T-Mac finishes third after nash and nowitizki. Good read. http://www.nba.com/features/player_rankings.html ...That opens the door for Tracy McGrady. Stop laughing. I'm being serious. Who in the league is playing better than T-Mac right now? When Yao was sidelined with the leg injury it was McGrady that held the Rockets down. Now that Yao is back, McGrady is playing better than ever. When healthy, he meant as much to his team as any player in the league. The main reason he won't win the award is because he didn't become a serious contender until right before the All-Star break and because Yao may steal a vote or two away from him.
Yep, had it not been for that bad start, he would be around 27 or 28 points per game and very much in the disscussion.
TMac won't win it but he is very deserving. He has played well all season and has helped the Rockets win 50+ games and get homecourt in the first round.
You'd be surprised...during the Suns-Fakers game on Friday night, the play-by-play guy was raving about phonie for mvp when Hubbie Brown came out with if you talk about kobe, you gotta include T-Mac who has been fantastic all year. People do recognize what he has done, it just doesn't get mentioned as much.
It is ridiculous for kobe to rank higher than tmac for mvp. this is not race for best scorer. this is for most valuable player to the team. look at lakers now, didn't they send shaq away to start rebuilding? 3 seasons passed and where is the rebuild? they have enough talents, PJ as coach, odom, walton, are both very gifted players. Look at this team, so sad. Kobe is ruining lakers and he should not even be on the list.
If Tmac finishes 3rd in voting for MVP i will be very happy, and if Battier can get votes for DPOY i will also be happy
According to Bill Simmons: Now, the bad news: Of all the bummers inflicted on NBA fans this season (check the sidebar to the right), a flaccid MVP race received the least attention because everyone seems happy to hand Dirk Nowitzki the trophy and call it a day. Statistically, Nowitzki submitted superior seasons in 2005 and 2006, and his 2007 stats ranked behind Larry Bird's best nine seasons, Charles Barkley's best 10 seasons and Karl Malone's best 11 seasons. Nowitzki's shooting percentages were remarkable (50 percent on field goals, 90 percent on free throws, 42 percent on 3-pointers), but his relevant averages (24.6 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists) look like a peak season from Tom Chambers. He can't affect games unless he's scoring, doesn't make his teammates better and plays decent defense at best. If you're giving the MVP to someone because of his offense, he'd better be a killer offensive player. You can't say that about the 2007 Dirk Nowitzki. The argument for the big German is simple: He's the most reliable crunch-time scorer in the league and the best player on a 69-win team. Of course, when the '97 Bulls won 69 games, you could have described Michael Jordan the exact same way ... and he finished second to Malone. Same for Jerry West on the '72 Lakers when they won 69 games (he finished second to Kareem). Then again, maybe we should scrap the historical comparisons after Steve Nash's back-to-back trophies transformed the award into what it is now: a popularity contest. It's a 900-number and Ryan Seacrest away from becoming a low-key version of "American Idol." And since people want the big German to win the award this year, he's going to win it Link
Can someone honestly please tell me what did kobe achieve this season beside his personal scoring records? He leads his team to numerous 0-6, 0-7, 0-5, 0-7 losing records, leads his team to alot embrassment lakers' team records, gave his coach worst career record. I know all those kobe wankers will say, because his teammates suck and injuries blah blah blah. So did the rockets having some injuries problems but T-mac lead the team to the fourth seeds and frankly speaking, this lakers' squad are quite decent(Odom, Evans, Walton, Brown, Parker, Bynum are all decent players). Conclusion, for this season, T-mac > Kobe. Scoring doesnt mean anything if your team cant win. Same goes to the Kobe better than Jordan thread, Kobe maybe better scorer(which is debatable) but jordan 's team and other major stats categories, there is no comparison!
Dream scenario: Dirk gets MVP, we meet them in the second round, and they hand out the trophy during our series. Then both yao and tmac thinks to themselves "that should be mine" and proceed to pummel the Mavs. And we win the series 4 to 1.
I HATE ANYONE THAT SAYS DIRK IS CLUTCH. That is straight crap and anyone that watches the NBA knows it to be crap. The Mavs have clutch players but they are TERRY and HOWARD. (Howard by the way is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Dirk in both value and skill). I hate the Mavs absolutely hate them. But even if I loved them, I do not think Dirk deserves MVP. Howard in my opinion is more deserving, because he is way more talented and he does SO much more. The MVP is.... Nash... I would Love it to be Tmac and I think he is equally deserving but the difference lies in fact Nash played every game or almost, Tmac played 70ish. That will definately play a factor. I hope Tmac somehow sneaks in and win it I would love it!
Kobe is a great scorer in the league whereas T-mac is the best team player. Who is better depends on what you weigh most.
obviously, you hate a lot of people. i'm not a dirk fan either, but give the guy some credit. bill simmons is wrong btw. if you adjust dirk's stats for minutes and game pace and consider his shooting percentages his stats are, for example, superior to any of bird's seasons. his scoring is better. his rebounding is about the same. his true shooting percentage is 60.4 % while bird's career average is 56.4 % (high: 61.2). dirk's per is 27.6, bird's career average for per is 23.5 (high: 27.8). dirk averaged 24 and 9 while shooting 50 %, 40 % and 90 %. his team has won at least 66 games this season and leads the second best team by 5.5 games. the mvp voting should not even be close, especially considering nash already has back to back awards. as for t-mac, if he started the season better he could have been the clear 3rd candidate. but the way it is, t-mac probably won't even be in the top-5 because players like duncan or kobe have a bigger media fan base. it's pretty ridiculous, though, that anybody would vote for kobe. granted, he was the best scorer of the season (his all around play and his defense suffered a lot, though) and is easily one of the best 5 players of the league, but this is not the all nba first team nomination, it's about individual play and winning. the lakers didn't win too many games so there ends any argument pro kobe.
As an aside to this, the ESPN "Daily Dime" (written by Stein), hands out his awards for the season. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-070414-15 First up is MVP. He dribbles on about Dirk and Nash for a while, then lists his top 5 MVP candidates. The first 2 I can agree with. Then he just goes mental and pulls some random names out of a hat. No mention of McGrady? Not even in the top 5? No LeBron? Bosh ahead of both of these guys? Anyway, to pull a quote from the Race To MVP (on NBA.com) about TD: As "youyou" posted, to consider Kobe ahead of TMac or (to a lesser extent) Lebron or Bosh is crazy. Yep, Kobe is an incredible talent who can score at will, but that is about all he does. He doesn't make his teammates a whole lot better, he doesn't make the game easier for his teammates. Yes being able to put up big numbers like 30+ppg is great, but team success comes into it. Thats why someone like Joe Johnson isn't even close to being mentioned, despite the fact he scores over 24ppg. As much as I want TMac to win, he won't. And thats okay cause it will go to either Dirk or Nash, and either of those 2 players is a deserving MVP recipient. (I'm hoping Nash gets it though!!)
