The News
As I’m sitting in the More Than a Fan Studio thinking about the NBA Playoffs that I’m about to biased-ly observe, news is breaking about Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight being found alive in Cleveland, Ohio. (The link is a twitter search so whenever you click, it will be the latest news and thoughts) Before today, Amanda was last seen in 2003, Gina in 2004, and Michelle in 2000. I am so incredibly happy and relieved for those girls and those families. Amazing.
Mental Toughness and the NBA Playoffs
It seems NBA fans get caught up in perpetual arguments; what is the definition of MVP, who is the greatest player of all time, and do championships mean more than talent and numbers when ranking legacies. Those are the easiest debates.
If you smoosh all of those debates together, you end up having the mental toughness discussion. Teams and players that might not have the most talent, or be flashiest, but that manage to regularly overachieve under the brightest of lights; the NBA Playoffs.
The cream of the crop is easy to define; Michael Jordan led a team of world class talent by the force of his will, Kobe Bryant won championships with fierce determination and preeminent big men, and Red Auerbach and Bill Russell got together in the 60s and decided they just weren’t going to lose. So many great players have won championships that listing them all would be ridiculous, but those three players define the values of mental toughness, physical dominance, and most valuable players more than any other players in the NBA.
Unless you’re one of those transcendant three players – soon to be transcendant four players, once LeBron James cements a couple of more championships – winning in the playoffs is rarely about being the most talented team. And as the Chicago Bulls proved in their Game 1 upset of the Miami Heat Monday night, toughness and determination can even get you somewhere when you’re playing the most talented team.
The Memphis Grizzlies beat the LA Clippers, the Indiana Pacers beat the Atlanta Hawks, and the Chicago Bulls beat the Brooklyn Nets. Those series pitted great players against each other, but make no mistake that effort and guts have ruled the NBA Playoffs so far.
The Miami Heat are the most talented team, the San Antonio Spurs are the most seasoned team, the Oklahoma City Thunder are the hard luck favorite after Russell Westbrook tore his meniscus, and the Indiana Pacers could be the defense first party crasher. Whatever these NBA Playoffs bring, we’re either going to see the emergence of a G.O.A.T. or fortitude, experience, and guts spoil the party.
All that talent on the rosters of the teams that lost in the first round didn’t mean a thing without that extra something.
LeBron James’ Not Unanimous MVP
LeBron was one vote shy of being the unanimous MVP of the NBA. Boston Globe writer Gary Washburn voted for Carmelo Anthony. I think he’s wrong. I also don’t think he should get his vote taken away, nor do I care at all about any player being the unanimous MVP. Hell, the Baseball Writers Association of America refuse to vote together to allow any MLB legend to be a unanimous, first ballot Hall of Famer. THAT’S stupid, and I’ll never believe that one guy’s NBA season is more valuable than another guy’s entire body of work when it comes to deciding which vote would mean more to be unanimous.
LeBron is the MVP, and he deserves the honor. Truly. But I wouldn’t have been surprised at all to see a couple of votes go to Kevin Durant, so even though Carmelo Anthony isn’t the guy I thought would grab a few votes – he doesn’t deserve the one that he got – I’m not surprised at all at the news of some ballot dissension.
Also, I question anyone who gets really worked up about this. It’s a non-story. A sports writer had an opinion that lots of people disagreed with. That’s sort of the nature of opinions.
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