Danny ChaiI love Luis Scola. Love his heart, love the way he plays. Yeah, he got a little bit dirty in the game against the U.S. He admitted as much. But what he said after the game was true: it’s the only way Argentina had a shot at winning. Can you really blame them for employing the only tactic that would give them a chance? Isn’t the point to try to win within the rules?
It actually reminds me of the Presidential Election. People always complain about the negativity of the ads, how they wish it didn’t have to be so dirty. But do you really blame them for doing it? Campaigns run negative ads because they work. Is it really realistic to expect the candidate who’s behind in the polls to not employ a tactic that would help him make up ground? McCain once said he wanted to run a different type of campaign, avoid the typical negativity. That got chucked out the window after polls showed him significantly behind Obama. But what do you expect him to do? Be noble and not even try to win?
Speaking of Luis Scola, he reminds me of Lorraine. Don’t know what it is. Tayshaun Prince reminds me of Joe Yuhan. Paul Pierce reminds me of Slim. Kobe reminds me of Jibin. Tim Duncan reminds me of andreww. Shane Battier reminds me of Scott. Rafer Alston reminds me of Mo Choi. Pau Gasol reminds me of Oscar the Grouch.
The Gold Medal game confirmed to me that Kobe Bryant is not the MVP of the NBA. In a close game, all his worst characteristics came out, primarily his selfishness and bad decision-making. He’s unquestionably the most gifted player in the league, and that partly hides his faults, as it did in the Gold Medal game. But he’s not the most valuable.
I stand by a conversation I had with someone earlier this year, that the proper NBA MVP is LeBron. He disagreed with me, saying “most GMs in the league would say that Kobe is the MVP.” That kind of killed the conversation, at it’s an impossible statement to counter. It has the weight of expert consensus but is completely unverifiable.
In any case, I stand by LeBron. To me, the MVP isn’t just good, but he makes his team better. Michael had that effect, partly by pure intimidation. LeBron has that effect, and I think you saw that in the Gold Medal game. Doug Collins kept complaining about the U.S.’ weak side defense (which was atrocious), and at one point he attributed it to LeBron being out of the game with foul trouble. Apparently LeBron is the communicator on weak side help. That says a lot to me. His presence makes everyone else better. His absence makes everyone else worse.
Kobe makes his team worse, both on and off the court. When push comes to shove, he gets selfish and hangs his teammates out to dry. Happened in the Finals, happened in the Gold Medal game. His estimable skills aren’t enough to make up for this. So in my mind, he can’t be the MVP. Best player, yes. Most valuable? No.