...NBA MVP...

I am going to do a post on who I think, thus far, is the NBA MVP. I also want to define NBA MVP.

There are years in which I think the official NBA MVP ballot probably reads like an NBA All-Star ballot. "Pick your favorite player!!", etc...

It is really hard to have the "who is the MVP argument" when nobody really ever defines what the MVP is. There are a few different definitions, from what I can tell:
1. Flat out the best player of the year in the league
2. The player who means the most to his team in the league that year
3. The "this feels like the year to give it to a guy who hasn't ever won it before" standard

Quite often, they blend. Lebron won the MVP last year because of reasons 1 and 2. When you start to look at #2 as the only criteria, you have to ask yourself subquestions, and it gets messy. Does a 50 win team allow you to look for #2 as the leading criteria? If the Magic reach 50 wins, can't you argue they'd have less than 1/2 of those wins if Dwight wasn't around? But then where you do stop? It's impossible.

#3 is a horrid standard, and it happens every so often. Karl Malone should have never won an NBA MVP - and in reality, Jordan should have won 6 in his 6 straight active years, there is no question on that.

Its an impossible thing to decipher, who really is the NBA MVP, but this year I feel like a player is bubbling to the top in a way that writers across this country, and those who vote, may have trouble really understanding. I recognize there is a lot of season left, and I recognize that my opinions are not based in the reality of what may actually happen, but here are my top 5 NBA MVP candidates, if the season ended today:

5. Rajon Rondo
I know I am clearly a victim of looking at my hometown PG and thinking that he deserves NBA MVP nomination. Listen, I am not saying he is the MVP, I am saying he deserves 5th place for MVP. I am saying he leads the NBA in steals and is second in the NBA in assists. He made his first All-Star team, and if voters or the system were reasonable, he'd be the starter in the east. Every single night, the success of the team depends on how well he plays. He has continued to get better and better, and essentially the only thing that really is damaging in his game is Free Throw %. Let me say this, though, every other aspect of his game has improved over the offseason - expec him to go from low 50's to low 70's in FT shooting this offseason, and I do see an NBA MVP in his future.

Yes, I recognize that guys like Deron Williams, Chauncey Billups & Jason Kidd are fantastic players and vital to their team's success, but Rondo just means more to his team than those guys do, I believe that.

4. Dirk Nowitzki
This guy has a legit beef for being higher, if not #1 overall. He has already won one of them, which I think plays to his disadvantage, becuase he won't get the Karl Malone guilt vote...But this guy is establshing himself as the single most unique 7 footer in the history of the game. Every other 7 footer had his equal. Manute has Bradley...Wilt has Russell...Shaq may be the example of "nobody like him", which could have been different if Yao's career wasn't essentially over, with zero rings, and a lot of frustration.

Dirk has convinced an entire generation of oversized Shooting Guards in Europe that success can lie in using in their big bodies to shoot jumpers, which is a false premise. Dirk is so incredible, this season especially, because he has combined all aspects of his game into one mega-game, a guy who will back you down and shoot a jumper over you, on consecutive plays.

The Mavericks aren't the most talented team in the West, but give them 7 games against LA and I am not conviced they don't steal one in LA, and win them all in Dallas. This guy is better than advertised.

2 (tie). Lebron James
2 (tie). Kobe Bryant
Now I know this is where criticism is much deserved. How can the 2 best talents in the game be tied for #2, in seasons in which their teams are leading the Conference? Well, maybe that's just it. How do you distinguish them from one another? You can say the last second shots, which gives the edge to Kobe, who has become an assassin in the last few moments of a game. But you can also say that Lebron carries his team for all 48 minutes, rather than the last 5.

In the case of the Lakers, without Kobe they'd be a .500 team, at worst. They have enough talent to edge out most Eastern Conference teams in terms of pure position v. position talent, and they have a coach who, despite his 10 rings, nobody believes is a great coach, but he is. You see his answer to the question, "why is Kobe so good at last minute shots?"? He replied, "luck." How great is that?

Lebron, on the other hand, clearly makes his team everything that it is - he wins games despite his coach, usually despite his teammates, and usually despite the opposing team doing everything possible to stop him. I can be convinced, easily, that Lebron should be MVP this season, but not Kobe. Call me crazy, call me a Kobe hater, which I'm not, but call me creative. Lebron is fantastic, but my MVP goes to...

1. Kevin Durant
Durant's sreak of 25 point games ended last night at 21. I was in bed trying to sleep b/c of a 7am flight and didn't watch it, but I was tossing and turning, pissed I wasn't watching. When was the last time this happened to me outside of a Celtics team? It was Lebron in the 2006-2007 playoffs, that's when.

Durant is everything to his team, from the leader on the court to the leader of it's spirit. His team had something like 25 wins last year, a relocation team full of names that 80% of NBA fans haven't even heard of. Durant has that team believing in everything - believing they have a right to play with every single big boy in the business, and they will undoubtedly get spanked in one of those "win one early" types of series in the playoffs, then lose 4 straight, but the point is, Durant is doing multiple things:
1. Breaking scoring records
2. Establishing a legitimacy for Oklahoma City Basketball
3. Appointing a Pippen-like counterpart in Jeff Green
4. Entertaining me on twitter daily
5. Solidfying himself as an All-Star starter at Forward from now until he quits.

The Thunder are the #4 team in the West, and climbing. They lost to San Antonio, who everyone loves to dismiss and will probably be in the Conference Finals if they can avoid LA in rds 1 or 2, or maybe even if they can't...

Again, I can be convinced that Lebron is the MVP, I can be convinced that Kobe is 2nd, but I cannot be convinced that Durant isn't in the top 3, and doesn't deserve every accolade he gets.