Considering how spirited the discussion was for the Most Valuable Player Award, it turned out to be no contest with Stephen Curry winning by 262 points over James Harden. First place votes favored Curry 100-25.
Although I thought Harden was more deserving, there is a larger issue. It does appear that we are in another period where greatness has becoming boring and we take it for granted.
If you watch, listen and read about the NBA, any discussion of who the best player includes something like, “Well, of course, LeBron James is by far the best player on the planet.” And then there is a “but,” as in, “but [pick a] season, [Curry, Harden, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, etc.] is more deserving.”
LeBron was the MVP four times in a five-year period. Two of those came in Cleveland, then the streak was interrupted in 2010-11 when Derrick Rose was the winner. LeBron followed with two more in Miami.
This season, there seemed to be two key numbers. With Curry as the clear catalyst, Golden State went from 51 victories in 2013-14 to 67 this season. In the 69-year history of the NBA, only 10 teams have won at least 67 games in a regular season. To be the best player on a team among the all-time elite is a feat deserving of the MVP award.
The case for Harden was that Houston lost key players from last season and also because of injury – including Dwight Howard for 41 games – yet instead of falling to a lower level playoff team, the Rockets still went from 54 to 56 victories and a No. 2 seed with Harden leading the way.
But let’s take a simple look at LeBron.
In 2009-10, the year before he went to Miami for four seasons, the Cavaliers won 61 games. The next year, they won 19.
In 2009-10, the Heat won 47 games and lost in the first playoff round to Boston. The next year with LeBron, they won 58 and went to the Finals.
In 2013-14, the Heat won 54 games and went to the Finals for the fourth consecutive season, although they lost for a second time. The Cavaliers had their best season since LeBron left, winning 33 games. But they did not make the playoffs.
This season without LeBron, the Heat won 37 games and did not make the playoffs. The Cavs won 53 games and were the No. 2 seed in the East.
To summarize, the Cavs went from 61 to 19 when LeBron left and from 33 to 54 when he returned.
The Heat went from 47 to 58 when LeBron arrived and from 54 to 37 when he left.
With LeBron, Miami went to the Finals four consecutive years and won twice. Without him, the Heat did not make the playoffs.
With LeBron in Miami, the Cavaliers won about 31 percent of their games, which works out to an average record in a full 82-game season of 25-57.
The best player in the league?
No contest. It’s LeBron James.
We’ve been bored with greatness in the past. For a decade or so, Shaquille O’Neal was the dominant player in the league and led teams to four titles. But he was MVP once. As Wilt Chamberlain famously said, nobody loves Goliath.
During his 13 seasons in Chicago, you could have probably made the case for Michael Jordan winning eight or nine MVP awards, but he ended his career with five.
It is interesting to notice that Jordan won the MVP at age 24 and then 10 years later, won it at age 34. In between – and remembering that he took off two years to play baseball – he won it only three times out of a possible eight chances. And there was little doubt that he was the best player of that era if not of all-time.
One of the best examples of being bored with greatness was provided by Jordan in the 1998 NBA Finals. Jordan had won the Finals MVP in each of the five championships won by the Bulls, but several media members wondered aloud if there might be a way to vote for Scottie Pippen if he played well in the Finals.
Then came the final shot in Game 6 over Bryon Russell and there was no choice – particularly since Jordan averaged 33.5 points a game and Pippen averaged 15.7 during the series.
The history of taking great players for granted is a long one – all the way back to the career of Jerry West, who never won the MVP award but did become the NBA logo. In fairness to voters at the time, West did play during an era dominated by Bill Russell and Chamberlain, so there’s that.
But it does seem that voters – and others like me who once had a vote but now only write about awards – are now looking for ways to reward other players, which is not to take anything away from the excellence of Curry and Durant, the last two winners.
But in terms of the MVP, it does seem a little early to start dismissing the greatness of LeBron James.
Is it possible that at age 30, the greatest player of the current era has won his final MVP award? And if so, does that make any sense?
Jan Hubbard has written about basketball since 1976 and worked in the NBA league office for eight years between media stints. Follow him on Twitter at @whyhub.
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