Lebron James made it perfectly clear that he was less than happy with the share of MVP votes he received and of course it made headlines across the sporting world. However the overwhelming majority of sports outlets are lazy and /or don’t let facts get in the way of a good story, ceased their “reporting” of his statement at that point. If they did, they would have found that Lebron made several salient and ironic points.
Lebron discussed the 2013 DPOY award/vote, something thar seems to still be a sore spot, that was awarded to Marc Gasol. James , rightfully so, questions how Gasol could win the award but only be on the second team for All-defence. His comparioson of this occurrence to a player winning league MVP and yet only making All-NBA second team is quite apt and speaks to the inconsistency of voting.
Speaking of inconsistency in award voting, Lebron said the criteria for what constitutes an MVP has changed since he came into the league. To his credit again he is on point, as the voters seem to oscillate between selecting the best player on the best team and the player who had the best season. The voters themselves are not inconsistent from season to season and as such there is not a standard for what constitutes MVP criteria. Basketball Examined from YouTube has done several breakdowns of the blatant inconsistencies that pervade NBA award voting.
Lebron correctly, albeit, ironically brought up narratives that can taint voting and awards. As sports coverage has become less about presenting the facts objectively and more agenda based, this has become a real problem. This is because these yarns that are spun are then disseminated to the sports fan populace and accepted as if they were fact. In essense these sports media companies can shape the mindset of sports fans in the way they see fit, facts be damned. Lebron James, more than any player in this era of the NBA has been the beneficiary of these narratives that have been pushed. Whether it has been the incessant movement to crown him as the best player ever, the castigation of the teammates in losses, while he enjoys the near monopoly of accolades when his teams are victorious, the overlooking of the numerous times he has quit on his team, just to name a few.
