[King Glorious]

I think that people often forget what the MVP award is about. It's not necessarily for the best player in the league. If that was the case, Michael Jordan should have won it every year. But he didn't. Hell, they gave it to Barkley and Malone in years that MJ beat them in the finals. Same thing when they gave it to Robinson and Olajuwon crushed him in the playoffs. It's about more than that though. If I had a vote, I wouldn't simply vote fore who I thought was the best player. I would look to a guy that I thought had the best combination of being a great player and the most influential to his team's success. This year, Kobe was great. But I don't think he was better than he was the previous two seasons. Even this season, until they put Bynum into the starting lineup and he started flourishing, the Lakers were a .500 team. Then when Bynum went out, they struggled again until they got Gasol. So I question how much impact Kobe really had on that team. Even the past couple of years, they had a better record with Odom and no Kobe than they did with Kobe and no Odom. The argument can be made that when Nash won his first one, it should have gone to Shaq. I chose Shaq myself. Last year, I chose LeBron. But to say that it's an embarrassment that Nash won either of them is wrong. He was very much in the convo and very deserving. Where the Suns were, what he led them to, and what they are when he's not playing.....he's very much in the convo.

The reason why Kobe or KG wouldn't get it from me is because they alone didn't account for the big improvement of their respective teams. I don't think they had the same influence on their teams that Chris Paul or LeBron James did. I'm not even sure that they had a bigger influence on their teams than Tracy McGrady has on the Rockets. When you consider what the Rockets have done and where they are and then look, really look at that lineup, you really gain a lot of respect for McGrady. Everyone thought the season was lost when Yao went down but not only wasn't it lost, they stayed in contention for the top record in the conference until the final two games. All season long, my vote was for either James or Paul. At the end, I'd go with McGrady. Not as the best player but as the MVP.