By The MVP along with the other NBA awards this season felt odd because of the pandemic, honestly there should been 2 sets one pre-pandemic and one for the bubble because it feels and has played like two different seasons. But that didn’t happen, as Bucks megastar Giannis Antetokounmpo won his second MVP making it back-to-back after an embarrassing early playoff exit to the Miami Heat leaving doubt that maybe he shouldn’t have won over perennial top 3 MVP candidate and icon LeBron James who has led this Laker team back to promise this season even with the surprise break and restart looks as good as ever making his case for MVP.
Prior the stoppage because of the pandemic Giannis Antetokounmpo was easily the front runner for the award averaging 29 points, 14 rebounds and 6 assists while leading the Bucks to an impressive 53-12 record and secure the #1 seed in the east which should be convincing enough to be a league MVP right? Not necessarily.
LeBron James who was has been the best player in the NBA for about a decade puts up amazing numbers so regularly that it may have became not impressive to voters and fans which is insane to think about. Besides leading the Lakers to a 49-14 record securing the #1 seed in the competitive western conference James’ stat line before the pandemic was 25 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists almost a triple double then at restart seem to go to another level willing the Lakers to dominance in the playoffs so with 4-1 series win over the Trailblazers and Rockets. But is this enough to win MVP this season?
Obviously, the answer was not according to the voters, who not only gave it to Antetokounmpo but only gave James 17 first place votes which was insulting regardless if you like James or not. For me, this easily could have been a Co-MVP situation because there is no way to discredits either player’s season and acknowledge the great effort put forth by both players before the pandemic and after the restart.
Although James’ playoff run is still going on while Giannis is home this could have been since there were not two separate season awards, but this now has lit the fire of a new debate in the “LeBron vs.” series over recent years starting with Stephen Curry to Kevin Durant to James Harden to Kawhi Leonard and now Giannis Antetokounmpo. This can be another hot debate but this is another wonderful sign that the NBA is great hands for many years to come with Antetokounmpo, Doncic, Jokic and others but also that we may never see another player of this magnitude in LeBron James who is still performing at an elite level this late into his career making this year’s MVP award race a lot closer than what was lead to believe.
