Stephonit
02-19-2021, 11:32 AM
Nearly all MVP awards are given to players who have led a team to a top 2 record in the regular season. Nearly all FMVP awards have been given to players on the winning championship team. These are not official requirements to win the award but have taken on that aspect.
One can easily deduce the reason for this: to avoid and minimize embarrassment.
Giving the award to someone who later does not win a championship diminishes the prestige of the award. There would have to be significant motivation to get voters to abandon these unofficial standards. We saw that there was sufficient motivation though in 2017 when they made up an excuse and abandoned these unofficial standards to give the award to Russell Westbrook in their eagerness to not give credit to the top player on the best team—with predictably embarrassing results.
This year it is shaping up to be one where the voters will have to choose between a tried and true performer or a new guy. For a new guy to minimize the risk of embarrassment to the voters it would be ideal if he or his team could set some historic record or benchmark. Unfortunately it's looking unlikely that any of the leading fresher faced contenders are going to be able to do that unlike what Giannis was able to do the past couple of years. I predict that's one reason voters are leaning towards giving the MVP this year to a tried and true performer and one reason James is an early favorite. I do think that Steph would be a logical alternative if he can bump the wins up a little further. One of the things observers of the race may find interesting to pay attention to is whether media's distaste for potential embarrassment outweighs their loathing for Steph in this race.
One can easily deduce the reason for this: to avoid and minimize embarrassment.
Giving the award to someone who later does not win a championship diminishes the prestige of the award. There would have to be significant motivation to get voters to abandon these unofficial standards. We saw that there was sufficient motivation though in 2017 when they made up an excuse and abandoned these unofficial standards to give the award to Russell Westbrook in their eagerness to not give credit to the top player on the best team—with predictably embarrassing results.
This year it is shaping up to be one where the voters will have to choose between a tried and true performer or a new guy. For a new guy to minimize the risk of embarrassment to the voters it would be ideal if he or his team could set some historic record or benchmark. Unfortunately it's looking unlikely that any of the leading fresher faced contenders are going to be able to do that unlike what Giannis was able to do the past couple of years. I predict that's one reason voters are leaning towards giving the MVP this year to a tried and true performer and one reason James is an early favorite. I do think that Steph would be a logical alternative if he can bump the wins up a little further. One of the things observers of the race may find interesting to pay attention to is whether media's distaste for potential embarrassment outweighs their loathing for Steph in this race.