Basketball: Fact vs. Opinion
I am a fan of the NBA and most other sports. Being a fan of basketball I feel as if I am one of a dying breed. Attendances to games and merchandise sales have gone down much in recent years but I still rout, shout, and holler as I watch the season fly by. I like to consider myself a true fan although I don’t have one team I cheer for. Mainly I cheer for good players and great performances. I love the NBA although I do have some negative feelings toward their awards at the end of each year. Defensive Player of the Year and MVP are two very prominent awards and each player that receives these awards had an amazing season. And yet my mind races as I wonder how they really chose these players. I wonder if it is statistics or personal opinion.
The most prestigious award that can be won in the NBA is the league MVP. I watched the 2007-2008 season go by and the performances that stunned me the most were those of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. These two men had outstanding seasons and the man that ended up on top as league MVP was Kobe Bryant. Being a hardcore LeBron fan I was shocked, hurt if you will. My opinion was directed toward LeBron and yet Kobe was MVP. So I became determined to dig a little deeper and to discover what it was about Kobe Bryant that made him so much better than everyone else. As I scrolled through the pages of ESPN.com and stared down the facts I was a little disturbed. I looked at these pages and was astounded by the fact that LeBron James (on paper) was the better player. James averaged more blocks, offensive and defensive rebounds, assists, and points each game and he also had a higher field goal percentage. Bryant only beat him in three point percentage, free throw percentage, and he had less turnovers each game.
I can’t understand any of this. If you ask me points are more important than anything and following that it would be rebounds and assists. LeBron James averaged better on the more important aspects of basketball. My question remains to be what are these awards based on. Clearly it is not logical statistics, facts, and data. It is personal opinion. And with that being the case I’d like to give mine.