Right now you’re probably reading this dismissing all of my basketball opinions. That’s fine, but hear me out. Lebron James is hands down the best basketball player in the NBA, at least since Brian Scalabrine retired. Alas, the poor “White Mamba,” he never got a chance, it was all politics that kept him down. If you were redrafting the entire NBA, Lebron would unquestionably be that #1 pick. But wait, I’m sorry, the award is for the most valuable player, not best player. Of course the argument can be made, and judging by the MVP voting it obviously was, that the best player is by default the most valuable. Sometimes this is indeed the case, but not this year. Unlike a situation where British Petroleum steps up and sponsors the “BP” award for best player, the MVP selection requires a little more than pointing a finger at the best player and proclaiming him the leagues most valuable player. Much was made of the fact that Lebron’s MVP title fell one vote short of unanimity (it would have been the first time ever), almost as if it was a slight upon James himself. Such blasphemy to place different values on player’s merits and to choose for yourself rather than to hop aboard the hype train as it pulls away from the station (it’s a one way ride from Cleveland to Miami).
It’s important to remember that the best player in the NBA has not alway won the MVP award. Karl Malone and Charles Barkley both won the award ahead of Michael Jordan when in the primes of their careers, a time when Jordan was clearly the best player in the league. When Steve Nash won the award in back to back seasons, no one would debate that he was a better player than Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and a long line of players. He was, however, the most valuable player in the NBA, he made the Suns what they were and he was invaluable to them. Such is the case with Carmelo, he drives the Knicks, he is their offensive cornerstone. Sure his defense isn’t exactly at a Charles Oakley level, let’s be honest it might not even be at a one armed Charles Oakley level, but that’s not his role. Carmelo is an extremely one dimension player, but this season he mastered that one dimension and carried his team to win the Atlantic division and a #2 seed in the playoffs.
A good measuring stick for MVP potential is to imagine the candidate’s team without him, how would they fair? The Knicks have some nice players, Chandler, Shumpert are good, solid pieces, but how good is the rest of the team really? Raymond Felton had a breakout year, but how many of his baskets were a result of help defense being played on Carmelo opening up driving lanes? JR Smith, the very well deserved sixth man of the year, a purely offensive player albeit a good one. By the very definition of Smith’s award though, he is literally the best player not good enough to start an NBA game. This may be simplifying it a bit, but there is some truth to this notion. Stoudemire, this might be the one time that a team is actually better without a star player, his stagnant, lane clogging offense is a fly in the ointment of the Knicks current game plan. Prigioni and Kidd benefit greatly from Carmelo’s presence, if not for him these two would most likely be on a bench or out of the league. Without Carmelo the Knicks do not make the Playoffs, that is a valuable player.
If you were to remove Lebron from the Heat, they still have a 20 point per game scorer in Dwyane Wade, a 17 point per game scorer in Chris Bosh and a very solid roll player in Ray Allen. Without Lebron the Miami Heat are a shell of their current selves, but they’re still a pretty good team. Sure Miami went on a 27 game win streak (which is absolutely insane), but unfortunately that’s a stat that will be lost through the years. Coming in second place is never memorable no matter how much we think it will be. It’s not a scoring title and it’s not a championship, it’s a statistic and you don’t get trophies for stats, at least you shouldn’t.
When Derrick Rose won the MVP award ahead of Lebron in 2011 he was a great player, not better than Lebron though. In 2011 Derrick Rose had a breakout season and made the Bulls a contender, sounds like someone else I know… Perhaps the most disturbing trend developing along side of Lebron’s dominance, is the notion that to not deem him fit for the trophy is to deny him some unalienable right. He’s the best player in the NBA, he is most likely going to win his second championship in a row, we don’t have to bow down and default to his greatness whenever possible.
