Post by eric on Feb 4, 2022 22:05:45 GMT -5
The best choice for the Most Valuable Player of the National Basketball Association is the best player out of the top two teams in each conference. This method produces MVPs like LeBron James and Michael Jordan, ignoring it because of dumb stupid criteria that are dumb and stupid leads to idiotic MVPs like Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose that are immediately regrettable and in hindsight only make the voters look like even more flagrant maroons.
No offense.
Anyway, the non moronic criteria right now says Chris Paul is the MVP, because this year he's better than Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler and much better than DeMar DeRozan.
Hold for applause.
Chris Paul is also not going to be an All-Star starter, and I couldn't help but wonder... does the pomp and pageantry of the midsummer *consults notes* midwinter classic extend to the bench? How often is the Most Valuable held... in reserve?
.
The National Basketball Association's Most Valuable Player was first awarded in 1956, and to find the first eventual MVP not named an All-Star starter we have to fast forward from that distant epoch alllll the way to... 1956.
Yes sir, long before electrocuting Garry Kasparov to win the World Chess Championship of the World, ol' Big Blue had to stew on the unyielding pine of the Rochester War Memorial Coliseum, but got the last laugh both with an All-Star and a regular season MVP award. Records are a little skimpy back then so it's not clear if he was on the ballot as a center losing out to "Long" Larry Foust, or as a forward losing out to both George Harry "Bird" Yardley and Mel "Hutch" "I don't even have a picture on bbref" Hutchins, but since the latter two were playing on a team in known cheat state Indiana at the time we can't rule it out.
From there we find that the great Bill Russell made the All-Star team as a reserve behind the great Wilt Chamberlain only to go on to win the MVP and the title...
...twice...
...in the back to back years of 1961 and 1962.
Bill "The Still" Russell would get a bit of recompense in 1969 when he started over eventual MVP Wes Unseld, but Wes fouled out in 12 minutes in the sim conference finals game seven so screw that guy.
.
Did I stutter?
.
Moving on we get all the way past the merger so nothing weird can happen now except that Dan "Horse" Issel starts over Literally Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1977. O.K. let's be fair and look at the stats:
22 pts on 52% / 80%, 9 reb, 0 blk
26 pts on 58% / 70%, 13 reb, 3 blk
O.K. but let's be really fair and remember that Kareem's Lakers were an overall #1 seed in the entire N.B.A. and I'm not sure where I was going with this.
O.K. but let's be COMPLETELY fair, because Dan "Danny" Issel took that starting role and ran with it, scoring a crisp 0 points in 10 minutes of All-Star play.
Playing the least minutes of literally all 24 players.
But he did manage one (1) rebound!
.
Once again we find history repeating and recouping, as in 1982 Kareem leveraged the Los Angeles fan base (that he also had in 1977 but what the h*ck) to pip the great Moses Malone for starter, but nobody cares about Moses Malone so let's keep it moving to
1995 and we stay in the center because it's David Robinson backing up eventual MVP Hakeem Olajuwon but look, 1995 Robinson has taken enough of a beating at 1995 Olajuwon's hands already so let's admire the reversal briefly and go on to
2005 where "Stunning" Steve Nash backs up the guard who carried Michael Jordan's torch into the new millennium by vastly broadening the global frontiers of basketball, which is to say Tracy McGrady, and also some little guy running around dominating the ball, throwing up thirty shots a night.
Time flows like a river, and history repeats, and the last time an eventual MVP reserves the All-Star game is in the hallowed bygone days of 2017 when Russell "The Californian Torpedo" Westbrook backs up those bums Steph Curry and James Harden, even though if you want to be technical about it the only time he would ever win a playoff series from then to now would be when he was on James Harden's team and was technically injured during those playoffs.
If we want to be technical.
.
.
In conclusion, here is a very scientific chart of MVP non All-Star starters:
So Chris Paul winning MVP (which he should) only goes to further cement the thesis that these young bloods are quote Shaqting a Fool quote unquote.
Send.
No offense.
Anyway, the non moronic criteria right now says Chris Paul is the MVP, because this year he's better than Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler and much better than DeMar DeRozan.
Hold for applause.
Chris Paul is also not going to be an All-Star starter, and I couldn't help but wonder... does the pomp and pageantry of the midsummer *consults notes* midwinter classic extend to the bench? How often is the Most Valuable held... in reserve?
.
The National Basketball Association's Most Valuable Player was first awarded in 1956, and to find the first eventual MVP not named an All-Star starter we have to fast forward from that distant epoch alllll the way to... 1956.
Yes sir, long before electrocuting Garry Kasparov to win the World Chess Championship of the World, ol' Big Blue had to stew on the unyielding pine of the Rochester War Memorial Coliseum, but got the last laugh both with an All-Star and a regular season MVP award. Records are a little skimpy back then so it's not clear if he was on the ballot as a center losing out to "Long" Larry Foust, or as a forward losing out to both George Harry "Bird" Yardley and Mel "Hutch" "I don't even have a picture on bbref" Hutchins, but since the latter two were playing on a team in known cheat state Indiana at the time we can't rule it out.
From there we find that the great Bill Russell made the All-Star team as a reserve behind the great Wilt Chamberlain only to go on to win the MVP and the title...
...twice...
...in the back to back years of 1961 and 1962.
Bill "The Still" Russell would get a bit of recompense in 1969 when he started over eventual MVP Wes Unseld, but Wes fouled out in 12 minutes in the sim conference finals game seven so screw that guy.
.
Did I stutter?
.
Moving on we get all the way past the merger so nothing weird can happen now except that Dan "Horse" Issel starts over Literally Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1977. O.K. let's be fair and look at the stats:
22 pts on 52% / 80%, 9 reb, 0 blk
26 pts on 58% / 70%, 13 reb, 3 blk
O.K. but let's be really fair and remember that Kareem's Lakers were an overall #1 seed in the entire N.B.A. and I'm not sure where I was going with this.
O.K. but let's be COMPLETELY fair, because Dan "Danny" Issel took that starting role and ran with it, scoring a crisp 0 points in 10 minutes of All-Star play.
Playing the least minutes of literally all 24 players.
But he did manage one (1) rebound!
.
Once again we find history repeating and recouping, as in 1982 Kareem leveraged the Los Angeles fan base (that he also had in 1977 but what the h*ck) to pip the great Moses Malone for starter, but nobody cares about Moses Malone so let's keep it moving to
1995 and we stay in the center because it's David Robinson backing up eventual MVP Hakeem Olajuwon but look, 1995 Robinson has taken enough of a beating at 1995 Olajuwon's hands already so let's admire the reversal briefly and go on to
2005 where "Stunning" Steve Nash backs up the guard who carried Michael Jordan's torch into the new millennium by vastly broadening the global frontiers of basketball, which is to say Tracy McGrady, and also some little guy running around dominating the ball, throwing up thirty shots a night.
Time flows like a river, and history repeats, and the last time an eventual MVP reserves the All-Star game is in the hallowed bygone days of 2017 when Russell "The Californian Torpedo" Westbrook backs up those bums Steph Curry and James Harden, even though if you want to be technical about it the only time he would ever win a playoff series from then to now would be when he was on James Harden's team and was technically injured during those playoffs.
If we want to be technical.
.
.
In conclusion, here is a very scientific chart of MVP non All-Star starters:
bum year name
yes 2017 Russell Westbrook
kinda 2005 Steve Nash
kinda 1995 David Robinson
kinda 1982 Moses Malone
kinda 1977 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
yes 1969 Wes Unseld
no 1962 Bill Russell
no 1961 Bill Russell
kinda 1956 Bob PettitSo Chris Paul winning MVP (which he should) only goes to further cement the thesis that these young bloods are quote Shaqting a Fool quote unquote.
Send.
