NBA MVP: Kobe Bryant or LeBron James (4/22/09)

The 2009 MVP should go to LeBron James, but Kobe Bryant could easily steal it.

I'm not going to get into how subjective MVP awards are, I mean, that blog has been written and re-written. All I'm going to say is, arguments could be made for giving this years honor to either last year's winner Kobe Bryant or LeBron James.

Bryant may be able to play up to voters for his body of work, or the fact that his team yawned through an entire conference this year. I think that some voters might be thinking, look at LeBron, he's 24 and he's going to have this good of a year each of the next ten seasons. Bryant, on the other hand, could only have a few of these types of seasons left under his belt and therefore should be rewarded while he still can.

Fair enough. I was in the boat last year that saw Kobe winning over Chris Paul because of his life of work rather than a spike in performance for one season.

Bryant's arguments for winning the award are as follows: Kobe Bryant has all the skills in the world, you know that. He led the Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference (65-17). Kobe Bryant finished third in the league in scoring averaging 26.8 points per game. He also averaged 5.2 rebounds per game, 4.9 assists per game, and had a 47% field goal percentage for the season. Defensively Kobe is still one of the best in the game averaging 1.5 steals per game. Also, in 2009 Kobe averaged the lowest turnovers per game since 2003.

LeBron James has the following arguments on why he should win the award: James carried the Cavs to a league best 66-16 record and home court advantage throughout the NBA playoffs. During the season, Lebron James averaged 28.4 points per game, 7.6 rebounds per game, 7.2 assists per game, all while shooting 49% from the field. He finished second in the league in scoring only behind only Dwyane Wade, James was 1st in the NBA in assists among small forwards, and 7th in the NBA in steals per game. His syle of play is team-first and his intimidation factor can cause any team to crumble before the ball is even tipped. James controls the offense and runs the defense. In all of my life of watching basketball, I have never seen anything as extraordinary as LeBron James.

Giving either of these guys the award would be fine, but I think the edge this year has to go to LeBron. In fact, James could be this year's most improved player and could probably take credit for Mike Brown's coach of the year award.

But.

What really matters to these guys? Isn't who wins the trophy, it's who wins the ring.