RealGM

LeBron James received all but one first place vote for the 2013 NBA Most Valuable Player award as Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe cast his vote instead for Carmelo Anthony.

James joked in his MVP press conference that he bet a writer from New York voted for Anthony instead of him. Washburn is the longtime beat writer for the Celtics with the Boston Globe.

"Firstly, when I submitted my vote in mid-April, I had no idea I would be the only voter to leave LeBron out of first," wrote Washburn. "This isn’t Mrs. Wilson’s class, I don’t walk around asking fellow sportswriters their answers to the US History quiz. I had no idea whom the writers were voting for, so this was no LeBron conspiracy.

"Secondly, this isn’t the Best Player in the Game award, it’s the Most Valuable Player award, and I think what Anthony accomplished this season was worthy of my vote. He led the Knicks to their first division title in 19 years."

Via Gary Washburn/Boston Globe

This guy isn't a criminal and shouldn't be singled out in the media as if he was. Kudos to him for not being in lock step and follow crowd. Many and I mean Many feel the MVp has been redefined as Best Player Ever award instead of Most Valued Plyer to one's team. Once upon a time it was that way For Lebron when he was a Cav and there were many best players out there that could have taken the MVP. But the overwhelming consensus was just that; Lebron was most valuable to his Cavs team and without him; they would not have even been a playoff team. This isn't the case in Miami. These sports writers are reduced to the junior high school popularity contest and follow the crowd mentality. Anyone can do that.

An MVP vote for a guy who's known for not playing defense is pretty stupid. If it had been Durant or Kobe then I could understand but this is ridiculous. I guess even writers can get caught up in media hype, which is all Carmelo has ever been. But I would still feel pretty dumb being publicly exposed as the only one.

Again I will state for the record that I'm not fond of Lebron James or Kevin Durant.
With that said, anyone who would vote for anyone over the two of them has their own hidden agenda.

The fact that there's a witch-hunt over this is really pathetic. Some people subscribe to the view that the MVP award should reflect a player's relative value to his team. I don't ascribe to this view, but many people do. Based on this common approach for selecting the winner, it's perfectly reasonable to believe that Carmelo Anthony has more value to his particular team than Lebron James does -- since Lebron is but one of a "big three." Barkley won over Jordan in '94... why is there such outrage over Lebron "only" getting 120 of 121 votes?

He didn't offer an explanation for his vote though...or at the least the explanation he offered was borderline pathetic. "The Knicks won the division"...but so did 5 other teams. Why didn't he give it to any of those players, one of whom is LeBron?

Realistically, equating "winning the division" with winning 66 games and a 27-game win streak and a team that performed at just ridiculous levels with LeBron (with him playing absolutely insane basketball by every possible measure) is intellectually dishonest at best, and a sign of really really horrible analytical skills at worst.

There are all-time greats who never won the award unainomusly. Jordan never won it unainomusly and he was clearly the best player when Barkley won it and Karl Malone won it. As great of a player LeBron is, he also has the biggest ego. Writers and former NBA greats just don't like LeBron, he has to deal with it. He wants everyone to like him.

It's not like he was robbed over an MVP award it was one freaking vote!!?!?!?

If you read the full article, Washburn actually makes some valid points.

If you guys want to bring up the 66 games won and the 27-game winning streak and he should win the Unainomus MVP.

Michael Jordan's 95-96 Bulls went 72-10 and he didn't get unainomus MVP.

It isn't "most valuable to your team" award, it's the most valuable player. No player has as much value in the league as Lebron does, and it's not even close. The award IS equivalent to who is the best player in the league in a given year, and that Washburn can't see this makes me question why he even has a vote.

There are NBA Greats who did not get unainomus.

Can anyone hear name a unainomus MVP in another sport?

rockmanslim wrote:If you read the full article, Washburn actually makes some valid points.

I did read the article and he does make valid points. I think the one that stands out the most are:

Take Melo off the Knicks they are a lottery team, Heat are still good enough to make the playoffs without LeBron.

Jordan should have won the MVP award every year he played in the 90's he didn't. LeBron won the MVP he wasn't robbed from an MVP like Jordan was back in 92-93 and 96-97. Jordan didn't win Unainomus MVP when the bulls went 72-10.