Counter Point: The Cavaliers Are No Where Without LBJ

To: Kyle Stack

From: Jeff Sack

RE: NBA MVP

Kyle,

I am well aware that Many of my peers in the media,(apparently including yourself) have said that the NBA MVP is down to a two man race between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. I’m not willing to go there yet, there are far too many games left in the regular season, and there are too many other worthy candidates. Tracy McGrady in Houston somehow keeping a 18 game winning streak alive without Yao Ming, Dwight Howard in Orlando, who has taken his game to a new level this season. Chris Paul in New Orleans, Brandon Roy, in Portland deserve consideration, not to mention Nash, and Stoudemire in Phoenix, Iverson, and Anthony, in Denver, and any of the “Elite Three” in Boston. And we could easily go on, however if it is a two man race I would have to back My Guy Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James.

Now, don’t get me wrong Kobe Bryant is a superb NBA player arguably a top 3-5 player, and in many observers mind, a hands down number one. However the award we are discussing is not the NBA Best Player Award, it is the Most Valuable Player Award. So in my mind, if Dwyane Wade averaged a triple-double all this season, he still could not be the MVP, because Miami has the worst record in all of the NBA. So in my mind, personal numbers only go so far in determining the award (by the way, you conveniently left out the fact that Kobe trails LBJ who is the leading scorer in the Association this campaign!)

Now if you want to debate whether Mitch Kupchak is a better General Manager than Danny Ferry, you would probably win. The team that the Lakers General Manager has assembled is far better one through twelve than Cleveland, but that’s exactly my point! Kobe has a proven floor general in Derek Fisher, one of the most underrated athletes in the NBA in Lamar Odom, and as I wrote a few weeks ago trading Kwame Brown for Pau Gasol was like trading Spam for Prime Rib! How Kupchak ever hoodwinked Memphis to give him Gasol, for a man who has been a bust in the NBA like Kwame Brown, and a handful of magic beans is quite simply amazing! That trade was worthy of the late great Red Auerbach!

Now take a look at the Cavaliers, it pales in comparison. You have a center in Zydrunas Ilgauskas who probably peaked 3-4 years ago, another center Ben Wallace who apparently was tanking the season with the Bulls, a journeyman in Devin Brown, and in Delonte West you have the closest thing to a point guard on the Cleveland roster, but he is not a true point. On the bench you have the energizer bunny Anderson Varejao, Joe Smith, a former number one pick in the NBA Draft who is having a real nice year, but he was chosen in 1995! You also have Wally Szczerbiak, who never saw a shot he didn’t like, and is a one trick pony.

Now Kyle, we come down to the crux of my argument. Do the Lakers make the playoffs without Kobe? After Bynum returns, and Gasol becomes a power forward again, I say yes. Are they the number two seed in the Western Conference without Kobe? No way, but you can stick my boy Sasha Vujacic in at the two guard, and they’ll get in as a sixth seed. Now let’s take LBJ off the Cavaliers, do they even sniff the playoffs? Please Kyle, we both know they would be scraping the bottom of the Eastern Conference along with the Heat.

So bottom line who is most valuable to their team? I think this little exercise proves that it is hands down LeBron James, so for that reason, if you are forcing me to make a choice on March 9, 2008 LBJ is my MVP.