Much has been made about how Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James was “pissed” about how the MVP award went in the way of Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks.
On Friday, James spoke more about his sentiments pertaining to how he believes the voting system is broken, while also throwing in the Most Improved Player of the Year award in the conversation:
“I looked at the Most Improved this year and rightfully so, Brandon Ingram was amazing and I thought he should've won it, but did you see the votes Devonte' Graham got? He averaged four points last year compared to 17.5,” James said, via Andrew Barnett of WBTV. “If that's not improving, what is? Its just a weird thing sometimes that, I don't know how much we are really watching the game of basketball, or are we just in narration mode? The narrative.”
For what it's worth, Brandon Ingram did have a tremendous campaign for the New Orleans Pelicans this term. From playing under the shadow of LeBron James himself in L.A. last season, Ingram's move to New Orleans worked wonders for the young forward. He led the Pelicans to a 30-42 record, as well as an invite into the Disney World bubble for being one of the top 22 teams in the NBA.
LeBron isn't wrong about Devonte' Graham, though. The Charlotte Hornets guard seemed to come out of nowhere to take the league by storm. You could argue that in terms of improvement, Graham's development from last year far exceeds that of Ingram.
It's also interesting how LeBron pointed out the narrative aspect of the vote. In terms of the MVP, it was actually James who had a better narrative between himself and Giannis. Antetokounmpo was amazing for the Bucks, but the fact that LeBron was doing equally impressive feats at Year 17 is the narrative we all heard over and over again. In the end, however, it was Giannis' overall play that trumped LeBron's narrative.
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