LeBron James Has Not Been the NBA's Most Valuable Player Every Year Since 2014
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Yesterday, ESPN’s Mike Greenberg made the case, while he knows James Harden will win the MVP award, that the award lacks meaning because it isn’t going to LeBron James every season. He believes Harden will only win it because it is his turn.
Has James been snubbed? In 2011, he had a strong case to be the recipient as opposed to Derrick Rose. But besides that, he’s deserved the award the number of years he has won it, four.
As far as whose “turn” it is, it’s Harden’s, but that is not why he is going to be the MVP. Harden has been far and away the best player in the league this season with some of the most phenomenal individual performances in recent memory.
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James last won the award in 2012-13 and has not deserved it since. The best stat to represent a player’s overall performance is PER. In each of the seasons since, James has ranked behind the MVP winner. In some cases, there has been a significant gap.
Greenberg’s opinion is a narrative that many believe when it comes to James — and it is completely false. Yes, over the past decade combining the regular and postseasons, he’s has been the best player in the NBA in aggregate, but that has nothing to do with the award given to the best in a given season.
James has been great nearly every regular season, but there has been at least one player greater than him since the time he won the award four out of five seasons.
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Greenberg believes that James has a case over Harden because he plays on a bad team that “might be the worse team in the league” without him. Again, not a valid case. A player should not win an award because they make a bad team good (are they even good?).
Harden has been better than LeBron James this season, meaning if they switched places, he would also make Cleveland a respectable team (if you want to call them good right now). As would Anthony Davis who is also having a better year than James.
There was once a time when James was unfairly criticized by many, but over the years, he has actually been vastly overprotected.
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Tuesday night, when discussing another exceptional performance by Harden in the fourth quarter, the broadcast team made the case James should win MVP because of his value to the league overall. Here is the problem: again, that has nothing to do with the award.
There is no official criteria for the award, but what the award can be best understood as is a combination of individual numbers and team wins. Which, of course, this year screams Harden. This is barring a clear separation of individual performance as seen last year with Russell Westbrook unprecedentedly averaging a triple-double. That is not what has been occurring with James.
LeBron James does not deserve the MVP this year, or last year, or the three seasons before that, or the seasons before he won the award. At this point, many of the excuses for him to win the award are manufactured and inaccurate.
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I think Harden should win it this year, but Lebron has definitely been the MVP over the past 2-3 weeks, he's been playing out of his mind.
He doesn't win not because there is a player(s) that is having a better season than him but because he continuously gives you a 25-29 PPG over his so far 15 seasons.
Just look at any other player that averages a 25 or above PPG and you will hear that he is having MVP caliber year. example Damian Lillard
I take nothing from James Harden he is having a very good season last season and maintained it this season, he should have won last season. If he wins this year he was a genuine contender to win.
Comparing Last season win with Westbrook... LeBron is in the same exact situation Westbrook was last season being the best player on his team and needed to do all that work for them to win points, rebound and assist. He wont win because he isn't doing anything that is already expected of him
Average 27 ppg - we have already seen him do that
Average 9 rebounds a game - nothing new again
Average 9 assist per game - thats typical LeBron
He might miss out one stats area from averaging a triple double this season but even if he did he still wouldn't win MVP.
When your at the top of the table the only person to compare you to is yourself and he ain't doing nothing that we aren't accustom to him doing!
Maybe if he averaged a 35 PPG just Maybe he could win MVP again :) thats a LeBRon we haven't seen.
"He is a victim of his own Success or Greatness whichever applies best"
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I agree with your take, and whether you really believe that LeBron deserves to be the MVP every year or not - the bottom line is the league needs parity with its Superstars. MJ didn't win the MVP every single year either. Interest would begin to wane if the same superstar on the same teams win the MVP every year. LeBron has had some incredible seasons but honestly, come on, Hardin is far and away the best player this season (as you pointed out) and Westbook was far and away the MVP last year. Couldn't agree with you more.