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Nov 28, 2006, 12:47
MVP Award: Devalued?
By Rasheeb Shrestha
SpursZONE.com
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It’s early in the NBA season, but it’s never too early to begin talking about the Most Valuable Player award. Wednesday’s showdown between the San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz will not only feature teams with two of the best records in the league, but also showcase two of the leading candidates for the MVP.
While Tim Duncan is a perennial candidate for the award, Carlos Boozer is a surprise entrant. How long Boozer stays in the running remains to be seen. But the fact that he is a candidate at all brings up an interesting question: Is the NBA MVP award losing some of its luster?
The Maurice Podoloff Trophy remains the most recognizable individual trophy of the four major North American professional sports. And for a long time, it was regarded as the most prestigious. Why? It’s simple – the award used to go hand-in-hand with winning championships.
A great basketball player can potentially have more of an impact on a game than a great football, hockey, or baseball player because he can affect both sides of the ball. A quarterback doesn’t play defense, a goalie doesn’t score, and, even though a starting pitcher can hit, he only plays in every fifth game.
For the first 37 years of the NBA MVP award, that theory held true. Of the 16 different players who won the award in that time, every single one of them captured at least one NBA title at some point in their careers. And for the most part, each player was the focal point in bringing their team championship glory. Only Bob McAdoo won his lone title as a true role player, as he came off the bench to help the Los Angeles Lakers win the 1982 crown.
However, since 1993, winning an NBA MVP no longer guarantees such success. Of the 10 different winners since then, only five have won it all. Two of the five who haven’t won, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone, have no chance to do so as they have retired. The three active players – Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, and Steve Nash – are all on the wrong side of 30-years-old. Iverson and Garnett would probably need a change of scenery to even contend again. Nash has a decent shot with his Phoenix Suns, but his window is slowly closing.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why this trend has happened in the last 16 years of the award as opposed to the first 37, but a number of different factors could be contributors.
The first thought that comes to mind is expansion. However, while expansion has seemingly diluted the depth teams have, the influx of international talent somewhat balances it out.
A better idea might be the advent of free agency, the salary cap and luxury tax. Teams do not stay together as long as they used to, which in turn creates a lack of team continuity. Thus, we have a more wide open league, and more chances of “one year wonder” teams like the 2001 Philadelphia 76ers and the 2004 Minnesota Timberwolves, the years in which Iverson and Garnett respectively won their MVPs.
The fact that NBA players were allowed to play in international competition beginning (perhaps not coincidentally) in 1992 may also be a factor. For example, Duncan would likely have two more MVPs (2004 and 2005) had he been fresh enough for those regular seasons instead of having been worn down from playing the previous summers.
Recent rule changes may also be a contributor. The “no contact on the perimeter” rule has made what was once a big man’s league into a small man’s game. Case in point: there is no way Nash even comes close to winning any MVPs without that rule.
Finally, voting trends also haven’t helped. Although the MVP voting switched from the players’ control to the writers’ in the early ‘80s, the writers have done a decent job of voting based on team success. In fact, no MVP winner over the last 24 years was on a team that finished lower than a third seed in their conference the year in which they won the award. The problem is, writers recently have overlooked players whose teams are always near the top of the league (like Duncan and Shaquille O’Neal) in favor of the “flavor of the year” candidates.
So as the 2006-07 NBA season progresses, more candidates for the MVP will emerge. LeBron James will be the people’s choice. Dirk Nowitzki will be hard to ignore. Kobe Bryant will most certainly be in the discussion. However, if the Jazz continue their unlikely success and remain near the top of the NBA standings, the voters may reward a guy whom they feel was the cause for their dramatic turnaround.
Yes, we may have to stomach the sight of seeing Carlos Boozer raise the Maurice Podoloff Trophy this spring. But don’t worry, chances are he won’t come anywhere near the Larry O’Brien trophy come June.
© Copyright ©2006 FullSportPress.com
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