The NBA MVP Award is Endangered

I have become increasingly frustrated over the last few years with the distribution of the NBA MVP award. I don't want to take away from the great seasons that Dirk and Nash had, but I feel like we (NBA fanatics) have been a little bit cheated when it comes to naming an MVP. It seems a little bit like a farce when you mention Dirk in the same breath as Bird, Magic, MJ, Abdul-Jabbar, or even Duncan. Maybe I am the only one who feels this way, but I am going to vent for a minute.

Until 1979-1980, NBA players voted on who was going to win the Maurice Podoloff trophy. After that point in time, media members voted on the award. It seems to me they did an decent job of it through the 80's and most of the 90's, but that it has become a little sketchy as of late, especially over the last three years like I said earlier. I think the increased usage of the internet and the general availability of games has screwed with the voting. Before that point in time, sports writers saw players on the big stage in the playoffs or huge nationally televised games (of which there weren't nearly as many as there are now) or when they came to their city. In other words, they were drawing conclusions and voting from the knowledge they had dropped on them by players and coaches or by reputations developed by the players. They had to take what players and coaches thought into account because the writers did not have as much exposure to as many players as they do now. Once the internet and satellite/cable kicked in, I think sports writers began to disregard the players and coaches thoughts and to vote on what they thought was best. I respect sports writers for the most part, but how do they know who the MVP is? Are they out there playing against them or staying up late at night to develop a scheme to stop them? It certainly seems like a wierd system to have people who really have nothing to do directly with the game vote on its top individual honor.

So with that said, sit down and grab a fork cause here is the rest of my beef. Since the '79-'80 change here are your winners: Abdul-Jabbar, Dr. J, Moses Malone two years in a row, Bird three years in a row, Magic, MJ, Magic, Magic, MJ, MJ, Barkley, Olajuwon, Robinson, MJ, Karl Malone, MJ, Karl Malone, Shaq, AI, Duncan two years in a row, Garnett, Nash for two years, and Dirk. (Another note, Moses Malone was the last guy to win the award on a team with less than 50 wins as he did so in '81-'82.)

That list of winners seems to be a list of "greatest ever players" until you hit the last few years. In fact, this is a great moment to turn to sports writers who can sit and debate stuff that ultimately has no consequence (something I am fine with and am patron of). Every one of these players, until the last two winners, can be argued to be in the top 5 or 6 players at their position EVER (which all have been by ESPN and others). The one exception may be Robinson, but I think he was awful close to it and the center postion may be the most stacked of all of them. Nash is great, but at the end of his career he will not even be close to cracking the top five point guards ever. Magic, The Big O, Isaiah, John Stockton, and Cousy all have him beat easily. Not to mention there are guys like J-Kidd, Payton, Frazier, and Archibald that might have him beat too (there are arguments to be had here.). As for Dirk, he may crack the top 10, but that is if he is lucky and people forget his consistent choke jobs and his ever present lack of defense and rebounding for a big guy. His is a great, great shooter and may be seen as a player ahead of his time if the league continues to get big men that can shoot, but Duncan, Malone, Barkley, McHale, Pettit, Garnett, Hayes, Debusschere, Schayes, Rodman, Kemp, Williams, Webber, Wallace, and Stoudemire might all beat him out. Undoubtedly there are arguments to be had over some of these, but I think the point is made. As great as Nash and Nowitzki have been, they haven't lived up to the greatness of their predecessors. I hope that this year the writers give the award to someone who fits the criteria left behind by the former greats who won the award. Although I am very partial to Kobe winning it this year, I would be ok with LeBron, Garnett, or Paul (I think he will go down as one of the greatest barring injury). Lets save the MVP award before it looses any more of its meaning and becomes extinct.

My All-Time NBA Team

So it I know this post is way passed due, but here it goes. I sent Nate the question, "What would your all-time NBA team look like", but I don't want my team to be just a list of obvious choices. Nate's team is pretty good and he didn't quite do that, but my team is going to be a little more obscure. I want to put in players that actually could have played together, not just on the court, but in the locker room, etc. So I am going to limit myself to two all-timers and then I am going to try and put in the role players like a real team, one of which has to be a current NBA player and I have to name a sixth man that actually is a sixth man. I am not sure how this will go, but I have an hour or so to burn before class, so here it goes.

Point Guard: Earvin "Magic" Johnson
Anyone who knows me will see this as no big surprise, and I don't think this pick needs a whole lot of justification. Magic is one of the greatest NBA players of all time (I think he is a close second to MJ) and he may be the greatest of all time if you take into account the whole body of work (High School, College, and the whole NBA career). He averaged 19.2 ppg, 11.2 apg (all-time career leader), and 7.2 rebounds per game. He was a 12 time all-star, 10 time All-NBA player, 3 time NBA MVP, and 3 time Finals MVP. Yet after all of this, he may be best known for what did that didn't appear on the stats sheet. He just won and he did it on every level for his entire career. He made 9 finals appearances in 13 years and won 5 of those in the hyper-competitive NBA of the 1980's. There will never be a better floor general, so he is my pick to run my team.

Shooting Guard: Dennis Johnson
This pick was a tough one for me. It was between Dennis Johnson and Sidney Moncrief AKA "The Squid". I wanted to choose a 2 guard that wasn't a reliability on offense and that could check the oppositions best perimeter player night in and night out. Both of these guys fit that description as they were tenacious defenders that made their livings disrupting the other teams perimeter play, but both were decent offensive players too. Moncrief actually has better offensive stats than DJ, but three things made me choose DJ anyway. First, he was an All-NBA defensive selection 9 times. To me that means he sustained his high level of D for longer than Moncrief. Second, he was listed as an inch taller which would allow him to bother some players Moncrief couldn't. And lastly, DJ was the NBA Finals MVP in 1978-1979, so he showed up to play on big stages. Not to mention, Larry Bird AKA "Basketball Jesus" called DJ, "the smartest guy he played with". High praise for DJ and a good fit next to a guy who created like Magic.

Small Forward: Michael Cooper
This was another tricky position. I didn't want to just put Larry Bird, because I wanted to try and avoid predictability. I was really tempted to put down Josh Howard or Tayshaun Prince and call him my current player because I think they are guys who can do a little of everything, are great defenders, and who don't need the ball a ton. Then I started thinking about Coop. He is what Howard and Prince shoudl aspire to be. He shot the 3 ball decently well (he was in the top 10 in the league a few years), he ran the floor extremely well, was one of the best finishers in the league, and was another absolutely lock down defender. He was an All-NBA defensive team selection 8 times and won the defensive player of the year award in 1986-87. He understood the game very well (as evidenced by his success in coaching) and was a winner of five NBA championships. In short, he wins, he can spread the floor, finish the break, and lock down the opposition.

Power Forward: Karl Malone
I never like Karl much as a player (I think it has to do with the whooping he and the Jazz put on the Lakers in the mid/late 90's), but he was an amazing 4. The dude averaged 25 ppg and 10 rpg. He was a walking double-double. He was a 14 time All-Star, a 14 time All-NBA player, a 4 time All-NBA defensive team selection, and a 2 time NBA MVP. People forget how good he was at running the floor for a big man (something important on this team) and how many times he went to the foul line. He is arguably the best player in NBA history to never win a title. I realize that is something I have been big on in selecting my other players, but I am thinking they can help compensate for this chink in Malone's otherwise super-shiny armor. He can be the guy to carry the scoring load for this team and he doesn't need to eat up the paint to do so. He also doesn't have to be the guy to come through in the clutch as Magic and DJ can take care of much of that.

Center: Dwight Howard
This may be cheating because Howard may go down as an All-Timer eventually, but he isn't so right now. I love this kid. His game has grown so much over the past few seasons and his athleticism is scary. Although that athletic ability is a big plus for this team as I envision they would run a lot, I put him here because of his defense and his rebounding. There are times when Howard doesn't defend to the best of his ability, but I think a lot of that has to do with the energy he puts in at the offensive end to get shots because his team is just mediocre. They have no real creator on their team and on this team he has the best ever, so I think he could focus his energies on the defensive end and continue to add to his career averages of 12 rpg and 2bpg. He has already lead the league in total rebounds for three seasons. He is a monster inside and he has no ego to speak of, a great quality for a center that we need to hit boards and shut down the lane.

Sixth Man: Steve Kerr
I think my team is loaded defensively, so I am going to take a guy who may be a liability and use him as my sixth man. Also, I have some decent shooters, but to bring Kerr in off the bench would be sweet. This little day-walker is the second leading 3-point shooter in NBA history at .454%. He could spread the floor so well on this team and with the focus having to be on so many other guys on the offensive end, he could eat teams up by drifting to open spots and nailing shots. Another interesting stat, according to basketball-reference.com he is the all-time leader in offensive efficiency. In toher words, he is perfect to come in and make an impact without touching the ball much. On top of all of that, he won championships with two teams and played an active role in that. Remember the shot?

That is my team. Let the debate begin.