of course the voters can't consider the suns getting to the finals since it's a regular season thing and didn't phoenix only go up by 5 wins, 55 to 60? the rockets went from either 41 or 42 wins to 55, with hakeem breaking out being the biggest factor, plus 93 was probably his best season ever. in fact, his mvp season may have only been his 3rd best statistical season ever depending on how much you like 89-90 where he got 24/14/4.6.
The MVP should go to the best player on one of the top teams in basketball. My MVP List (not the official list, but it might coincide) of the past eleven seasons. I tend toward the player on the team with the best record: 1993 - Barkley. 25 ppg, 12 rpg, 5 apg, team record 62-20 (1st) Olajuwon and Jordan round out the field 1994 - Olajuwon. 27 ppg, 11 rpg, 3 bpg, team record 58-24 (2nd) Seattle had more wins, but none of their players were as important as Olajuwon 1995 - Robinson. 27 ppg, 10 rpg, 3 bpg, team record 62-20 (1st) O'Neal and Malone round out the field 1996 - Jordan. 30 ppg, team record 72-10 (best all time) How do you vote against 72 wins? 1997 - Jordan. 29 ppg, team record 69-13 This Bulls team tied the previous wins mark 1998 - Malone. 27 ppg, 10 rpg, team record 62-20 (T 1st) Jazz won tiebreaker over Bulls for best record, so I had Malone over Jordan 1999 - Duncan. 21 ppg, 11 rpg, 2 bpg, team record 37-13 (T 1st) Spurs won tiebreaker over Jazz for best record, so I had Duncan over Malone 2000 - O'Neal. 29 ppg, 12 rpg, 3 bpg, team record 67-15 (1st) No other serious candidates that season 2001 - Duncan. 23 ppg, 11 rpg, 2 bpg, team record 58-24 (1st) Spurs finished stronger than Philly and ended up with a better record, so I go with Duncan 2002 - Kidd. 18 ppg, 10 apg, team record 52-30 (1st in East) An exception to my rule, none of the Western MVP's stood out; on the other hand, Kidd turned around a poor franchise immediately 2003 - Duncan. 23 ppg, 12 rpg, 2 bpg, team record 60-22 (T 1st) Like Olajuwon in 1994, Duncan was the hub of a bunch of good role players who together earned the best record
MVP for the regular season has to based on the team regular season performance. In the second season when the Rockets won the championships, they had a very bad regular season record. It is not justifiable to select Hakeem as the regular season MVP while many other teams had better regular season records.
I'll admit it - Robinson didn't play as well in the postseason as he did in the regular season. But saying Duncan's performance declines in the postseason...wow. I guess you don't actually watch the games.
