Pardon me, but as I sit and watch CNN, ironically I am thinking about who will win the Most Valuable Player award in the NBA. Everyone is talking about Kobe deserves it or LeBron is King and he is most deserving of the award. Realistically, Chris Paul should be the MVP. Clearly, this is my opinion but hear me out. Does anyone remember the Hornets record before Chris Paul? I surely don't but I do know that it was not pleasant. Kobe and LeBron are Elite players and have been billed as such since they were drafted. Chris Paul however, was billed as someone who would be good, just not right away. However, he has carried his team, a group of relative second class players to be atop of an extremely tough Western Conference.
Unfortunately, stats have become the only way to identify who the MVP is. I believe that the MVP is the person the team can't be successful without. For example, an excellent candidate is Kevin Garnett. Although his stats this year aren't as large as they have been in previous years but do you think the Celtics would be the number one seed in the the East if he wasn't there. I am willing to argue that it's possible that they would not have even been a playoff team ( remember Pierce and Walker? I don't see a huge difference with Pierce and Jesus ( Ray Allen). Bearing that in mind, the Cavs have continually tried to make trades to strengthen LeBron's game, just as the Lakers have with Kobe but the Hornets have remained relatively mellow during trading season and have believed in their young players. This makes their leader Paul much more valuable,once again, especially with their position in the West.
Now looking at the statistics, Paul averages fewer points and fewer rebounds than either Bryant or James, yet he averages more steals, almost twice as many double-doubles and nearly four more assists per game. This means he makes other people better-he has to in order to win. Was that not the justification used for giving the award to Steve Nash twice! I hope that others can see this and do the right thing! Look for yourself and you make the call.
Here are the stats of the top three candidates:
Points
James: 30.3 p.p.g.
Bryant: 28.5 p.p.g.
Paul: 21.1 p.p.g.
Rebounds
James: 7.9 r.p.g.
Bryant: 6.4 r.p.g.
Paul: 4.0 r.p.g.
Assists
James: 7.2 a.p.g.
Bryant: 5.8 a.p.g.
Paul: 11.6 a.p.g.
Steals
James: 1.85 s.p.g.
Bryant: 1.85 s.p.g.
Paul: 2.73 s.p.g.
Double-Doubles
James: 30 D.D. (19th)
Bryant: 20 D.D. (37th)
Paul: 54 D.D. (tied for 2nd)
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
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