How Do You Say "Let Down" In German?

USA Today is reporting that the inevitable, Dirk Nowitzki winning the NBA MVP Award, has come true. Heading into the postseason I was fine with this happening. Now, um, not-so-much. You may or may not have seen the little Boom Dizzle fueled engine that could steam out of Oaktown and plow through Dallas last week, but in case you missed it, the Mavs are donecakes. So how the hell are we supposed to give the MVP to a guy who's team can't even win in the first round as a number one seed? Yes, Golden State was a highly touted eight seed that no one gave enough love to, but then again so were the Nuggets, and Timmy! and crew didn't give them a second thought after that first L.

Isn't this the same argument used against Kobe and LeBron for not winning the award? That their teams didn’t do well enough in the regular season to warrant them being given the Most Valuable Player award? Kobe might be gone, but Bron is looking more and more like he could be taking the Cavs to the Finals this year—despite the pesky presence of a Detroit team that looked close to unstoppable in the second half.



And I’m not jumping on the Bill Simmons’ anti-Dirk bandwagon here. But I’m not knocking it either. I just don’t see why this award has to be given to during the playoffs and based entirely on what is done in the regular season; why can’t the playoffs become an increasingly important aspect of voting for the MVP? If the Cavs somehow make the Finals (yes the East is much, much, much worse) and win, or even make it close against the Jazz, er, Spurs or Suns, why shouldn't he be getting the award? Oh right, because he supposedly coasted for half the season...which would explain what exactly? The huge hot stretch of games the Cavs went on in the second half, or the fact that maybe the King was smart enough to save some energy for the postseason?

There can still be a postseason MOP, a Finals MVP, hell, we can establish a first round MVP for all I care, but lets at least let the MOST VALUABLE PLAYER award be affected by the most important time of the year, when the players that are MOST VALUABLE to their teams really shine.