Good God. NBA fans get to vote for MVP

by Eric Schwartz

Thursday April 15, 2010 

Maybe it was the spring weather or the fact that baseball season has started up.

Or maybe it was the rush that the Flyers provided me with when they snuck in the playoffs.

Either way the gears just hadn’t been grinding that much lately. We’ll today that changed today and once again it is the NBA that has me steamed.

I like the NBA, I swear I do, but no other professional organization is flawed in so many ways. I don’t think David Stern is the worst commissioner in professional sports, though with the likes on Bud Selig and Gary Bettman around that isn’t saying much.

But Stern and his boys have made another bad decision involving fan participation — and this time the MVP trophy is involved.

This year fans will have a vote for the League’s Most Valuable Player. All of the votes cast will be combined and will count as just one vote in the final tally.

You may be saying to yourself, “It’s only one vote, why does it matter?” You may also be thinking. “Hey the fans no more than most of the sports writers anyway.”

Let me tell you, they don’t.

The fans that will vote for an MVP are the same ones who put Allen Iverson in as a starting All-Star. They are the same ones that vote for Tracy McGrady every year, even though he hasn’t been any good, or played close to a full season since gas was $2 a gallon.

These are the people you want having a say in the MVP?

Not much will be made of the new change this year as LeBron James will win the fan vote and will easily win the trophy as he should.

But what if Kevin Durant (NBA’s scoring leader) had done enough to become more deserving of the vote than James? Do you think for one second the fans would have cast a vote for Durant?

Heck no. King James will win the fan vote for the next 10 years. As long as he deserves it, that’s fine. When he doesn’t the system may finally be called out.

It’s not that I blame the NBA for trying to keep their fan base more involved. Heaven knows they need to keep as many fans engaged as possible.

I just don’t think people who think Iverson, McGrady and Yao Ming dominated the league this season need to have a say in the MVP voting.

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Filed Under Grinding My Gears

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