Did I get you with that headline? This final regular-season edition of my MVP rankings is actually being published April 2 as we head into the final two weeks of the regular season. Procrastination being one of my fortes, it allows me 14 consecutive nights of sofa time to flip around on League Pass and determine, among other things, whether Cablevision is directing enough bandwidth to my neighborhood to have the League Pass games actually come on the screen. When you
There is a procedure for determining the MVP. Ballots are e-mailed to 126 media members who cover the NBA on a regular basis, and they are due back at the league office the day after the season ends. The league then tallies the votes and decides when to announce the winner. That, folks, is a procedure. Which brings us to proper use of the word “procedure,” and how it relates to the media’s coverage of the NBA. Specifically, the Oklahoma City media
The envelope for the MVP of the 2015-15 NBA season, please…. There’s a hush in the hall as the camera pans over the anxious faces of Steph Curry, James Harden, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis, Chris Paul, LaMarcus Aldridge, John Wall, Kyle Lowry, Derrick Favors, Eric Bledsoe, Boogie Cousins–yes, extra security is standing by in case he doesn’t win–and the entire Atlanta starting five with their arms entwined, befitting their status as a collective entry. Oh, and Kobe Bryant! The standards aren’t
Let’s get something out of the way here. Russell Westbrook is awesome. Westbrook is one of the game’s top five players, and I’ve felt that way for a couple of years. He may not be a better conventional point guard than Chris Paul or Tony Parker or Stephen Curry. But if any of those guys even dream about being a better player than Westbrook, they better wake up and get back to reality. I also love watching Westbrook play. I cannot recall
It has become fashionable to include Russell Westbrook in the MVP discussion, and as we all know, fashion and Westbrook go together like Anna Sui and horned Viking hats. Not only did Westbrook win MVP honors at the All-Star game while coming up one point shy of Wilt Chaberlain’s record of 42 points in the NBA’s midseason showcase, he has taken that performance and built some momentum off of it, leading the Olahoma City Thunder into a somewhat secure standing in
Back when his team was under .500 and LeBron James was or was not on strike, I sent a text to David Blatt letting him know that I was hearing rumblings that certain members of the Cleveland media had an intense dislike for him, asking him where he was getting his p.r. advice. He wrote back tersely, the implied message being: Don’t text me anymore. I do not believe you. Well, then this Brian Windhorst column came out saying that folks around
If you have missed the New Orleans Pelicans playing the past two nights, you have missed seeing some of Anthony Davis at his best. On Sunday night, he stole Rajon Rondo’s last inbounds pass (Note to Rajon: Don’t try to lob the ball over this guy) and was fouled, making both from the stripe to give New Orleans a three-point lead. After the game, he leapt into the embrace of a random fan. On Monday night, on the way to a
One of the biggest knocks against the NBA is that when the season starts, there are only five or six teams that can truly win the championship, making the regular season and the early playoff rounds interminably tedious. Not this season. As we reach the midway point – 18 teams have played at least 41 games, another nine have played 40 – there are no less than a dozen teams with legitimate title aspirations, including a handful that haven’t been in the