Behind the scenes of the NBA’s MVP vote
If Russell Westbrook is going to win the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award, this year’s voting will have to buck the tradition.
In what many consider a two-man race between Westbrook and Houston’s James Harden, who square off Sunday (2:30 p.m., ABC), the discussion on value has taken center stage.
What determines most valuable? Is it Westbrook’s ability to keep the Thunder in playoff position after losing Kevin Durant? Is it Westbrook’s statistical milestones – his pursuit of a triple-double average and Oscar Robertson’s single-season record for triple-doubles? Is it Harden elevating the Rockets from a .500 team to top 3 seed with his switch to point guard? Or is it being arguably
the best all-around player in the game like LeBron James or Kawhi Leonard.
“There’s no right or wrong with any of this quite honestly,” Former
columnist, Celtics beat writer, and longtime MVP voter Bob Ryan told
“It’s just a matter of degrees.”
Those questions and more must be sorted out by a select group with the unenviable task of deciding this year’s winner.
Who votes and how
The NBA picks a panel of more than 100 media members who are each allowed to put five players on their MVP ballot. Each player on the ballot must be ranked first to fifth. Depending on the place, that player receives points on a 10-7-5-3-1 scale, with first place worth 10 points, second place worth seven, and so on.
Franchises do not determine who votes on awards, but the league inquires with teams and gathers opinions on who are the most suitable voters.
Even when the offer is extended, it doesn’t mean the vote is always cast. Ryan estimated he’s voted 15 times while covering the NBA as either a beat writer or columnist from 1969 to the early 2000s.
Ryan thinks the word “valuable” was ill-chosen, and has dismissed it when voting in the past.
“Baseball started this and they used the word ‘valuable,’ Ryan said. “What they really meant was ‘outstanding.’ People have taken to me ‘Well, what would happen if they took him out?’ That’s not his job to be a GM. He can’t be responsible for his substitute.
“It comes down to who you think had the most outstanding season, that’s all. Who’s the outstanding player?”
The voting history
If Westbrook averages a triple-double and wins MVP, it’ll be historic in more ways than one.
Even Oscar Robertson, the only player to average a triple-double an entire season, didn’t win MVP that year, placing third behind Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain in 1961-62. Westbrook’s victory would be warranted but, barring a jump in the standings, another outlier in 61 years of MVP voting.
Entering Sunday, the Thunder is 41-30, sixth place in the Western Conference. Only three times in league history has a player won the award playing for a team that finished lower than third in their respective conference standings. Moses Malone won playing for Houston teams which placed fourth and sixth, respectively, in the Western Conference in 1978-79 and 1982-83.
Kareem Abdul-Jabaar is still the only MVP to play for a sub-.500 team, winning the award on a 40-42 Lakers team that was eighth in the West in 1975-76. Abdul-Jabaar did so in the midst of an era where centers or power forwards won the MVP 15 consecutive seasons between Robertson in 1963-64 and Julius Erving in 1980-81.
“Everything’s often contextual, and the context now is we’ve got fantastic competition,” Ryan said. “You go back to that period in the 70’s and you didn’t have four great candidates.”
There are modern outliers as well. Last season, Golden State’s Stephen Curry was named the first unanimous MVP in league history, receiving all 131 first-place votes. In 2013, LeBron James was one vote away from becoming the NBA’s first unanimous MVP.
Then there’s the perception of regional bias. In 2010, OrlandoMagic. com beat writer John Denton received blowback for voting thenMagic center Dwight Howard first over James. Denton, one of seven media members out of 123 who didn’t give James a first-place vote, said no player affected more possessions than Howard that season.
“There was not a more valuable player on the court,” Denton said. “You’re talking about a guy who affected 35 shots a game, offensively and defensively. Good as LeBron was, he didn’t have that kind of season.
“So I got some fallout for that, but you know what? Big deal. I’m a big boy. I can handle it.”
What defines ‘most valuable?’
At the end of the 201213 season, Gary Washburn of the explained why he was one of 121 voters to cast his first-place vote for New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony.
Washburn knew he’d be in the minority and knew James was unquestionably the league’s best player, but went with Anthony because of his importance to the Knicks that season.
“If you were to take Anthony off the Knicks, they are a lottery team,” Washburn wrote in 2013. “(James) is the best player of this generation, but I chose to reward a player who has lifted his team to new heights.”
That same argument could be made for Harden or Westbrook this season. Each has elevated his team to new heights – Harden lifting the Rockets to the No. 3 seed a year after going 41-41, Westbrook pushing the Thunder toward a possible No. 4 seed eight months after Durant’s departure in free agency.
“People aren’t going to vote for Leonard, not when you’ve got the numbers being put up by Westbrook and Harden,” Ryan said. “It’s probably going to come down to Westbrook and Harden and I’m going to bet this triple-double obsession/ mania that people have now, among everybody – voters, fans – is going to carry the day.”