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Warning: Super off topic rant.

I was just thinking about this today. I was thinking about how Lebron earned himself 2 MVP's in the year that Kobe and the Lakers won their two championships. When someone says MVP, people assume that "that" player was the best player of the year - In that sense, it's almost a misnomer. You would almost hope that people would call it Regular Season MVP, or something else similar so that the distinction would be more obvious.

Legacy-wise, I think that an NBA MVP is such an important achievement in a player's career, that you're really being inaccurate if you stop at the regular season. When you compare a Kobe Bryant Finals MVP in 2009 to a Lebron James MVP in 2009, there are some people who might actually hold Lebron's MVP in a higher regard than Kobe's Finals MVP. I think that playing in the post-season tells you so much more about an individual, by showing you how well they really perform under pressure when the stakes are high, and it actually matters. We all know that a playoff game in June is much more important than a game in January, but yet we don't seem to reflect it when we choose to give someone such a high achievement as an NBA MVP (i.e. Since he was the MVP in 2009, he was the best player in that year). In my eyes, the perfect formula for MVP would be sort of like a Mid-term and finals, with each being weighted at 50% (ignoring the extra allocations that would be made in an academic class).

I'm not saying that Lebron, or anyone else for that matter, wouldn't have still gotten an MVP, but I think it would make much more sense if Play-offs were taken into consideration.

Just an addendum, but I think it's also interesting to note that in the past 10 years, only Shaq and Duncan were MVP's on actual championship winning teams.

I think it's fine the way it is. Some players take their game to a whole 'nother level in the playoffs (Kobe Bryant), while others (LeBron James) play their best during the season and disappear in the playoffs.

LA Forever wrote:I think it's fine the way it is. Some players take their game to a whole 'nother level in the playoffs (Kobe Bryant), while others (LeBron James) play their best during the season and disappear in the playoffs.

whoa, im not sure what playoffs you were watching, but lebron james turns into an absolute monster in the playoffs. let's not base our rants based on a couple of games against the celtics and magic.

sure he clowned all over the scrub teams of the east, but his stats in those series against the spurs, magic and celtics were still MVP calibre numbers.

the (main) problem with james is his failure to adapt his game to great defenses, this is where kobe continues to have impact due to his versatility compared to lebron, whose style of play was not AS conducive to winning team basketball.

Aki wrote:

LA Forever wrote:I think it's fine the way it is. Some players take their game to a whole 'nother level in the playoffs (Kobe Bryant), while others (LeBron James) play their best during the season and disappear in the playoffs.

whoa, im not sure what playoffs you were watching, but lebron james turns into an absolute monster in the playoffs. let's not base our rants based on a couple of games against the celtics and magic.

sure he clowned all over the scrub teams of the east, but his stats in those series against the spurs, magic and celtics were still MVP calibre numbers.

the (main) problem with james is his failure to adapt his game to great defenses, this is where kobe continues to have impact due to his versatility compared to lebron, whose style of play was not AS conducive to winning team basketball.

The last playoffs series he was a monster for all the wrong reasons. 9 TO 15 pts..

I agree with the current decision for 2 separate MVP awards. What I think they should change is a Finals MVP award to a Playoffs+Finals MVP award AKA Post-Season MVP. I think the only eligible candidates have to make it to the Finals and they base the award off of one's performance throughout the whole playoffs instead of just the final series.

lebron is a straight beast. when he beat detroit in game 5 of eastern conference finals in 2ot where he scored 48 and 29 of his teams last 30 points.. against a GREAT defensive team? it was then when i said.. this man is a BEAST... but back on topic..
i liked laforevers point that some people..not necessarily lebron.. save their energy for the playoffs.. thats the ultimate goal ya know. also, theres a finals mvp for a reason. the finals mvp is pretty serious too.. its only 4 wins but when u look back at someones career, finals mvps are always mentioned as huge achievements.

The MVP has a reason for only existing in the regular season, and that's to make fans of players that can't get it done in the playoffs feel good about regular season success. I say let 'em have it.

Aki wrote:whoa, im not sure what playoffs you were watching, but lebron james turns into an absolute monster in the playoffs. let's not base our rants based on a couple of games against the celtics and magic.

The only good team he's beasted on in the past was the Magic in 08-09. When you look back at all the garbage or average teams he's faced, it's comparable to Kobe thrashing teams like the Suns and Jazz on a regular basis -- except the Suns and Jazz aren't nearly as bad as the Wizards, Nets, etc.

Aki wrote:sure he clowned all over the scrub teams of the east, but his stats in those series against the spurs, magic and celtics were still MVP calibre numbers.

I don't know about the Spurs and Celtics. He was pretty horrible against both of those teams in the 3 times he's faced them. The Magic he's never had any issue with.

Aki wrote:the (main) problem with james is his failure to adapt his game to great defenses, this is where kobe continues to have impact due to his versatility compared to lebron, whose style of play was not AS conducive to winning team basketball.

Agreed here. LeBron is a great individual talent, but what's the point of being heralded as the best player in the league if you can't adapt and lead your team to victory when it matters? I guess we'll see if he can figure it out this year, but I seriously doubt it.

MoLakers wrote:lebron is a straight beast. when he beat detroit in game 5 of eastern conference finals in 2ot where he scored 48 and 29 of his teams last 30 points.. against a GREAT defensive team?

Detroit was not a great defensive team. We're talking about the 06-07 Pistons who were falling apart under Flip Saunders (there was already internal bickering before they reached the ECF). If you recall, they lost Ben Wallace and gained Chris Webber that year, and Rasheed and Billups were starting to get up there in age. That team was nothing like the 03-04 Pistons that kicked us in the nuts, and the rules were already in place to allow slashers more freedom. I'd compare them, defensively, to the 2008-09 Nuggets. Considering how badly Kobe ate up the Nuggets in that series, one has to wonder why LeBron gets so much props for that ONE GAME performance whereas Kobe's complete series dominance is all but forgotten. It's almost like Kobe is expected to do that, but when LeBron does it, somehow it gets everyone talking.

Besides that, the Cavs beat the Pistons because of their defense, and LeBron was nothing special on the defensive end that year. In fact, it was an area where he was still getting criticism.

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As for the topic, I think it would be best if they had a Playoffs MVP instead of just a Finals MVP. The reason that the Finals MVP holds so little value is because it covers a single series, although in reality they almost always pick the player who was the best in the playoffs for the winning team. You have situations where guys like Magic in '80, Maxwell in '81, Parker in '06, etc. end up getting it. It doesn't happen too often, but if you extend the award to cover all of the playoffs then it really eliminates that possibility, and the award has more meaning because it covers 4 full series.

^ That's the only change I'd support. The regular-season MVP is pretty much necessary. You need to recognize somebody after an 82-game season. As for the playoffs MVP, I think that would be much better than what we have now for a singular series.