In most American sports, at the end of the season the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is given out, and this creates intense discussions and arguments across social media and on every sport related programme. I enjoy these discussions because a) it is a sporting conversation and I am always on board with that, and b) these discussions give you an idea on what each person perceives as valuable, a factor which, as I will explain later, is different to everyone. However, these discussions can also be frustrating because there seems to be a degree of confusion as to what these awards are really about.

The Best Player Should Not Always Win The MVP Award

Now let me first indicate my frustrations. I think it is totally wrong for people to just say that the MVP award should just go to the best player. Colin Cowherd and Nick Wright are two such examples and they are painfully predictable in doing so. The problem is that they have confused the words valuable and best. They believe they are the same thing and that is what the award is about. It is not, it is purely about VALUE, not being the BEST. Let me explain. It is widely recognised that Lebron James is the best player in the world of basketball and the NBA, and he has been for a few years now. To many, this means he should win the MVP award every year, whereas I disagree with this. He should only win if he added the most value to his Cleveland Cavaliers team. For example, when he played for them in 2010, he guided the team to a record of 61-21 and one of the favourites to win the title. He then went to Miami in the infamous debacle of a move that teamed himself up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Cleveland the next year had a record of 19-63. A difference of 42 wins. That is what an MVP award should be about, adding value to your team.

In the NBA in particular, there are some players who add immense value to their teams and yet clearly aren’t the best players in the league. For example, last year Russell Westbrook won the award because he averaged a triple-double for the season, an achievement only ever done by one other man, Oscar Robertson. He also helped his team win a lot more games compared to if he wasn’t there. He was not the best player in the league, and yet he deserved to win the award because of his overall value to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The same argument can be used for James Harden, who was Westbrook’s nearest challenger for the award. He is not better than Lebron, and yet added incredible value to his Houston Rockets team.

Now, if these Lebron fans argued that he adds the most value to his team, then that makes more sense, and it is hard to argue with. But the idea that the best player should win it every year is flawed. Some players may have better seasons which propels them into the conversation, or the best player in the league may have a down year. If we always stuck to the best player winning the MVP award then Tom Brady would win the NFL award every year, Mike Trout would win the MLB (baseball) version, and someone like Alex Ovechkin, or Sidney Crosby would win the NHL one every single time. To me, this is just wrong because there are other things to take into account as mentioned above. (I should mention that the only exception to my viewpoint here is Wayne Gretzky, he won the MVP most years, and was clearly the best player. But his numbers were so high you couldn’t give it to anyone else. Also if you get the chance read his book about the history of ice hockey, it is called 99: Stories of the Game and it is fascinating).

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Additionally, some sports have such incredible weighting on position that one certain ones can win the award. In American Football, if you don’t have a good Quarterback, you don’t win, plain and simple. Compared to any other position, they have the most influence of the game, because they have the ball in their hands the most. Therefore, the QB position is the most valuable on the roster even before any ball is thrown or kicked. The same can be said for a point guard in the NBA nowadays. And yet even valuable QB’s don’t get recognition occasionally. Jonathan Jones of Sports Illustrated made a few excellent points in this regard. To paraphrase Jones, he talks about Russell Wilson having a bad offensive line, and not great receivers, but Seattle wins in the playoffs, and have won a Super Bowl because of Wilson. His value to that team is clear as day to see, and yet he has never had a single MVP vote. People’s perception of his value is not very high when it should be. In fact the whole ‘perception of value’ idea is an incredibly important one to acknowledge.

Related: Is Tradition in Sport A Good Thing?

Perception of Value

The MVP award at the end of the day is all about different people’s perception of what is valuable on the field, court, rink, diamond, etc. And this is a problem because it differs to everyone. So, what I would do is change the name of the award which would help avoid confusion and would help clarify what the award is actually rewarding. Jones, focuses on the NFL award saying it should be renamed the Peyton Manning Player of the Year award as he won the MVP award five times. I would one step further and say every MVP award across all American sports should just be called ‘NFL Player of the Year’, or ‘NBA Player of the Year’. I think one reason why the award stays, is that it is an acronym and sports fans love acronyms. It also gives the crowd something nice and easy to chant when Lebron, or Kevin Durant goes to the foul line for free throws. I wish we would rename the things though, because it would deter all kinds of heated debates and arguments. Instead we would just be looking at who we think has been the best player in the league for that year, and who has added the most value to their team. I am not saying that wouldn’t create discussions either, because they undoubtedly would, but it would help avoid all this unnecessary confusion. On the whole I think the award is here to stay which is good, it just needs a tweak of its name.

Let me know what you think about this blog post and whether you agree or disagree. Also if you would like to read Jonathan Jones article on Sports Illustrated you can here.

Thanks for reading.