Last week, my cousin David called me, incensed. He is normally measured and analytical, a Howard University grad with a B.A. electrical engineering, but he fervently wanted my ear to vent about radio hosts and some of their guests who had placed Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic ahead of Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham and Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown in the National Basketball Association MVP race.
“Doesn’t defense and team records matter anymore?” he asked. “These dudes must have an agenda.”
It is a question and assertion held by many fans with the NBA’s regular season in its final three weeks. The unspoken truth is the allegiances and perceptions of the top MVP candidates by some are, in part, shaped by the observers’ and players’ ethnicity and country of birth.
There is an understandable longing by many white Americans for an American-born, iconic white superstar to emerge, which the league has lacked since Larry Bird. The Dallas Mavericks’ 19-year-old Cooper Flagg seems on track to be that guy. It is similar to Black Americans’ past hunger for Black quarterbacks to ascend to the highest rungs of the sport that was exclusive to their white counterparts. Now the NFL abounds with them.
While I don’t have an official vote for MVP, as of today, my ballot would read:
1. Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs)
2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder)
3. Jaylen Brown
4. Cade Cunningham
5. Luka Doncic
6. Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets)
Yes, as Dave noted, where a team is in the standings should be a critically important criterion. As fabulous a season as Jokic has had (he was eighth in points — 28, and led the league in rebounds — 12.6 — and assists — 10.6 — when the NBA’s schedule tipped off on Tuesday), the Nuggets were 44-28, the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, and a distant 13 games behind the No. 1 seed Thunder (57-15) and 10 games below the No. 2 seed San Antonio Spurs (54-18).
Doncic and the Lakers (46-26), who had a nine-game winning streak ended by the Pistons on Monday night (113-110), trailed the Thunder and Spurs by 11 and eight games respectively. Doncic, a remarkable offensive talent, was pacing the league in scoring at 33.4 with the reigning NBA MVP, Gilgeous-Alexander, at 31.5.
Cunningham (61 games played, 24.5 points per game, 13th best) and the Pistons were looking down at the rest of the Eastern Conference because the Pistons’ 52-19 mark was the third best in the association. With a collapsed lung potentially sidelining him until the start of the playoffs, Cunningham is four games shy of the league’s minimum 65-game requirement to be eligible for major honors such as MVP. Brown’s (28.5, fifth in scoring) Celtics sat second in the East (47-24), just a half game above the No. 3 seed Knicks (47-25).
Then there is 22-year-old Wembanyama — the most unique player on the planet. The native of France’s numbers don’t adequately reflect his dominance, but they are stellar nonetheless: 24.3 points, 11.2 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks, the latter the best in basketball. Wemby, as he is commonly called, eloquently made his case for being the MVP after the Spurs’ 136-111 win over the Miami Heat on Monday — their 22nd victory in their last 24 games.
“I’m trying to make sure that at the end of the season, there’s no debate,” he said, then listed his reasoning for why he should garner the award. “My first one would be that defense is 50% of the game and that it is undervalued … I believe I’m the most impactful player defensively in the league … Second argument would be that we almost swept OKC in the season … The third argument would be that offense impact is not just points.”
His head coach agrees. “He affects as much of the game in every single way … as much as any other player I’ve ever seen. Take that for whatever it’s worth,” said Mitch Johnson.
Enough said!