 WS, 60% TS%, 1st-team All-Defense. Player B: 29.2 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 3.8 APG, 48% FG, 81% FT, 26.3 PER, 17.1 WS, 55% TS%, 1st-team All-Defense. Who was better? It's close, but you picked Player A, right? Well ... those were the combined numbers for Karl Malone and Michael Jordan during the 1997 and 1998 regular seasons. You just picked Malone. Thank you and please drive through. Anyway, advanced metrics weaken Rose's MVP case but don't murder it. Unlike LeBron the past two years, he isn't a sure thing. That's fine. Just consider these other two points ... • Rose carries his team's offense more than anyone else carries their team's offense. He's the Bulls' only player who can create his own shot, and he's their only player who can create shots for others. Night after night after night, he walked onto the court knowing that Chicago's entire offense hinged on how he played. His usage (32.4 percent) and assist (39.4 percent) rates tell some of the story; in crunch-time per 48 minutes, he's averaged the second-most field goal attempts, the eighth-most free throw attempts and the ninth-highest assists (nobody else made the top-15 for all three categories, much less the top-10). The dude does everything for Chicago offensively, a little like Iverson on the 2001 Sixers (the year he finished with the sixth-highest usage rate ever and Philly somehow made the Finals, anyway). In my opinion, when you're doing everything, you should get a little statistical slack. You might have to take one or two shots per half that you shouldn't take, just because nobody else will take them. In crunch-time, the degree of difficulty ratchets up because the other team knows it's up to you, and you alone. You have to account for these things. That's why I love basketball so much: it's objective and subjective. • Rose keeping the Bulls in contention for three-plus months when Boozer and Noah missed significant time was the most impressive thing I witnessed this season. Their quest for a No. 1 seed should have derailed in November, when Boozer missed a brutal seven-game Western road swing (including Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix and Los Angeles) plus games in Boston and Oklahoma City ... and yet, they emerged from a potential disaster at 9-6 (with Rose averaging a 28-8-5). Just when they were coming together, their defensive anchor (Noah) went down for two months ... Rose kept everything humming. (As a Celtics fan, I kept looking at the standings every morning thinking, "Jeez, they won't go away ... .") They finally had a full team when they were 35-14; they're 23-6 since. A one-seed. Phenomenal. I will remember the 2010-11 season for LeBron and Wade, for Blake Griffin, for the dumb Celtics trade, and for how hard Derrick Rose played every night. He willed the Bulls to a No. 1 seed. Unfortunately, we don't have an advanced metric to quantify that specific achievement -- just a primitive, overrated statistic called "wins." I guess we'll have to make due. Derrick Rose, you're my 2010-11 MVP.
shaq and kobe were 1a and 1b during their 2nd and 3rd championship wins. but everyone says that was shaq's team. EDIT: in regards to icehouse's article, the great thing about this year MVP race is the heated debate.
