Category: NBA (Page 477 of 595)

ESPN’s Scoop Jackson wrote a fine piece detailing why Kobe Bryant will not win the MVP award this season.

Truth is Kobe Bryant will never win the MVP of the league. He is hated too much. Hated by those who cast votes. Hated too much by those he plays against. And the two All-Star Game MVPs he’s won, well, they don’t count in this scenario. Voting Kobe as the best basketball player in the world for a day is one thing, honoring him with that same title for an entire season … in the infamous words of Bobby Brown’s ex-wife: “Oh, hell to the No!”

Writers won’t honor Kobe like that, not even when in good consciousness they want to or would like to. As one writer said to me when the subject was brought up in conversation, very apropos for an election year, “Kobe’s electability quotient is zero.” In other words, he’s Ralph Nader.

Bryant had two terrific back-to-back seasons (in ’05-’06 and ’06-’07) but wasn’t a strong MVP candidate because the Lakers didn’t win enough games. (The last player to win the MVP on a team with fewer than 50 wins was Moses Malone in the 1981-82 season.) This season, his Lakers have their 50 wins – 53 and counting, to be exact – but Jackson argues that the amount of hatred that Kobe generates from those that vote (the media) ensures that he will not be winning the award this season.

In truth, Kobe is probably the most talented player in the NBA. But this doesn’t make him the MVP. I have a buddy who is a diehard Laker fan and we debate this endlessly. But I always come back to the same point – to be the best you can’t pull the kind of stuff Kobe pulls off the court. You have to be a good teammate, and by most accounts, Kobe is not. So, to me, being the most talented and being the best are two different things.

This is why Chris Paul will be the NBA MVP. No one saw the Hornets’ amazing season coming and Paul is the main reason why New Orleans is so good. The Hornets currently have the best record in the West and Paul’s numbers – 21.5 ppg, 11.5 apg, 4.0 rpg, 2.7 apg – are better than the numbers Steve Nash posted in the ’04-’05 and the ’05-’06 seasons. Moreover, Paul is universally considered a good guy, and the media likes him. (Kevin Garnett is the darkhorse, but his stats – 18.9 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.3 bpg – aren’t eye-popping.) If Paul’s assist numbers weren’t so gaudy or if the Hornets were in the fifth spot in the West instead of first, Kobe would have a better shot, but given Kobe’s reputation (and offseason temper tantrum), I don’t see the media awarding him with the MVP.

Is this fair? Not entirely, but Kobe made his bed and now he has to lie in it.

As promised, the battle for the last few spots in the Western Conference playoffs is really heating up.

Most teams have about 10 or 11 games left, so it’s looking like Dallas, Golden State and Denver are vying for the last two spots in the West. The Nuggets have won four straight and are 7-3 in their last 10. Meanwhile, the Mavs are 6-4 in their last 10, but figure to struggle without their star, who is expected to miss the next two weeks. Dallas and Golden State play twice next week and the Mavs also have to play the Lakers in L.A. The remaining six games feature road games against Phoenix and Portland, as well as home games against Utah and New Orleans. Denver and Golden State clash tomorrow night.

The Suns seem to be above the fray, but they are only three games ahead of the Mavs in the loss column, so if they drop a couple of games, they could find themselves in a precarious position next week. They are wrapping up an Eastern Conference road trip this weekend before a key home-and-home against the Nuggets on Monday and Tuesday.

The Sports Guy lists his top 15 “What ifs?” of the decade.

Here’s his take on Boozer and the Cavs…

15. What if Carlos Boozer never screwed over Cleveland?

This saga becomes more astounding over time: Inexplicably (the version in which you believe Cleveland would just walk away from an option year worth $700,000 and allow Boozer to become a restricted free agent for no good reason) or explicably (the version in which you believe the Cavs made an illegal handshake deal to “forgo” Boozer’s option year, allow him to become a restricted free agent, then sign him to a $41 million deal), the one thing we know is Boozer used his newfound leverage to sign a six-year deal with Utah for $68 million and screw over Cleveland’s benevolent, blind owner in the process.

Look what’s happened since:

A. Boozer blossomed into an All-Star power forward and one of the best 20 players in the league, someone who would have been the perfect sidekick for LeBron James.

B. Because Boozer bolted Cleveland, that eventually left the Cavs with a ton of cap space … and, um … (take a deep breath, Cavs fans) … the Larry Hughes, Damon Jones and Donyell Marshall signings. Ouch.

C. Had they kept Boozer and signed Jones as well, the Cavs could have been the first NBA team to start two players with visible chest hair since the 1953 Fort Wayne Pistons.

By the way, he’s still campaigning to be the Bucks’ new GM. I like him as a writer, but I don’t want him running my team. If the stars align and he were to somehow get the job, I think I’d stop rooting for Milwaukee and start rooting for the Lakers. Seriously.