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“ ... proud though I may be of my profession, it never occurred to me that it was meant to be a working majority, ... That more than half of young men in TV would want to cover sports has the same ring to it as if we learned more than half the males in medical school wanted to concentrate on cosmetic surgery.” -Frank Deford

My work in Multimedia and Advanced Reporting in 2009

Monday, May 3, 2010

Durant, not James, should have won MVP

Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James won his second consecutive MVP award yesterday topping Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant and Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant. James received 116 out of the 123 possible votes to win MVP. I thought this was the wrong choice and the voting should have been closer.
I thought that Durant should have won. Don't get me wrong, James is a tremendous player to watch. He is a crazy physical specimen that is almost unstoppable, but when you have Shaquille O'Neal and Mo Williams on the floor with you, it would be inexcusable for poor play. Durant does not have that luxury of a great supporting cast. In fact, Durant had to provide his talents on a much younger team whose average age is 25.1, while the Cavalier's average age is 27.8. Just two years ago, the Seattle Supersonics were sold and moved to Oklahoma City. Last year the Thunder's record was 23-59, fourth worst record in the NBA. This year, Durant, he led the Thunder to a 27-win improvement from a year ago, making them from crappy to championship contenders overnight. He helped make Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green and James Harden from high draft choices to stars in just three short years. James never did that when he got drafted in 2003. His team got better from trades and free agency. James is a great player, but he doesn't make players around him better.
I am going to break down stats for both players: James played 76 games, played 39 minutes a game, scored 29 points per game, 7.3 rebounds, 8.6 assists, shot 50 percent, 33 percent from three pointers and a 76 percent from the free throw line. Durant played all 82 games, scored 30 points per game, 7.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, shot 47 percent, 36 from three point land and 90 percent from the free throw line. The only stats that James was better at were assists, steals and field goal percentage while Durant was better at everything else. Plus, Durant had to put up those numbers in a much tougher Western Conference than James who plays in the puny Eastern Conference.
It just shows that since James is the more popular player he would always win awards. I think Durant is more likely to win a championship than James because he has a hell of a lot of talent around him and he is more of a winner. To me, James is just a guy who puts up ridiculous stats. James' teams will always be really good, but not championship caliber because he is just show. He throws powder in the air, makes spectacular dunks and shots three pointers from as far as possible. Just play the damn game, don't act like your better than everybody, be better than everybody and someday Durant will show that kind of example. Durant is more of a team player. He doesn't talk smack and he does his job. The definition of a Most Valuable Player to me means if a team did not have this player they would be screwed and Durant is that player, not James.

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