Worst MVP decision?

[dantas]

Westbrook or Rose

Westbrook only played for triple-doubles, his impact on winning was minimal.

Rose had the best record in the regular season, at least. But he was such a raw player, barely above average.

[NuggetsWY]

For those old enough to remember; Michael Jordan was not voted as MVP for more than one year when he was clearly the Most Valuable Player in the league. The most telling statistic for me is how did the team do with & without a player.

This year:
Sixers record was slightly better when Embiid did not play -- he did not play in 16 games.
Nuggets record was .385 without Jokic & .696 when Jokic played -- he did not play in 13 games.

Embiid is an impressive player but in my opinion; he looks better in the box score than his actual impact on the game.

[Bank Shot]

Rose and Iverson. Iverson always gets a pass in these discussions because he was everyone's favorite player growing up. Iverson over prime Duncan and Shaq is brutal.

Westbrook was elite and had a strong case in his MVP year thanks to an outlier shooting season. Embiid had an incredible season. Not being quite as good as prime Jokic doesn't mean you're an all-time bad pick. Kobe over Paul was wrong too but he was obviously a much better player than Rose and Iverson.

[jokeboy86]

I voted for Malone in 99. Duncan (and more so Zo) got robbed that year but recency bias probably played a huge part and the voters probably went with Malone because they just defaulted to assuming he was the best player with Jordan retired.

The first Nash MVP I actually didn't that have that much of a problem with just because of how much they improved by literally just inserting Nash in place of Marbury and add to the fact that the Heat weren't some slouch team the year before they made the playoffs w/o Shaq.

But the 2nd one I'll always have a problem with not necessarily because of Nash's stats and the Suns record but what Kobe did that year. To say Kobe's effort that year was Herculean would be an understatement. I'm not exaggerating when I say he dragged that Lakers team to the playoffs and 45 wins.

[schnakenpopanz]

oh yes the yearly stev nash mvp hate - thread.
i thought someone missed to post it.

[Pantsman]

Embiid only got it because he whined and cried so much about it

[scrabbarista]

Westbrook was entirely defensible. It was (read: should've been) a competitive race: Curry, Harden, and Leonard were all right there.

I'll say Rose, Nash (either one?), Iverson, and Embiid, from most-worst to least-worst - but they're all terrible, and there's no excuse for any of those four/five.

Kobe shouldn't have won, but it wasn't horrendous, so I'll rank him fifth-worst out of the six.

I haven't dug enough into the pre-2000 ones.

[MrGoat]

It's Unseld '69 and it's not even close. Most flagrant example of picking a player because of a team's record rather than the player's individual performance. And that team ended up getting swept in the first round, too. 1969 Unseld as MVP would have been comparable to choosing Keegan Murray as the current MVP

[HiDef]

Embiid only got it because he whined and cried so much about it

To me Nash's first MVP is the same way. Only reason people think Shaq deserved it is cause he's spent 10 years crying about it on TV.

[p0peye]

Dude that won thanks to racial discrimination and voters fear from cancel culture.

There are many other bad MVP decisions, but none of them are as alarming.

[Snakebites]

It’s still gotta be Iverson for me. He wasn’t better than TMAC, VC, or Kobe that year. He got credit for Philly’s defense.

[CpttCanada]

I'm Jokic and Nuggets big fan obviously, but I must say people are too cruel to Embiid here.

Embiid 2022-23 numbers 33-10-4 ts%66% are historic by any means so Jokic outperformed Joel slightly in the regular season, while many here overreact like playoff counts too for the MVP award, which is not true. So it is a robbery but for sure not the biggest robbery in NBA/MVP history.

How many other players begged and cried for their MVP?

[Savage_Mode]

I chose other as I’d chose Nash’s 2nd MVP as the worst.

[LakersLegacy]

Popularity contest with all kinds of definitions

Best player despite subpar teammates
OR
Best player on the best team
OR
Best individual player
OR
Best 2 way player that plays defense
OR
Statistical accomplishment
OR
Best leader WITHOUT a great co-leader
…


No consistency

[One_and_Done]

If we just ignore the Embiid voters the poll actually looks pretty good.

[SOUL]

Dude that won thanks to racial discrimination and voters fear from cancel culture.

There are many other bad MVP decisions, but none of them are as alarming.

Not sure the guy who won two previous MVPs is suddenly the victim of racial discrimination - almost as absurd as Perkins saying he won 2x because of a racial bias. The fact that there's arguments on both sides probably just means the one obvious answer of voting fatigue + Embiid publicly lobbing so much and it mostly being a regular season award.

edit: although I do think foreign players of any race suffer from stereotypes American born players don't.. but once they become established they usually push all of that aside

[BelgradeNugget]

I think Embiid shouldn't have won, but neither should Jokic or Giannis. In every MVP race, there are boxes you must check. One of them is games played. In 2020-21 there were players with better cases than Jokic. Embiid had great stats, 76ers were 1st in the east but didn't play enough games. Donovan Mitchell had great stats, Jazz was 1st in the west, but he didn't play enough games.

Embiid is MVP with the least games played since Bill Walton. And Walton was an advanced stats king before they were invented. His Blazers were the best team with him, and bad since his injury. Clear MVP case.
If Jokic or Giannis won they would have been MVPs with the least games played since Bill Walton, without Walton's on/off case. Sorry guys.

That is why I think Jason Tatum should have been voted this time. If 3 players in front of him didn't check one important box, MVP is his.

[Zvaart]

for me is westbrook.

chasing stats all season long on a mediocre team does not make you mvp in my book.

Embiid is not at fault here, the voters are (see mark jackson). they just didn't want to give it to the joker

[HMFFL]

Joel Embiid gets my vote. Jokic's numbers to me are historic and overnight Jokic went from being a large favorite to an underdog. The power of the media.



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[HMFFL]

Since Rose received a good amount of votes here are the voting numbers. Rose received 113 first place votes, Dwight Howard 3, Lebron 4, Kobe 1. Rose basically won in a landslide.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/awards_2011.html

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