Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has finally earned MVP honors in a league where the big men are dominating the past few years. Giannis has an MVP and Nikola Jokic has two on his palette. But there’s still the question of whether Embiid should have two MVPs at this juncture of his career and not just his first one this season.
The problem with the MVP voting is, the media votes for the players. While some media players are objective about who's really playing well, there are some media members who are “subjective” in their voting. It’s not how well a player has played during the regular season or they judge players on certain games they didn’t play well.
There’s also favoritism with the voting and at this point, is it time to have players and coaches voting for MVP? Think about all of the years in the past where players should’ve been MVP in the NBA but they didn’t get it. It’s hard to not argue that Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant should’ve garnered more MVP awards in their careers. I could name more players but I want to stick to the most dominant ones in NBA history.
When you look at Shaq, was it expected for him to dominate because of how big and strong he was and that he was slighted in the MVP voting most seasons? Did Kobe Bryant not get MVPs because of his case in Colorado, he wasn’t always the most gregarious guy in the media and as a teammate? Players develop an image through the media but when these guys stepped on the court, they put up numbers and helped their team win.
Most MVPs in years past were teams that were the top seed in the playoffs. Steve Nash got his two when the Phoenix Suns were the run and gun team of the league. Dirk Nowitzki got his MVP when his Dallas Mavericks were the number one seed in the Western Conference before getting beat by the eighth seeded Golden State Warriors.
It must’ve been an embarrassment for the NBA to give Dirk his MVP after his team was eliminated from the NBA Playoffs. That might’ve been the game changing year where media members had to start objectively looking at the totality of a player’s performance and not necessarily the seeding of the playoffs. Injuries happen, coaches change, trades happen mid-season, a myriad of things happen in the regular season that affect a team’s seeding in the playoffs.
Last year was Joel Embiid’s MVP for the taking in my eyes but this year, he finally earned his respect in the NBA in the media’s eyes. Players have already vocalized how much Embiid impacts the game on both ends of the floor when he’s healthy and on the court.
The NBA has made it where players must play a certain amount of games for players to be considered in the MVP race. Maybe it’s time the NBA changes who votes for MVP and the criteria….
