Can we have a thread counting the MVP votes?

Zach Lowe - Giannis
Marc Stein - Giannis(below)
Tim Bontemps - Giannis

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/sports/2018-19-nba-awards-stein.html

Most Valuable Player: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks)

Official selections are due Friday night and there is simply no wrong answer when choosing between Antetokounmpo and Houston’s James Harden for the top spot on the five-man M.V.P. ballot.

I have always approached this category by trying to identify who had the best overall season — based on a subjective and imprecise mixture of individual and team success — rather than paying attention to the noise about which player is most widely regarded as the game’s best … or the best two-way player … or any other such designation.

So who had the better 2018-19 season? I would go (ever so narrowly) with Giannis. On top of all his individual superlatives, Antetokounmpo has been the face and chief culture-setter in the Bucks’ transformation from 44-win underachiever to the best team in the league (regular-season edition). And his candidacy gets bonus points on our scorecard because Milwaukee, for Eastern Conference supremacy, had to beat out a trio of worthy challengers who were all projected as superior before the season.

Harden would be tremendously unlucky to finish second in M.V.P. balloting for the third time in five seasons, but I think that’s where this is headed. He is going to be the first scoring champion (36.1 points per game) to win the scoring title by more than eight points per game since Michael Jordan did over Dominique Wilkins in 1986-87. And I tend to agree with Houston Coach Mike D’Antoni’s contention that Harden is the only player capable of hauling the injury-riddled Rockets to 53 victories out of the 11-14 hole they were in. Harden simply has the misfortune of doing all that damage in a season that belonged to Antetokounmpo and the Bucks.​

 

**** this award. MVP is overrated