MVP Rankings 1.0

[Greatness]

I can't believe that the Cavs pwned the Lakers with LeBron serving as a decoy. Kobe got completely punked, chucking up shot after shot and trying to man up LeBron on D when the game was well in hand. If Kobe had made it more about winning and less about a 1 on 1 duel with LBJ, the Lakers would have won by 20.

Clearly LeBron leads the MVP race after todays game. Kobe fell pretty far today. I'd put Carmelo, Dirk, and Nash ahead of Kobe at this point. Maybe Dwight too.

So one loss drops Kobe that far? Really? I can see him dropping behind LeBron, but common now. Let's not get carried away, you can't base your rankings on one game.

[Father Time]

I can't believe that the Cavs pwned the Lakers with LeBron serving as a decoy. Kobe got completely punked, chucking up shot after shot and trying to man up LeBron on D when the game was well in hand. If Kobe had made it more about winning and less about a 1 on 1 duel with LBJ, the Lakers would have won by 20.

Clearly LeBron leads the MVP race after todays game. Kobe fell pretty far today. I'd put Carmelo, Dirk, and Nash ahead of Kobe at this point. Maybe Dwight too.

So one loss drops Kobe that far? Really? I can see him dropping behind LeBron, but common now. Let's not get carried away, you can't base your rankings on one game.

This. Talk about a knee-jerk reaction.

[NYK 455]

I have LBJ at 1, but Kobe's right there. It's gonna be a pretty tight race. And although they won't win it, Nash and Dirk will have legit cases.

[tkb]

I still rank Kobe as nr 1 as I don't think last nights game skewed anything in either way. Both superstars had fairly forgettable performances. Neither of them played amazingly good.

LeBron is closing the gap though, because of his teams record closing in.

[jrich88]

2-7 from 3, 6-11 from FT, 7 TO..Wow, if Lakers had ANY kind of shooting tonight outside of Kobe, guess who would be the one blamed for the loss?

[CzBoobie]

LeBron didn't play really well and he still had much bigger impact on the game than Kobe.

He seemed down for quite a while after he missed the dunk, had it gone in and had the buzzer beater counted, it might have looked differently. Only that would give him 31 points on 11/20 shooting.

[prekazi]

Kobe is still leading the race but last night he was the reason why Lakers lost.

[JimMurray]

I don't want to make this a knee jerk reaction, but Kobe has to be penalized for how the Lakers came out today and laid an egg in primetime. I don't think Kobe turned it into a 1 on 1 competition; once the Lakers fell behind by 20, Kobe and Lebron both had 8 shots. Nobody on the Lakers was hitting anything, and he went into panic mode once they fell behind by a large margin. Not going to blame the officials, even though there were some missed calls, the aggressor will always get calls in their favor. That's how it is.

It's stupid to say who is ahead of who at this point after 28 games, but the onus is on Kobe to respond. He lost significant ground today and that can't be overlooked. You can't get punked at home in prime time by the guy who is supposedly 2nd in the MVP race. Although in fairness, today's victory had VERY LITTLE to do with Lebron. When Moon, West, Varajeo, Williams and Shaq shoot 26-36, it's going to be tough to win no matter what happens. The Cavs played probably about as well as they could possibly play at this point, and the Lakers played as bad as they could possibly play. Props to Lebron for showing his professionalism in keeping his guys composed through an unusually ruckus L.A. crowd.

I'm no longer going to listen to Cavs fan tell me they have a terrible supporting cast. That's just garbage. You and I both know that the Cavs supporting cast is better than you want to admit. It's not LA glamorous, but it's pretty damn effective, especially when they run the offense and it's not all Lebron Iso all the time.

My Updated MVP rankings

1. Lebron
2. Kobe
3. Melo
4. Dirk

I base my decision on this. The Cavs are 20-5 after starting the season 3-3 with all the drama in the background, and Shaq missing a couple games. The Lakers at 23-5 are two missed shots away from being 21-7, which would be a half game behind the Cavs current 23-8 mark. Not to mention, the Cavs now have a head to head win over the Lakers on the road. Even with the soft schedule that has been afforded the Cavs by virtue of playing in the East, that has been offset by the Lakers home heavy schedule thus far, and no matter how you want to spin that (the Lakers tougher schedule competition wise), it is what it is. Aside from that, and Lebrons superior numbers, I can't make an honest argument for Kobe at this point after seeing what I saw today. It's on Kobe to get it back in Cleveland come January 21st. Virtually every reason I supported Kobe as MVP was violated today by how soft the Lakers came out.

Now every team goes through lulls in a 82 game season, and perhaps that's what today was, perhaps they go on from here in rampage mode and destroy everybody; but they've left some questions that need to be answered; Kobe included if he's looking to win a 2nd MVP this year.

[INKtastic]

2-7 from 3, 6-11 from FT, 7 TO..Wow, if Lakers had ANY kind of shooting tonight outside of Kobe, guess who would be the one blamed for the loss?

Don't forget that 2-7 was just 0.1 seconds away from being 3-8, right as his average. The turnovers were high, but some of them were players fumbling a pass. Hickson on a fast break, Parker at the 3 line for a couple.

As for the lakers shooting. The rest of the Lakers starters were a combined 14-34, Kobe was 11-32. He wasn't shooting any better than the rest of them.

[INKtastic]

Virtually every reason I supported Kobe as MVP was violated today

Thank you for being consistent.

The Cavs are 20-5 after starting the season 3-3 with all the drama in the background, and Shaq missing a couple games. The Lakers at 23-5 are two missed shots away from being 21-7, which would be a half game behind the Cavs current 23-8 mark.

and for finally agreeing with what I've been saying for weeks now. I've not been one to trash LeBron's supporting cast (I have said he doesn't have one teammate as good as Gasol, though). When the first 3 players off the bench started for your 66 win team the prior season, your know your bench is pretty good.

We sacrificed a few games early to work 4 new players into the rotation. And we did that because 66 wins came with the ultimately fatal flaw that we didn't play well (3-6) against the elite teams. counting the playoffs we were 0-8 on the road against LA, Boston and Orlando. Thus far this year we're 2-0 on the road against them.

[Veggamattic]

i'M NOT SURE WHY THE MEDIA HAS PUT SO MUCH EMPHASIS ON TEAM PERFORMANCE IN THE MVP RACE BUT THIS WAS THE ONLY REASON KOBE WAS IN THE DISCUSSION.

LEBRON
STEVE
DIRK

DOES ANYONE THINK THERE SHOULD ALSO BE A PotY AWARD THAT IS NOT BASED ON A TEAMS RECORD. SOMEONE LIKE CHRIS BOSH THEN ENTERS THE CONVERSATION.

[HouMac]

Even with the soft schedule that has been afforded the Cavs by virtue of playing in the East, that has been offset by the Lakers home heavy schedule thus far

Are you **** kidding me? LA's schedule has "offset" Cleveland's because they play in the East? You do realize that both teams have played against the same # of teams with .500+ records? Opponents winning % has virtually been the same thus far, except LA's played a ridiculous 19 home games and barely ever plays back to backs. Whereas Cleveland leads the league in both those categories. There's no comparison here. Cleveland has played the FAR tougher schedule between the 2 teams.

btw, given Cleveland's history, it's probably a good thing for LA fans that they play in the East, because they've almost always fared better against the West. Same story this season too. Better against West than East, and better against the West than LA too.

[JimMurray]

Thank you for being consistent.

I'll admit that I am a Lakers fan, and thereby inherently biased. But I do try to be fair, and I hold myself accountable for my arguments.

[JimMurray]

i'M NOT SURE WHY THE MEDIA HAS PUT SO MUCH EMPHASIS ON TEAM PERFORMANCE IN THE MVP RACE BUT THIS WAS THE ONLY REASON KOBE WAS IN THE DISCUSSION.

LEBRON
STEVE
DIRK

DOES ANYONE THINK THERE SHOULD ALSO BE A PotY AWARD THAT IS NOT BASED ON A TEAMS RECORD. SOMEONE LIKE CHRIS BOSH THEN ENTERS THE CONVERSATION.

Let's not be (Please Use More Appropriate Word). Kobe is still in 2nd place, far ahead of anybody that's third, and slightly behind Lebron.

[Wile E. Coyote]

Kobe's still in pole position, even after the loss.

LeBron didn't have anything close to a dominating performance, and Kobe didn't either. They both played fairly average.

LeBron won the MVP last year, even after getting shut down by Kobe and the Lakers, so I don't see how this loss hurts Kobe so far this year.

[sp6r=underrated]

1. Lebron
2. Kobe
3. Dirk
4. Nash
5. Howard

[YLSKillaCam]

The Cavs have no excuse not to be #1 now. All the fans are saying "They are only 1 1/2 games back...blah blah blah

After the way the beat the lakers and played exceptionally well, there's no excuse for throwing up stinkers against lesser teams. The Cavs are clearly an insanely good team. They destroyed the Lakers and that's without Lebron doing much of anything.

No more, "Lebron's teammates suck." That's not true at all.

[CzBoobie]

The Lakers have no excuse to be tied with Boston after such a favorable schedule...

And I guess Kobe isn't doing much of anything in most of Lakers' wins either.

[YLSKillaCam]

The Lakers have no excuse to be tied with Boston after such a favorable schedule...

And I guess Kobe isn't doing much of anything in most of Lakers' wins either.

Look Jim Murray is a smart guy, you guys aren't too bright. By over-relying on this game, you're making your bed. Just remember to lie in it once it inevitably comes back to bite you.

[Bucs80]

1. Lebron
2. Kobe
3. Nash
4. Dirk
5. Anthony