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For as long as fans can remember, the NBA MVP was always announced during round 2 of the NBA Playoffs aka the Conference Semifinals. But last year, in its 71st season of existence, the NBA decided to change things up and have a proper show where awards would be handed out.
Not only did the NBA take a leaf out of the NFL's book but they also made a calculated move to stretch out the NBA broadcast calendar well into the offseason. The NFL has had a similar show for years now to keep American Football fans interested between the end of the regular season and the Super Bowl.
While that move seemed to benefit the NFL, the same move drew some criticism from NBA fans and players alike. Why? Simply put, the NFL doesn't have the long season that the NBA has. Even more simply put - NFL fans don't have to wait 3+ months to know who their MVP for the season is!
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The 2nd Annual NBA Awards just concluded a few hours ago. Before we get into debating who deserved to be a winner, let's assess if the award show in itself is a winner or a loser.
#1 Pro: The award show makes things more streamlined for fans
In the years before 2017, fans had to scramble to see who won what award over a period of 2-3 days with trophies being handed out individually to winners at different locations and times.
Most fans just ending up watching the presentation of the top 3 awards - MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year. The lesser awards always went unnoticed - Most Improved Player, Sixth Man of the Year, Teammate of the Year, etc. Most publications also led with news around the top awards and left out the others.
True fans of the game deserve a holistic experience when it comes to the end of the year awards. These NBA Awards finally give fans the bigger picture that they have been yearning for - they see one show and come away with all the winners. This means no more having to search the web for the entire list of winners and subsequently searching for presentation videos of each winner on YouTube.
#2 Pro: The show gives players the platform they deserve
Taking point one forward, every winner of an award finally gets equal due.
Yeah, the old school way of having a press conference is hard to forget - family and teammates in attendance, coach and coaching staff, and who can forget a free KIA car. But replace all this with a red carpet, a stage, some glitz and who wouldn't think it's an upgrade?
The show essentially gives the winners an audience like never before, in the seats at the auditorium and in the seats in front of the television. Bottom line: Bigger Audience = Bigger Glory. I mean, imagine Kevin Durant calling his mom the real MVP at a presentation, now reimagine him saying the same on stage for LIVE TV.
The award show also gives players leeway to experiment with their ensembles. Presentations meant the traditional suit. A red carpet makes way for quirky fashion choices that NBA players live for! From suit shorts to fur coats, we've seen it all in the first two editions of the award show.
#3 Pro: It gives judges time to think about their picks
This one's a bit of a conundrum. While fans could do with having the awards being given out earlier, the judges could certainly do with more time to sleep over their picks. Judges in the past few years been criticized for not being on the ball with their selections.
Some have favored statistics while some have favored team success. There's also the debate over the best player or most valuable player, but that a discussion for a different day. In 2015, Steph Curry was given the MVP award over Harden because his team had a better record; Harden had the better individual stats.
Fast forward to 2017, Russell Westbrook won the award because he had the better individual stats (he averaged a triple-double for the year), Harden lost out despite having the better team record. You gotta feel bad for Harden. The judges made up for their mistakes by giving it to him this year. But then again, there are people who believe LeBron James deserved it more.
It's been a solid 3+ months since Harden closed out the season as the frontrunner for the award. Since then, a whole lot has happened. In those 3 months, LeBron James proved yet again that he is the best player and easily the most valuable player to his team. He willed them all the way to the NBA Finals, a feat that Harden just fell short of in the Western Conference Finals.
And while Harden performed considerably better than last year in the playoffs, he was nowhere close to the output that James put out on a consistent basis. There are those fans and analysts who can't unsee the playoffs when it comes to the award and there are those who believe it is solely a regular season award. Either way, thanks to the new award show format, it is safe to say the judges have had enough time to decide which side of the debate they are on.
#1 Con: Living in the past
The biggest question about the NBA season is and forever has been who will win it all come June. Once you've crowned a champion and a Finals MVP, do fans really care about what happened 3 months prior? Does the winner of the Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, etc. for the regular season really matter now?
We already have people questioning current MVP James Harden's effort in the playoffs. But that isn't even the tip of the iceberg. Dwane Casey won Coach of the Year for a team that fired him 2 months ago! Jamal Crawford, on the other hand won Teammate of the Year, fresh off the news that he's exercising an option to leave the Timberwolves and become a free agent.
What's the use of getting an award for a chapter long closed or coming to a close? This is how outdated the NBA awards are.
#2 Con: Losing the plot
Depending on how you view the award, regular season or the entire season, one might argue that another candidate is more deserving. When the award show takes place post the season, fans aren't wrong to consider it as an entire season award (including the playoffs). I mean, isn't the Most Valuable Player an individual that performs for his team all through the season, doing his best to win them that chip?
In the past, there have been awkward instances where the MVP of the regular season has suffered an early exit in the first round, making fans and analysts alike question their case for MVP (Dirk Nowitzki in 2007, most recently Russell Westbrook in 2017).
Do team wins matter or do individual statistics? Is the MVP supposed to be the best player in the game or the player who had the best season? Does narrative matter or just the end result? These are a few questions that fans and players need answered sooner than later.
#3 Con: Players don't care as much too
It's just that time of the year. NBA players get that much-needed break to spend time with their families. They're too busy vacationing or giving their body some much-needed rest. Stephen Curry and the Warriors are so bored of winning at Basketball that they're busy playing Baseball.
Russell Westbrook is off to Paris to update his wardrobe for the upcoming season. LeBron is getting some much-needed family time in Miami, watching his sons play basketball for the Blue Chips. This last one actually killed the suspense for fans. With LeBron posting stories on Instagram of himself in Miami hours before the show, fans were sure he wasn't winning MVP.
What's more? Free Agency is just 4 days away. Players are too busy fielding calls from their current team GMs or thinking about their "Next Chapter". Kawhi Leonard is trying to get out of San Antonio. Paul George is flirting with LA. Kevin Love is wondering if he's going to be trade bait for a 3rd straight year.
There's simply too much going on in the players' lives to give a thought to these awards.
Final Verdict
Is it a winner? Far from it! There's a lot that needs to be worked on by the NBA to help fans views these awards in a better light.
For starters, they should make fans feel important. No, I'm not saying fans should be able to decide who walks away with MVP! The NBA Commissioner has mentioned that fans can be biased when it comes to voting (as seen during All-Star Weekend), negating the need for such a setup.
I agree with this, however, fans can definitely have their own award categories - Fan MVP, Poster of the Year, Social Media MVP, Sneaker MVP, etc. If nothing, this will at least keep fans engaged during the long wait from April to June.
Making voting more transparent and unified should also help to a great extent. You can't have voters split on who should win. I mean sure, there will be the occasional anomaly, but voting can't be so indecisive.
The jury needs to come to a consensus on what the parameters are for judging and then cast a vote. Individuals making their own conclusions in the past have led to many MVP snubs. Post the awards, the NBA should publish a piece that bears each voter's name and his reason behind voting a particular candidate over the others. This will not only make the voters more accountable, it will also help fans see some much-needed perspective.
Last and not the least. With respect to the timing of the awards - a better solution would be to prepone these awards to the end of the Conference Finals. You crown your Conference Champions, your MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Coach of the Year, etc. all at once! All that remains then, is to see who lifts the Larry O'Brien Championship trophy and the Bill Russell Finals MVP trophy.
