The Sports Rumors

March Madness, NBA Season Winding Down, MVP Race

It’s been a hell of a long time since I’ve written on my world renowned website… well, not really renowned. But it has been what, a month? There were so many times over the past few weeks where I felt like I had to put my two cents out there and ruffle some feathers but something kept coming up. You people with the angry text messages and emails forget that I have a job and a career! But regardless, that’s neither here nor there though because I’m back and I guarantee that I’ll have a good percentage of you foaming at the mouth, pissed off and wanting to strangle me. But that’s what I do and that’s why you read, so let’s get this thing going.

First order of business. As you all know, we’re in the center of March Madness. Every year, ESPN goes absolutely ape sh*t about this month and all the upsets and how crazy fun this time of year is. Let me be the one to say it as a former college student and now working professional:

MARCH MADNESS IS OVERRATED.

Wait, what? Did he just say that? Yeah, you’re damn right I said it and I’ll say it again. March Madness is the most overrated event that we have in sports. And please, spare me your financial figures. I know it grosses the most money in Vegas. Here’s why, genius… it’s a month long! There are 63 games (check my math on that one). 63 games present 63 opportunities at minimum to gamble. You think if the Super Bowl was a month long, it wouldn’t gross a higher dollar figure? Secondly, if you like watching school’s you have never heard of, with players you likely won’t ever see again, and free throw shooting percentages from the top seed Memphis that make Shaq look like Jeff Hornacek, then go for it. Watch all the March Madness you want. Me, personally… I like to watch players who can sink open jumpers. I like to watch teams score more than 50 points a game. I don’t like watching players who are incapable of beating a backcourt trap. I like quality, skilled basketball.

Now mind you, I wasn’t like this before. You go back to the days of UCLA and the O’bannon brothers, the Duke years, the Fab Five years, and so on and so forth; that was quality college basketball. Today? Not so much. For God’s sake, the best players in the college ranks are freshmen! The only reason they are even playing in college is because they are forced to. Kevin Love, Rose, OJ Mayo, Beasley… that is talent. Tyler Hansboro is a good college player, but in the NBA, he’s just a more skilled Mark Madsen. Yeah, I said it. He won’t amount to anything in the NBA other than a nice off the bench energy guy. Think I’m wrong? How’s the career of JJ Redick and Adam Morrison working out?

Now I won’t be a total scrooge, and there is no getting around the fact that filling out those brackets and joining office pools is fun. But seriously, I just care about if the teams I selected win; I don’t care how they did it and I certainly don’t care for watching the games. I can honestly say that I’d much rather watch the Warriors-Lakers or Suns-Celtics than Wisconsin-Davidson. That brings me to my next topic of conversation…

God the NBA is so great right now. I can’t remember a time where I was so into every single game and every single box score. Think of all the compelling stories. The Western Conference playoff seeding, the MVP race, Lebron vs The East, the injury bug hitting contenders, and even garbage teams like the Knicks publically preparing to make a run at Lebron and Wade. Since I haven’t written in a long time, it’s hard for me to cover every interesting story in depth, but I will touch on a few.

My ranking of the best teams? Not going to be one of the topics I hit on. Why? Because I don’t know. If I don’t know something enough, I won’t talk about it and hopefully, you can respect me for it. I can’t tell you if the Lakers are the best team in the NBA because I don’t know how healthy Gasol and Bynum will be. I don’t know what the state of the Spurs is because they have been so topsy turvy the past few weeks. I don’t know if the Suns are just hitting a little fluke or if they are actually adjusting to each other (which I doubt). I can’t tell you how good or bad the Mavs are. I can’t tell you with certainty if the Celtics have enough to beat a western conference team in a series, or even the Pistons for that matter. I just don’t know. I do know that ANYONE in the west can beat anyone. I do know that Boston and Detroit from the east are going to be a hell of a challenge in the finals for the Western Conf representative. I do know that Lebron won’t be in the finals this year, much to David Stern’s dismay.

What I do know is that the MVP race is between two, and only two players.

All season long, I was convinced that Kobe Bryant was the most valuable player in the league. I had the following ranking in mind:

1. Kobe
2. Kevin Garnett
3. Lebron James
4. Chris Paul

That’s how I saw it for much of the season. But then I reevaluated things.

Lebron James has all but fallen out of the race in my opinion due to his team’s record in the east. You’re not the most valuable player in the league if you’re team is 40-31 in the east. I’m sorry, but you’re not. This is the conference where the Atlanta Hawks are nine games below .500 and have sole possession of the eighth and final playoff seed. Only three teams in the east have a winning percentage greater than .600, and Cleveland is not one of them. The “Lebron has no help” argument is getting old. Zyrdunas Illguaskas, Drew Gooden, Ben Wallace are three of the big men he has played with. That’s more than a lot of teams have had.

Kevin Garnett has, without a doubt, turned the Celtics from a bottom feeder to a title contender. However, it’s hard to give an MVP award to a guy who has Ray Allen and Paul Pierce playing alongside him. I’m not knocking KG in any way. He’s the pin that keeps that team intact. However, they would still be a playoff team without him.

That leaves us with two players. Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul. Ironically, both are tied for first place in the western conference, which makes this even harder.

If you are not impressed by Chris Paul at this point in the season, you never will be. I responded to friends who asked me about him after the first 30 games and I said, “Let’s wait and see if he can sustain it over a whole season.” Sustain it? He has surpassed EVERY expectation I could have set for him. He is a fierce competitor, makes his teammates better, finds ways to win and can do everything on the court. He can score 40 plus, he can dish 20 dimes, and he could be the first player in league history to average three steals a game. He has an average supporting cast that he has made look great. Basically, he has done everything that he could possibly have done to win the MVP award. Unfortunately for him, the next guy is also balling at a very high level.

Kobe Bryant. He’s been the best player in the game for the past three, maybe four years. No one compares with his tenaciousness and pursuit of perfection. No one. In the past, he did not make teammates better. Now, he does. Look at guys like Jordan Farmar, Ronny Turiaf, Sasha Vujacic, and Luke Walton. They are all playing the best ball of their careers and it’s because Kobe has finally learned how to involve and trust his teammates. Put your past perceptions about him aside and look at this single season alone. He has gotten his teammates involved, sensed when he has had to take over, and done so accordingly with a strikingly high success rate. Pau Gasol has been a great help, but keep in mind, he hasn’t even played 20 games yet with the Lakers. Just in the past ten days alone, Kobe has gone on the road and led the Lakers to victories over the Mavericks and Jazz, snapping their 19 game home win streak. There is nothing more that he can do to win the MVP award, just like Paul.

So who’s my MVP right now?

I’m an honest person and I’ll be real. My bias as a Lakers fan AND the fact that Kobe has been robbed of MVP awards in the past leads me slightly more on his side. I mean, he was ranked the second best shooting guard by ESPN and affiliates in NBA History, second only to the great Michael Jordan, yet he’s never been the most valuable player? That just doesn’t make sense. Now I said it was a slight edge to Kobe. How slight? I’ll give Kobe 50.5% of the vote and Chris Paul 49.5%. And believe me, for those of you who know me and my religious following of Kobe, that’s saying something.

Chris Paul does get love for being in the best damn commercial I’ve seen in a long time though, as seen below:

The NBA season is far from over. Actually, the real season is just about to begin. I cannot wait to see every single playoff matchup (Except the Celtics-Hawks…. I think I’ll pass on that, thanks). I was going to end this article with a mundane sentence, but maybe this will be better, or at least give you a chance to hate on me a little more. Here are some predictions for you to chew on:

Rookie of the Year: Luis Scola (Has intangibles that Durant doesn’t)

NBA Regular Season MVP: Kobe Bryant

Biggest Underachievers: Dallas Mavericks

Surprise Playoff Team: Washington Wizards

Best Playoff Series: Suns vs Spurs

Worst Trade: Shaq to Phoenix (Ruined what that team was based on)

Best Trade: Obviously, Pau to Lakers for dirt

Eastern Conference Champion: Boston Celtics

Western Conference Champion: LA Lakers

NBA Finals: Lakers over Celtics in 6

NBA Finals MVP: Kobe Bryant

And of course…

Ugliest MotherLover in the League: DJ Mbenga