Skip Bayless doesn't even watch the game and he admitted it and still keep talking craps about the NBA and millions are watching. There are many writers exactly like him are voters too. This is a pointless argument.
I agree: that's why I value the players awards. Sports media is a complete joke, and it's very odd (even suspicious?) to see a poster defending them. Or maybe you think watching Steph Curry's toddler dance in the offseason is sports journalism (thank you, ESPN).
Why does there have to be a conformist answer? We all have our own brains. If someone asks me who the MVP in 2015 was, I'll say James Harden and point to this award. If you want to disagree and say it's Curry, more power to you. That's your prerogative. But I don't know why you feel the need to force everyone to agree with you or adopt a groupthink mentality. To each his own. By the way, as far as being "compared to others in the history of the NBA," you know who it is that usually makes those comparisons? It's the media. And guess what? The media has a vested interest in being biased on this subject, because the media being the gatekeeper of these awards inherently increases their importance. They want the power, so of course they're going to prop up their own system. Moreover, the argument of "this is the first-ever NBPA Awards, whereas the media has done this for X years" is so silly. By that logic, nothing can ever be improved. Whatever happens one year should automatically happen for the remainder of time, and we should never look for improvements, right? My thought process is this: both systems have their pluses and minuses. Media are biased in ways that players aren't, and players are biased in ways that media aren't. Each have their own set of unique insights, too. Both groups are qualified to hand out a winner. To me, it's reminiscent of the pre-BCS/Playoff days of college football, when both the AP and Coaches picked their own champions, often choosing different teams. There were pluses and minuses to each system, but at the end of the day, if your team wins one of those polls, you're a champion. Here, Harden was selected as MVP by a group of people appropriately qualified to judge, so I'll look back on his 2014-15 as an MVP season. Congrats to him.
Yep. Wasn't trying to argue. I respond to people's responding to my responses. The bias works both ways.
Not defending them. If I had the choice, I would make the coaches vote. Obviously there would be some bias in that as well.
On the flipside, it means that players have the ability to compare and contract Harden with a lot of other players based on having watched them all with a very critical eye. And this whole line of logic falls flat on its face when we consider how much the average media schmuck watches each team's player versus how much time they spend designing articles to draw viewers.
Media=biased Players=biased Clutchfans=super biased Curry deserved the MVP. However, if it wasn't clear enough already, he went ahead and won the NBA championship too. Props to Harden for keeping it a close race though.
So you think media networks are unbiased? I think the players, since they are actually out there on the court, sensibly realize that if you switched Harden and Curry. GS would win the championship and the Rockets would have struggled to make the playoffs.
In addition they actually are out there competing. They really don't care if Curry seems prettier or sells more products or California is more a center of corporate media.
Completely disagree Harden deserved it more than Curry. Curry had the better team, coach and wasn't Kay in the top like 6 or 7 for MVP too lol. The media loves Curry that's why he got it.
sage steele, mike wilbon, jalen rose were all over curry nuts during the wcf, harden was thruoghly outplaying him till the very end were he got worn down
He is a great player, I'm not saying he sucks. He's one of the best shooters I have ever seen and will be known as such when his career is over. BUT. When is the last time a regular season MVP won the championship and didn't win finals MVP? http://www.landofbasketball.com/awards/nba_season_mvps_year.htm http://www.nba.com/history/nba-finals-mvp-award-winners/index.html Steph in 14-15. Won MVP, lost FMVP to Andre Iguodala. Kareem in 79-80. Won MVP, lost FMVP to Magic Johnson. Only two occurrences and he got outplayed in the finals by a sixth man off the bench.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Anyone who doesn't think <a href="https://twitter.com/JHarden13">@JHarden13</a> was MVP - let's go now! <a href="http://t.co/AFVbVeoR91">pic.twitter.com/AFVbVeoR91</a></p>— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmorey/status/623327839253696512">July 21, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I doubt every player would agree with you. I hate to pick on him but Zaza cares more about Joakim Noah and even Rose and Butler than guards that his team only have to face twice a year. I doubt he has enough information to make a very good decision. Please don't make me have to repeat this again.
Curry got the MVP Trophy back home and he will be remembered for that. Unfortunately Harden will be remembered for the record 13 turnovers and not how good he was leading up to that game
Players don't watch tape of just their individual match-up. They are watching tape for entire team defensive purposes. Thus, they are fully aware of what the game plan is to stop the offense of the opponent, and what the game plan is to stop their best player. Of course the players have way more insight to what's going on on the court that the media. Can't believe this is even a discussion, probably because it's not, but rather one person arguing with a group of people.
You're biased by the media's "best player on best team" argument. "he went ahead and won the NBA championship too"? I'm pretty sure the Golden State Warriors won the NBA Championship, not the Golden State Curry's. Curry didn't even get finals mvp. He was trash for part of the finals. If MVP really meant most valuable player to a certain team, Harden was the clear winner.
