Will Joel Embiid inherit LeBron's Greatness Fatigue? | Marcus Hayes
LeBron James remains the NBAs real MVP, but isnt getting the votes anymore
THERE IS ONLY one viable criterion for determining which player is the NBA's most valuable.
It is: Which player would the league's general managers choose to build a championship team that season? After all, that's the point of the season.
It's not the measurables of a robo-baller, or the facial hair on a defensive turnstile, or padded triple-doubles from a ball hog. The MVP is the one who gives you best chance at a ring.
That player is neither Russell Westbrook, nor James Harden, nor even Kawhi Leonard, the three finalists.
That player can only be LeBron James.
On Monday night the NBA announced Westbrook won the MVP. For the first time, it was televised. This is wonderful, because it undresses the MVP voting process for the fraudulent exercise that it is. Monday night, casual NBA fans all over the world will realize what first was news in May: That the voters have chosen the questionable style of Westbrook over the unquestioned substance of James. He is the league's most complete player. He has no peer and no equal. He's a hard man to like, but there has never been anyone quite like him. There probably never will be again.
For the fourth year in a row James will suffer from Greatness Fatigue. The King is so good that the proletariat has grown weary. He is not the first victim, and he will not be the last. Michael Jordan suffered. So did Wilt.
This is relevant in Philadelphia because, at some point, Joel Embiid should be in the same situation.
Like Jordan, Wilt and LeBron, the hyperbolic world in which we exist does Embiid a disservice. When we see the incredible night after night it somehow becomes unremarkable. In the same manner that the NBA's Big Three defy description, it takes superlatives we carelessly use to accurately forecast Embiid's potential.
Anyone who saw Embiid play his 31 games this past season realizes he is something completely different. If he stays healthy (he has played just 31 games in three seasons), he could combine the strength of Shaq with the athleticism of Wilt, the shooting touch of Dirk and the defensive menace of Russell. If healthy, in two years The Process will have Karl-Anthony Townes and Anthony Davis chasing him as the league's best big man. In a decade, he will be legend.
And, so, he will be too good to be appreciated.
This is where LeBron stands today. It is familiar territory for him.
LeBron hasn't won in three years. He's won the Eastern Conference title each of those years - the past seven years, in fact - but he hasn't won the MVP since 2013. Remember the relevant criteria? The player most likely to take you to the promised land?
Steph Curry won MVP the past two seasons. Kevin Durant won it the year before that. They joined forces this season, essentially canceling out their own chances at winning an MVP . . . with the express intent to beat LeBron James.
That's right. The last two MVPs had to form their own Justice League to keep the King from a fourth ring.
Nobody's forming a Justice League to keep Westbrook off the podium, and nobody worries that Harden has a juggernaut in Houston.
This is nothing new. So ingrained is the indifference to LeBron that he didn't even receive one first-place vote last season. He got just five in 2015, six in 2014. Early reports reflect that he received no more than a handful this season, either, since he finished outside of the top three. Say he gets two first-place votes this year.
That will mean James, clearly the most coveted player in the league, got 13 of 481 first-place votes in the past four seasons. That's less than 3 percent in four years. Gary Johnson and his Libertarians did better against Hillary and Donald Trump.
Arguments against LeBron are laughable, really. Generally, they aren't based on him being unworthy of the MVP; rather, they're based on him being imperfect. Sure, he does a few things poorly. Late-game shooting. Free throws. Hair replacement.
He does most things incredibly well. Incorporate his size and strength, and every night he does things no one else has ever done.
Yes, this is a regular-season award; and no, this discussion does not hinge on his playoff performances of this year or any year. If it did, there would be no discussion. He's money come May. He's just as incredible in the preceding months.
If you say he didn't win enough this season, that the Cavs weren't the No. 1 seed in the East, well, he won more than Westbrook. If you say his team was stacked, well, his team went 0-6 in meaningful games with him out of the lineup (he also sat out the last two games of the season).
He wasn't as prolific a scorer as the gunners? Harden averaged about three points more per game, Westbrook about five. James shot 54.8 percent from the field, about 10 percent better than Harden and about 12 percent better than Westbrook. James also shot about 2 percent better than both from three-point range. Westbrook led the league with 31.6 points per game, and with 1,941 field goal attempts . . . and 1,117 field goals missed. Harden was third in misses.
Granted, LeBron's personality was hard to endure even before The Decision, his disastrous and defining moment. He always has been insincere, condescending, manipulative and petty. He also is perfectly conditioned, amazingly durable and constantly improving. Off the court he is a generous and funny teammate, an excellent citizen and a great dad.
None of this, good or bad, should have mattered to the 100 voters. Clearly, it did.
Without question, Westbrook, Harden and Leonard had wonderful seasons.
Leonard, the league's best defender, developed his offensive game and led the Spurs to 61 wins this season, his first without Tim Duncan. Harden converted to point guard and transformed the Rockets into Mike D'Antoni's latest mirage. Westbrook, the league's best athlete who plays with unbelievable energy, averaged a triple-double.
Oscar Robertson did that in 1961-62. Bill Russell was MVP.
Should've been Wilt.
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