With the NBA season winding down, the MVP watch is on.  Lebron is leading in scoring and many other categories with the Cavs on the move in the East due to the additions of Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, and Wally Szczerbiak.  Kobe with the addition of Paul Gasol has the Lakers with the best record in the West and showing promise of leading the Lakers to another title shot.  Kobe is still Kobe with the ability to score at will, but now he can defer to a better surrounding cast.  Recent MVP Actions By LeBron & KobeLeBron lifts Cleveland over ChicagoKobe saves Lakers with a fabulous 52
Both are making great cases for the trophy, but who wins?

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Dirk Nowitzki has been announced 2007 NBA MVP after coming up short against the Golden State Warriors in this year’s playoffs.  Dirk has no doubt been the best player on his team during their 67 win stretch to the first team in a minute to challenge the Chicago Bulls 72 win record. 

He beats out Steve Nash, the MVP of the last 2 years, and Kobe ‘I can shoot over 4 people’ Bryant (I still think that you are the best player in the league.  You and Tim Duncan).  But the thing is this has brought up whether the award should be given out after the playoffs, but I say no.  He was the Most Valuable Player to his team during the regular season.  And I have a fucking problem with the award going to the person with the best record anyway.  Just because you may have the best record does not mean that you were that much the reason for that.  But Dirk I think deserved this one.  Imagine if Steve won again.  He would be up there with the like of Larry Bird and Bill Russell who won it 3 consecutive times and I can’t put him up there with them yet. 

I just think that this will go down as the worst MVP to go down in history to date because of how small Dirk came up losing the the 8th seeded Warriors.  Dirk, grow some fucking balls during playoff times when your team needs you!

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This series pitted the NBA’s top overall team, the league’s MVP, a team that challenged Chicago’s 72 win record back in the 90’s against the #8 seeded Golden State Warriors who had to win their last game just to get into the playoffs.  Throughout the entire series, there were times where Dirk was non existent, not assertive and just plain mediocre.  He did hit big shots down the stretch of the 5th game to regain the lead to win at home, but in game 6 he was a 2 - 13 from the field and only points.  Now is this what you expect from an MVP?  Would Jordan, Bird, Johnson, AI, or any other MVP in history would conclude their season like this?  No!  They would go out gunning and Dirk did not. 

Baron Davis on the other hand willed his team to victories along with his cast of players like Stephen Jackson, Matt Barnes, and Jason Richardson.  And when he pulled his hamstring, he still was able to come back out firing, that’s how an MVP plays when the chips are down. They ran Dallas every which way but lose hitting big 3’s and running like the Phoenix Suns.  The Warriors may not win another game in the playoffs, but they have definitely given us a playoff series to remember.

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I for one think that anyone of the candidates could have easily won the award between Lebron, Kobe, Steve, Dirk, Elton, and Chauncey.  You could easily throw Dwayne Wades name in the bunch and still could get a good MVP, but when you talk about the award, the Most Valuable Player, many think that you necessarily mean best player.  How can you not say that Steve Nash was not a little more deserving considering his best player and wing man, Amare, was hurt the majority of the year.  Not to mention shipping out Joe Johnson to the Hawks.  It just meant the Steve would have a harder job and the Matrix would have to be that other part of the pick-n-roll. 

But what about King James?  His wingman was out too with a broken finger, the person they got to come in to be his Scottie Pippen, Larry Hughes.  Lebron not only averaged over 30 pts, consistently getting triple doubles, and finally getting his team to the playoffs since having years of a drought. 

Then you have the other guys like Kobe on that team of nothings except Lamar Odom, lead the league in scoring, and making it to the playoffs when last year they were absent. 

Elton Brand leading his team, the LA Clippers I might add, to the playoffs.  Oooh, that felt funny even saying that.  But he is coming off of a huge season.  Then again, Sam Cassell was on his team and we know that with Sam comes success. 

Dirk had a good year as well with the Mavs.  But Dirk always plays well.

So lets see how the results between the top 3 ended up, because if it was not a close race, then it might be some trouble.  Remember last year when Steve won it.

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