Day 309

Fresh Strart_309: The NBA Award show
With the pathetic excuse for an awards show over, the NBA FINALLY has the answer to “who is the MVP.” With Russell Westbrook’s win last night, the answer that us NBA fans have wanted has been answered about a month after the last game of the regular season. The Finals MVP is more prevalent then Russell’s win of the MVP.

As I said throughout the final days of the regular season—Westbrook’s case for MVP was the most impressive, and was properly rewarded. James Harden will get his MVP award eventually, he just has to coordinate it with the rest of the league. If Westbrook doesn’t lead the league in triple doubles, average a triple double, and take basically the Dallas Mavericks to the playoffs by himself—Harden is your MVP.

I am happy for Westbrook, but I am also excited to see what he does. Now that he has the respect from the league, what is the next chapter in his book? He is a LONG ways away from a chance for a title, and once he has that chance again, how old will he be? The way the league is going; it seems like Westbrook will be this generations version of Charles Barkley. There’s nothing wrong with that because Barkley is still one of the games greats, and is a transcendent player, he just doesn’t have a title. But, that is up to Westbrook—because after all nobody thought he could win an MVP (especially the 2014-15 season). In 2014-15 Westbrook averaged 28 points per game, shooting 43% from the field, and 30% from behind the arc with 4.4 turnovers per game.

As Westbrook has gone from a symbol for a terrible shot to the MVP, it just shows what hard work can do. It also shows that he didn’t need to sit on Durant’s shoulders to make it to the playoffs. But, last night was bigger than Westbrook.

Last night was about how pathetic the award show was. Everyone who we thought would win won. I didn’t have a problem with the idea of an awards show, but the execution and the date was just awful. Nobody cares who the MVP of the REGULAR season after the Finals. Kevin Durant will be remembered more in history rather than Westbrook because of this award show. The idea of having one after the season should be either the day before the playoff starts or before the first day of The Finals. If it isn’t don’t even have it because the regular season is irrelevant at this point of the year.   

The only two awards I didn’t agree with were the coach of the year and the center award for 1st team All-NBA. The Defensive Player of the Year should be on the 1st team All-NBA no questions about it. Anthony Davis is a great player (one of the top 10 in the league), but he should be rewarded over Draymond Green. End of story, there should be no question about it.

The other was the Coach of the Year. Mike D’Antoni does not deserve this award. Both of the nominees had more qualified resumes than D’Antoni. Pop should be the Coach of the Year every year, but that is a different conversation and Erik Spoelstra had one of the most impressive seasons by a coach ever go seamlessly under the radar. The Heat were a lottery team at the All-Star break and almost made the playoffs missing it only by tiebreakers with the Chicago Bulls.

Other than that, why even have the awards? It is a waste of time for the players and was shown by the attendance. Let this be a lesson to the league, to clean up some of the unnecessary stuff to make the entire product better.
Sources:(nba.com, basketballreference.com, espn.com)

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