Most Valuable Player

Last week, during the course of my weekly address, I wrote that I thought Dwight Howard should be named the league’s most valuable player. It was as if I’d claimed that Osama bin Lizard would be a fine name for a pet iguana. Usually two or three people take the time to scrawl in and give me problems. This morning, I counted 21 emails from readers telling me I was an idiot (and nearly all of them were related to my column).

Seriously, people went mental and accused me as having an “axe to grind” against everyone from Kobe (nope) and LeBron (perhaps) to Derrick Rose (I don’t, but this guy surely does) and Kevin Durant (utter nonsense). My mother in Florida, the Celtics fan, even tried to make her tired case for Paul Pierce, going to so far as to insinuate that my judgment was clouded by childhood trauma. I accused her of having sunstroke, brought on by alcohol poisoning. We quickly reached a détente.

Truthfully, I was merely making conversation last week. Will Howard actually win the award? Don’t bet on it. I actually consider the MVP award nothing more than a glorified popularity contest. I take issue with the term “valuable” as I’m not sure whether it means to the team or the league. Or both.

Last year, James ran away with the award with 116 out of 123 first place votes, because his Cavaliers won a lot of games. Had they lost one more game than Kevin Durant’s Oklahoma Thunder, Durant probably would’ve been the NBA’s most valuable player. Does that make sense? Was LeBron any less valuable to his team, any less indispensable? Of course not. He was the entire team.

Dirk Nowitzki, won the award in 2006, is probably the league most “indispensable” player now and has been for most of his career. (Be gentle, crazy people.) You remove Derrick Rose from the Bulls and they’re still pretty good, you take Kobe away from the Lakers, and Gasol, Bynum and Odom will still win two-thirds of the games, and same with LeBron’s and even Durant’s talented squads. But if Nowitzki misses a few games, the Mavericks have the same chance of winning as the shrimp in the Aussie bully throwdown.

Still, the NBA intends to hand the award out again this year — after much fanfare and faux suspense — and regardless of what expletives you might hurl, I still think it should be Dwight Howard. He’s near the top of the league in scoring, top two in rebounding and blocks, and his defense is far better than any of the other candidates. He completely shuts down the lane and interior defenders can change the complexion of the game in a way perimeter man-up defenders cannot. Dwight Howard is valuable to the Magic is more ways than the other candidates are to their teams.

In this helpful chart compiled by the NBA, Howard is second only to James in terms of overall effectiveness. And who am I to ever go against the NBA crack team of statisticians? Who indeed.

My only hesitance is that Howard is a woeful free throw shooter, averaging 58% from the stripe — and that’s completely unacceptable, especially for a player who is hoping to win the award for the league’s best. Or… most valuable. Or whatever.

Tony Gervino is a New York City-based editor and writer obsessed with honing his bio to make him sound quirky. He can also be found here.

Photo by Keith Allison.