It’s all just narratives. It’s not about who’s the best, it’s about who the voters think deserves to be the “next best player”. Even if Curry or an older player is playing really well, they get no recognition because it’s “not their turn”.
It’s like the league decides “alright which person should we choose next to win it, but even if they’re really good they can’t win it more than twice in a row because after that someone else should get a chance.”
The only guy recently other than LeBron who could have won more than two was Jokic, until the media decided to call the voters racist, making Embiid the frontrunner. Don’t get me wrong, I think Embiid was the superior player when you count his defense, but he shouldn’t have won because of anti-racism. It’s about talent, not race, not who’s turn it is, etc.
And just look at the MVP ladder now. 1st is Jokic, followed by Luka, Embiid, Tatum, and Shai. Now don’t get me wrong, they’re all great players, and I don’t have a big problem with the top 3. But no way am I taking Tatum or Shai over Curry and Giannis or maybe even KD, who aren’t even on the list at all. The next five are Ant, Halliburton, Maxey, Bam, and Sabonis.
Bias aside, would any of you take any of those last 5 over AD, LeBron, Steph, Giannis, or KD? Maybe, but probably not.
But apparently in the NBA, talent shouldn’t be given recognition unless you’re under 30.
The mvp award will always matter if the player I want wins and never will matter when the player I don’t want to win wins. Same with the in season tournament and FMVP and pretty much any award that isn’t the 💍