We're already sick of the Kobe-LeBron debate, and are ready to concede to the Bryant camp just to get them to shut the hell up, but if you're wondering where I'm at at this point, my latest article on the subject is up over at Epic Carnival.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
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2 comments:
HATER! HATER! HATER!
Just kidding. Seriously, I think this is what makes Kobe-supporters (including me) so crazy about this debate...
It's really as simple as this: the same arguments being used FOR Lebron this year are the arguments Kobe supporters have used all along for his MVP candicacy. Carrying horrible teammates, putting up incredible numbers, etc. And now, for those same arguments (which held no weight before, when team success was factored in, and political voters awarded players for more than just a single season and based on the fact that they haven't won an award) are being used AGAINST Kobe.
It's simply an ironic twist to suddenly hear all those factors we always wanted to count in determining the MVP be used against the guy who made us think of them in the first place. So we take our anger out on those who endorse Lebron, when really it's just anger with the unintelligable award that is the NBA MVP award.
I think the problem that you're having is that there are two issues here:
1. Who is the better player between Kobe and LeBron?
2. Who is the league's MVP?
These two things are quite often never the same, and traditionally have not been with the MVP voters.
With the first question (who is the better player), ultimately it comes down to two things, IMO. LeBron has more ability and a higher ceiling, but he still has a number of areas in his game that need work. Kobe has an extremely high ceiling in his own right (maybe as high as any 2 guard in the league ever has), and he's arguably hitting his head on it. Kobe has no weaknesses in his game, no areas that need work. Kobe exploits every aspect of his game and has wrung that full realization out of his vast potential. In doing so he may be currently better than LeBron, or it may be that LeBron's ability to exceed Kobe's game while occasionally having his own game's flaws exposed (as they were in last year's Finals) is enough to make LeBron the better player. It's totally subjective, although I personally believe that eventually this argument will be much more one-sided in LeBron's favor as time goes on.
The second question (who is the MVP) is exclusive to the first one, and is totally subjective and non-standard since everyone has their own criteria for what makes a player "more valuable". It would seem that for almost every year of voting on the subject the winner of the award first of all has to demonstrate that his value to the team is enough to make them a legit championship contender, and this more than anything is why LeBron is lagging behind in the MVP race. Kobe has his team challenging for a title this year, while LeBron most likely does not. That this is mainly due to the fact that Kobe's teammates are better than LeBron's is not really relevant when you look at former MVP winners (you have to go back to Moses Malone in the 1981-82 season to find an MVP winner from a team that didn't win 50 or more games).
Put simply, LeBron may be having a better individual season that Kobe this year, but he's doing it on a far worse team; and when it comes to MVP voting, that tends to make all the difference.
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