The Observer, April 11, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 24
Pro Sports Roundup
With less than a week left in the NBA season, it is time to contemplate and debate who will be this year's Most Valuable Player. It has come to a consensus between four players: Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett, and LeBron James. Though all of these players are amazing in their own right, a few of them can be picked away.
Kevin Garnett is having a great year. He took a horrible team, the Celtics, to the cream of the crop in the East. His unselfish play and work ethic has spread through the whole team making basketball fun once again in Boston. The problem with making KG the MVP is that he has had too much help this year. At his side he has two All-Stars, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, running with him. With the help he has had and his numbers not being as gaudy as the other candidates, KG is out as MVP.
Many people just assume that Kobe has already won a MVP by now, but the fact is that he hasn't, and I don't think this is the year he will get his first. In the tough West, the Lakers are ranked the third best while Kobe is second in league in scoring with 28.6 points per game. The knick in Kobe's armor is that the Lakers were not considered to be a real contender until the trade for Pau Gasol went through. Since the departure of Shaq from L.A., Kobe has not made a real dent into the playoffs. However, now that he has a true center to work with, he is expected to go deep into the playoffs.
LeBron leads the league in scoring by almost two points per game, and has led the Cavs to yet another playoff berth. Without much help around him in the beginning of the year, King James has spent the last few weeks of the season learning to play with the new knights at his round table. Replacing more than half of the starting line-up through trades, the Cavs have a new face going in to the playoffs. Though James has made the decision tough, I do not pick him as my MVP.
Chris Paul has become one of, if not the, best point guard in the game. The third-year player out of Wake Forest is averaging over 20 PPG, leading the league in assists with 11.4 per game. Paul runs the Hornets offense, but impacts the game on the defense, leading the league in steals as well with 2.7 a game. CP3 is by far the best player on his team and they can't win without him. He increases everyone's stats, especially center Tyson Chandler, who is having a career year with 11.7 ppg and a field goal percentage of .615. Distributing, shooting, defense, Paul does it all and as the leader of the team with the best record in the west, he deserves the MVP award.
