San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
No slight to Giannis, but LeBron is the true MVP
LeBron James isn’t happy about the MVP voting. Not at all. “Pissed me off,” he said Friday night upon learning Giannis Antetokounmpo had won in a landslide. But remember what James said after that.
“Don’t get it twisted,” he added. “I’m fine.”
Couldn’t be better, actually. Awards come and go, and LeBron has four MVP trophies in hand. The real point is what’s happening right now, and it couldn’t be more clear. James is the most valuable player, the most influential player and the flatout best player as the conference finals rage on.
Once again comes the reminder: This man went to eight straight NBA Finals (201118) and has another in his sights. He’s 57 years old (not so far off if you’re measuring wear and tear, though he’s technically 35) and essentially the same player who terrorized the league a decade ago. There’s a bottom line to all this, and consider James’ edge on the other leading MVP votegetters: Antetokounmpo: Hardly an undeserving winner. The first part of the season weighs heavily, and he’s a force of nature. But he’s not yet a leader at playoff time, or someone with a bottomless well of ideas in a crisis situation. James lives for that sort of thing.
James Harden: Good lord, no. He’ll always be acknowledged among the great oneonone players in history, but he routinely comes up small in big games. He disappears on defense, and once he gives up the ball, he’s just standing around waiting for a bus. Lifetime percentage on 3point shooting in the playoffs: 33 percent. Nope.
Luka Doncic: He’ll win an MVP someday. But he surely views LeBron as some sort of deity. Kawhi Leonard: The thing is, when James speaks about basketball or social justice or anything at all, the entire league listens. Leonard just doesn’t have that kind of personality. He’s probably the best twoway player, with those clawlike hands on defense, but he wasn’t able to help the Clippers when they needed him most against Denver. He’s sort of a silent killer, which is fine. He’ll get another ring before he’s done. Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Nikola Jokic: They were so inspiring in Orlando, and Jokic remains in play with Denver, although he may have seen the truth going against LeBron and Anthony Davis in Game 1. No slight to any of these great players; James is just in a different category. Couldn’t be happier for Mike D’Antoni, who didn’t need to hear from the Houston Rockets about his coaching future. He bailed out first, on the flight home from Orlando. Stuck with an insipid offensive philosophy that essentially rules out the midrange shot — merely a crucial ingredient for any championship team — he’s free to broaden his scope in another city. Do you think the 76ers would suddenly be gathered around the perimeter, casting off from 25 feet, if D’Antoni took over? Who wants the Houston job? It’s not such a bad assignment coaching two of the greats — Harden and Russell Westbrook — but there’s a bit of panic in that organization lately. That superstar pairing found its dead end against the Lakers. The two of them are due to earn a staggering $265 million over the next three years. Too many draft picks have been wasted in trades, including this year’s firstrounder. The conference has a number of exciting young teams on the way up. And unlike the Clippers, who have multibillionaire Steve Ballmer running the show, Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has taken massive financial hits to his businesses during the pandemic and doesn’t want to hear about paying a luxury tax with his franchise in decline. The Rockets, Clippers, Bucks and 76ers are in desperate need of a really smart point guard. The Lakers have a gamechanging legend, Rajon Rondo, coming off the bench. He’s on any list of the most creative passers of our time. With the handicap of never coaching a great team, Frank Vogel had a reputation for making bad decisions at crucial times. How things have changed. He’s been a masterful juggler of the Lakers’ roster, keeping players like Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee fully motivated when they were chained to the bench (against Houston). Even J.R. Smith is a bigtime cheerleader.
We can’t keep hearing Paul George is “one of the top 10 players in the league.” It’s simply no longer true. He’s generally excellent at both ends of the floor, but I can think of 20 players I’d take over George, in a heartbeat, in a playoff series. When Kendrick Perkins says on ESPN that George “always freezes up in the big moments,” he’s going on evidence, not bias. Two words of advice for George: Stop calling yourself “Playoff P” (are you kidding?), and after a crushing playoff loss for you and your veteran teammates, you simply can’t tell the press, “I think, internally, we always felt this was not a championshiporbust year for us.” What? Good thing he’s not playing with Jimmy Butler, whose fierce intensity has infused the entire Miami roster. That kind of nonsense just doesn’t play.
What really hurts: To get George, the Clippers traded an excellent young guard, Shai GilgeousAlexander, and the useful Danilo Gallinari to Oklahoma City with a passel of firstround picks.
As Doris Burke moves to ESPN radio, she’ll become the first woman to call an entire conference finals and the NBA Finals for a national outlet. But she’ll be missed on television, especially in light of her superb work in Orlando. Gather up Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy, Reggie Miller, all the analysts working for ESPN and TNT; Burke is better than all of them.