If you’re a basketball fan, you know that LeBron James of the Miami Heat, won the NBA’s prestigious Most Valuable Player award, his fourth. In second place, Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks – who received a single vote out of the 120 cast by journalists across the nation. No player, in the history of the league, has every received a unanimous vote for the MVP trophy. (You can find the full story here - http://www.nba.com/2013/news/05/05/lebron-james-wins-mvp.ap/index.html)
Now, here is where I get to be a little controversial – had I been given a vote, I would have written in Anthony as well.
Before you throw me under the wheels of the Miami team bus as you throw crumpled up pages of James’ box scores and PER throughout the season, let me say that James is undoubtedly the best player in the league, but that doesn't mean he’s the MVP. MVP stands for Most Valuable Player, not Best Player – the MVP should be about the player that contributes the most to his team’s success, because that is inherently what the word valuable means. Take James away from the Heat and what do you have? Not much different, I’ll tell you – they will still make the playoffs (by a mile) and would likely still be the favorites to go to the Finals. What are the Knicks without Anthony? The Timberwolves without Kevin Love (that is to say, not very good.) Make up a new trophy for the league’s best player that year and call it the Michael Jordan Trophy or the like, and let guys like Anthony, the guys carrying their whole team on their backs, to be up for the MVP – it’s what it’s there for, after all.
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