Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James recently expressed his disdain over this year's MVP voting. The award, of course, went to Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, who bagged his second consecutive Maurice Podoloff trophy this season.
James made it clear that he did not have any issue with Antetokounmpo taking home the hardware. Nonetheless, he admitted that he did take offense with his lack of first place votes. The King received just 16 first place nods out of a possible 101, while The Greek Freak got the rest of the 85 votes.
While James isn't irate of the fact that he didn't win his fifth MVP trophy, he should be. LeBron James should have won the 2019-20 NBA MVP over Antetokounmpo.
The first argument that could be made for Antetokounmpo – and it's a very valid one – is that the MVP is a regular season award. In a lot of aspects from the regular season alone, Giannis already has the edge over LeBron.
Antetokounmpo's raw numbers were better than James in almost every major statistical category. Likewise, Giannis' Bucks finished with the No. 1 record in the NBA, while James' Lakers had the second best record prior to the restart.
The regular season accolades were certainly the biggest reason why voters awarded Giannis with the trophy in a landslide. Likewise, it was hard to discount the fact that he had such a historically dominant campaign this year. But another factor that goes into the voting – and this has been the case for a lot of winners – is the narrative.
The four-time NBA MVP certainly had the narrative going for him this season. Let's take a deeper dive into this for The King.
In his 60 games prior to the restart, James averaged 25.7 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 10.9 assists, while shooting 49.8 percent from the field. Those alone are MVP-type numbers. James is also the engine that runs the Lakers offense. His 10.9 assists led the league this year and this marks the first time James did so in his Hall of Fame career.
Obviously, the most impressive part about this is that he's doing this in his age-35 season and in year No. 17. That's insane. Most of James' peers have either retired or seen a major drop in their games. Not the kid from Akron, Ohio.
Furthermore, another case that favors LeBron is that he led the Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference, arguably the tougher conference compared to the East. Likewise, James is doing this with a newly constructed roster that put together many new pieces in the prior off-season. Antetokounmpo, meanwhile, led a roster that came off a 2018-19 campaign where they dominated the regular season.
Finally, the playoffs are, so far, showing that James is still clearly the best player in the world. The Lakers are well-positioned to win this year's NBA championship and are looking dominant in their 2020 playoff run so far. Only seven wins separate James from his fourth NBA title and banner No. 17 for the storied Lakers franchise.
Meanwhile, Antetokounmpo and the Bucks are already on vacation. Despite dominating the regular season in historic fashion, Milwaukee didn't even reach the conference finals and got ousted by the Miami Heat in the second round. Giannis certainly didn't play up to MVP standards and this is one of the reasons why they had a disappointing playoff run in the bubble.
As much as we all try to crown a new king, a new heir to the throne, this is still LeBron James' league. He is still undoubtedly the best player in the world. And we should have known that with the way he played and led the Lakers this year.
Follow Us
Subscribe