An airball of an attempt to defend an MVP vote

I try not to write about the NBA here, as it's not really my cup of tea. But I had to pass along this article written by John Denton, a writer for orlandomagic.com, and someone who voted Dwight Howard MVP over LeBron James. I'm willing to listen to a defense of anything, even something as insane as Howard over LeBron, so let's get into it.


http://www.nba.com/magic/news/denton_howardmvpvote_050310.html

"I am here today to defend the Defensive Player of the Year, highlight the player usually left off SportsCenter’s highlights and say what those at ABC with their Cavs-Lakers pompons in the way won’t say:

It’s no slam dunk that LeBron James, as great of a player as he is, is absolutely, positively the best basketball player in the NBA."

I love, love, love the way he starts this out. Look at how defensive he is; can't you just hear the whiny tone? "The Cavs and Lakers are popular, whaa whaa whaa." Dwight Howard, of course, is popular in his own right, so this is a bogus assertion, but the real beauty is the last sentence. Realize for a second that he's voting for MVP, and he's basing his vote on the notion that maybe LeBron isn't the best player in the league. Uhh, Mr. Denton, what you need to prove is not that LeBron isn't the best player in the league, but that Dwight Howard is. Remember, you voted him for MVP.

"After all, Howard did something this season – lead the NBA in rebounds, blocked shots and field goal percentage – that no NBA player has done in the past 36 years."

Do you know why Howard has such a high field goal percentage? Because the only shots he takes are easy dunks and put-backs. He has a limited offensive game, therefore the only time he actually shoots the ball is when he's pretty much guaranteed to put it in. This is actually a point against Howard, in my opinion. If he was a true MVP he'd be taking more shots, as the Magic would run the offense through him. Instead he rebounds their missed 3s and puts down easy dunks. I'm not saying this a bad thing, I'm just saying you voted this guy freaking MVP for his high field goal percentage when it's only that high because of his own ineptitude.

Ahem...moving on.

"The NBA’s MVP is quickly becoming the Heisman Trophy of individual awards. In college football, quarterbacks and running backs are basically the only ones up for the award. And in the NBA, if you aren’t a high scoring wing player, you apparently have no shot at winning the top individual honor. Clearly, it’s defense by damned."

Again we get back to being defensive. I like the line, "if you aren't a high scoring wing player you can't win MVP." Shaq, Hakeem, David Robinson...nope, no MVPs among them.

I was willing to listen to his defense of his vote, but he's such a whiny bitch that I can't hardly handle it anymore. Nobody would argue that Dwight Howard isn't a great defensive player; nobody would argue that he isn't the MVP of the Magic. However, we're talking the entire NBA here, and I think it's pretty clear who the best player in the NBA is. And you haven't even remotely convinced me otherwise. You know who else was a great defensive center? Dikembe Mutombo. That doesn't mean he was ever MVP of the NBA.

Okay, two more beauties:

"And unlike James, who took six games off down the stretch, Howard played all 82 games for a fifth time in his six-year career."

"And I know the award is based on this past season alone, but I do think it’s worth noting that it was Howard’s Magic -- and not James’ Cavs -- who emerged from the Eastern Conference last spring."

Yeah that's right...he's docking LeBron because he sat out 6 meaningless games at the end of the season. And I would love to know why it's worth noting what happened last season when the award is for this season.

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I'm a big fan of Hakeem Olajuwon, although I wasn't so much when he played (mainly because he knocked out Barkley's Suns two years in a row). But as big of a fan as I am of Olajuwon, I would never say he was a better player than Michael Jordan. And that's essentially what this guy is doing. When people say it's insane to vote Howard over LeBron, it isn't because nobody appreciates Howard's skills. Everybody recognizes what a great defensiver player he is, and what he means to the Magic. But LeBron is the modern-day Jordan, the best player in the league and probably by a wide margin. There's no shame in what Howard is doing, and if you want to vote him first team all-NBA...well, that's a no-brainer.

But the only MVP votes that Howard got were from media members close the Orlando Magic, and they should have their votes rescinded. Whenever a media member shows that level of obvious bias, they should be taken out of the voting. The fact that nobody else in the country had Howard as the league's MVP shows you the level of bias here.