NBA
BASKETBALL
May 8, 2001
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Iverson
Not The MVP By
STEVE Toyko,
Japan
There
seems to be this unfortunate misconception of the MVP award that
people
refer to when they don't feel like giving it to the best player in
the
league. The so called "most valuable to their team". This has
never
been
the intention otherwise there was no justification for giving it to
Jordan
so many times or Magic or Bird or Kareem. Since arguably they all
played
for good teams and perhaps were not "the" most valuable to "their
team"
as much as say scorers such as George Gervin, Bob MacAdoo, or
Dominique
Wilkins was. A corollary to this is that Shaq has Kobe or Duncan
has
Robinson etc., etc. Didn't Jordan have Pippen and Bird have McHale,
Johnson,
Ainge and Parrish; and didn't Magic and Kareem have each other and
James
Worthy?
With
the inertia behind giving it to Iverson this year we are once again
hearing
this common refrain. But it is questionable whether he is even the
most
valuable to his team. He scores a lot of points to be sure and his
team
won a lot of games this year...in the East. What he doesn't do is
shoot
well or defend well. Big guards eat him alive and his shooting
percentage
is below average for a player of his caliber. Tracy McGrady had
a
better year in the East but he doesn't play with Iverson's talented but
under-
appreciated supporting cast.
The
clear MVP is Shaquille O'Neal. His numbers once again are monstrous
and
if
you ask every player and coach in the league who messes up their game
plan
more than any other player it's Shaq. When the GM's were polled this
year
on the player they would choose to build their franchise around it was
overwhelmingly
Shaq. The only GM's who didn't pick him picked Tim Duncan,
because
he is younger.
Iverson
is a great scorer and competitor but there are probably three to
four
other players more deserving of the award. You should ask yourself,
If
I
was drafting any player in the NBA for one season only based upon how they
played
this year who would that pick be?
