Did you reply to me by mistake? Literally no where in my post did i explicitly or implicitly or infer that I was or has ever been surprised "that a team with talent can't make it work." Clippers were undeniably talented last season, but had one huge glaring weakness, there lack of a bench. For god sakes Hedo Turkoglu was a rotation player - I don't think too many people had them as locks to be in the WCF or even beating the Spurs in the 1st round before the playoffs started.
Fox Sports Radio was doing the same thing. Acting like the players voting meant nothing and that the media is right.
True, but Broussard did openly vote for Harden. My sources say. My understanding is that ESPN, other media and the league stand to make a lot of money when they market a new superstar alongside LeBron and KD. There is no doubt that Curry is an amazing player but they just pushed it too much this time. He won the media's MVP in a freaking landslide.... over Harden and LeBron. If they weren't forcing a new superstar into the market then I don't know WTF they were doing. Because they are getting unnecessarily pissed about the player's opinions being slightly different than their own. The thing is, the media's awards are considered the official awards because they are the most popular and most recognized, which isn't saying much since the media control coverage of everything and they decide what's popular. It's the same as Family Dollar stocking four brands of a product but highlighting their brand of it over the others, even though their brand is more cheaply made, they have that power. It's a recognition issue. Everyone loves the media awards because of the prestigious, world-wide recognition. My guess is that's why it stings, for both sides, when the media, who control any and all narratives, decide their awards system is the "official," implying that the player's opinions are meaningless. Maybe it's like your boss telling you your opinion doesn't matter. That's when you go to your union and make your opinion matter It sounded like you were belittling the player's choices because they had three top 3 players on an unsuccessful Clips team. My bad if you were serious. It's ridiculous because towards the end of last season, Curry and Harden were neck & neck as the MVP between the fans, but the media's projected winner was ahead by a landslide. And when they released their awards, they were still neck and neck with the fans but the media still had Curry winning by a landslide. It bothered me because the media benefited when Curry & Harden were fighting neck & neck for that award, and then they capitalized on that and benefited even more when they chose Curry in a landslide. What ESPN hasn't realized yet is the players can completely destroy the media awards if they wanted to. All they have to do is stop showing up to their ceremony for a few years (there may be a contract issue there but I don't know). Hip hop is a top moneymaker in the entertainment business... they have JayZ, Kanye and Bey on their side. They certainly have the money to pull off a more fabulous ceremony. All they really need is a good marketing team with good ideas on their side and the Player's Choice Awards can be "official." tl;dr: Chris Broussard's sources.
I mean, ESPN is a Disney owned entity - that should tell you everything you need to know. The media & league has a very real financial interest in churning out family friendly superstars. ESPN is trying to make money selling commercials to the games they televise, the NBA programming, etc. In order to do that, they need to have a product they can sell to a wide variety of TV viewers. James simply doesn't fit that narrative - he's an oddball kid from Compton, stays out late, hangs with strippers, etc. The media has whitened up the league trying to make it have a broader appeal to suburban America and it has worked for the most part - the league is growing substantially in a time when other sports are faltering....but James Harden doesn't fit that model in the same way that Lebron(who is super cognizant of the perception of his 'brand'), and Steph Curry(riding the "family guy" ticket - if you think that Riley Curry thing wasn't calculated, then you don't know how publicists and marketing types work). I think the players are right to have their own awards - they recognize that the media creates a narrative that doesn't reflect the reality of their profession and they are trying to set the record straight. In terms of the game of basketball - James was the MVP last year and I'm glad at least their vote proved that.
I think both players & media come at things with their own bias, but it is definitely interesting to hear what the players think. For instance, Jared Dudley came out strong in supporting Harden as mvp on the latest Lowe Post Podcast. He also seemed pretty adamant that Ty Lawson would be great in Houston and could totally pull himself together. So it's definitely interesting and valid to hear players point of view. I mean they do play the games!
Wow. Media's butthurt will make the Players Choice Award event more popular going forward! Who wouldn't want to watch players choosing their unbiased awards instead of listening to ESPN's biased views?
My god that video officially made me despise ESPN with a passion. The two sounded like complete idiots
maybe voting for MVP from players will be the new way to go as the official MVP for the NBA in the future. I imagine that the reason why media members have MVP voting privilege was because they had the power to reach different households through their news network. However, we're now in the information age and the NBA is a global powerhouse and basketball is played worldwide. And don't say media members are less biased then the players. In fact, I think they can be even more biased.
They are upset they are losing power. They realize their vote might not matter for much longer and they don't want to be irrelevant.
If the NFL players do this...it's over, media. And we all know the NFL Union deserves power like this, since they get screwed on pay vs the other unions.
Heat check on this topic... You know how some writers called out Houston fans not only as insecure, but one of the most insecure? ESPN does not dominate mvp voting. They can however peddle all the bs possible in a 24/7 broadcast. It's not that big a conspiracy Curry won. Nor is it unbelievable given a coin flip some writers chose curry's play over harden's without seeing everything in context of a full season. Let's just assume that the Rockets and Harden will improve yet again this season and take it from there.
i agree with everything you said. but it also needs to be noted with all of the points you made was that it was still a really close margin between the two. almost razor thin. but i hoped harden was going to win but i could see how the narrative was going.
Players should always vote for MVP. Media and broadcasters are too biased, they don't know the real situation, they don't follow entire league, mostly one or two teams up close and vote based on popular opinion. I was shocked when Dudley praised DMO's game, then I remembered that some of the rival broadcasters I was listening to at the end of regular season and at the start of game they were talking how Motiejunas is not threat in the post, he has no offensive game at all. Then DMO went to score in the post like 3 possessions in a row. A lot of media members who vote for MVP still don't know about DMO's game, while I guarantee you every NBA player knows who is he and what he does. Point is, Harden is da real mvp, because players know better than media.
