on the one hand, b/c the nba is so much about the playoffs, maybe it should be, to really reward the true great player of the season, like wade last year. on the other hand, i wouldn't trust the writers to not just make it synonymous with the finals mvp, even if someone knocked out in the 1st or 2nd round should really get it. they'd just find a reason to give it to say, chauncey billups, that one year and thus it would be worthless, so they may as well keep it the way it is.
Wow. Anyone notice that voting is 50/50? That's pretty sweet. I didn't know opinions were so evenly divided on this (though this is HARDLY an adequate sample size).
Question is what is the MVP? And in a way, to me it's this: for that season, if I had first pick to build a team for that season, who would I select first? So ya know, Jordan would have won it a lot more then he did - but he was the MVP - he was the true MVP - not just of his team, but of the entire league. Now, if you say, yeah, but the MVP is also about having just a great season and leading your team to certain goals - like best record, or most imporved record, or just having a statistically amazing year that wasn't expected? Then yeah - maybe it goes to the Barkley's, Nowitski, and etc.... So in the first scenario - you have to include the playoffs - but in the second, you don't.
For me, the MVP should be awarded to the player who makes the most difference to his team, provided his team is a strong contender down the stretch(and thus plays big in big games)... Also, the MVP has to be multi-faceted. Scoring Rebounding Passing Blocks On-Ball Defense Leadership Steals Big Shots Not many players excel in all of those categories, but most of the MVP candidates can do at least 3 or more of them. Nowitski excels at one or two of those, and he needs help to do the scoring part. Nash, Kobe, T-Mac, Yao, Garnett, Duncan, Jordan, Malone, Barkley, Wade, O'Neal(in his prime) are examples of players this year and years past who exhibited excellence in many of the above categories....
MVP is fine as it is but they should give more credit to Finals MVPs. No one honestly cares about Finals MVPs... Regular season doesn't really mean all that much, if you preform on the biggest stage, that should count for a lot. Again, regular season MVP is fine, but they should look at the Finals MVP with a little more prestige.
