The Rightful Finals MVP

The 2015 NBA FInals have come and gone, the Golden State Warriors now perched atop basketball’s highest summit. The Warriors and the Cavaliers playing styles were in stark contrast to one another, albeit Cleveland’s hand was slightly forced due to injuries. The Warriors executed team basketball flawlessly, relying on their tried and true stars as heavily as their bench contributors. So much so that it was Andre Iguodala, a player who began the series as a reserve, that ultimately raised the Bill Russell Trophy. Iguodala was stellar, providing key three pointers at important junctures and providing steadfast defense on Lebron James, the series’ most dangerous player. Where it any regular series, Iguodala would have been a valid recipient of the award, a key piece in the championship his team had attained.

But…

Silly. That’s the word that best describes what Lebron just did. Lebron average 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds, 8.8 assists and just 3.5 turnovers per game in the Finals against the best defensive team in the NBA. Oh yeah and with a rotation so depleted they were relegated to seven players and sorely missed Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Lebron almost averaged a triple double in a series where Matthew “Australian Mario Chalmers” Dellavedova was considered a legitimate scoring option.

We all knew he was the rightful MVP, but, “You can’t give the award to a player on the losing team.” That’s the unwritten rule at least. Buck that trend. This isn’t to say that the league should go about awarding the trophy willy nilly to a member of a team who gets routed in the Finals, but in a situation as glaringly obvious as this, trends are made to be broken. That’s really all the situation boils down to, a trend. Jerry West did receive the award while a member of the Lakers when they lost to the Celtics in the 1969 Finals, so it has happened. Uncommon, yes. Unprecedented, no. After the performance we all just “witnessed” it’s a crime to give the award to anyone other than Lebron James.