MVP

[Fidel]

This is a piece from insidehoops, i liked it (I don´t share every point though) and I post it here because I had several arguments with people about Iverson not at all deserving MVP (I think these were on nbatalk). What do you think about that?

"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?"