First off, I wouldn’t have argued very loudly had LeBron James won the NBA Finals MVP, but it wasn’t a travesty that Andre Iguodala took home the trophy.
This isn’t to downplay Lebron’s insane, unbelievable series, I don’t think I could do that if I wanted to, but this is aimed at the fans that think Iguodola didn’t deserve the Finals MVP by a longshot.
Winning is the Overriding Factor
There’s a premium on winning in the NBA for dozens of reasons and not a lot of incentive to lose (unless you’re tanking to get a better chance in the NBA Draft).
As with the regular season MVP award, “Most Valuable” is up to many interpretations, but when it comes down to it, winning is the most influential factor that plays into those votes, and rightly so.
Still, we also have fans arguing about how one player’s individual stats are enough. That’s all good, but averaging 25 points on a losing team severely diminishes your chances when it comes down to awards season. One of the more common arguments we hear most starts with a player’s perceived or imaginary importance to the team:
Well if Lebron wasn’t on the Cavs, they wouldn’t ______ …. or without Steph Curry, the Warriors still win 40 games
So we’re giving out awards based on things that didn’t happen? How about we give awards based on events that did happen on Earth? The goal of both teams in the NBA Finals is take home the championship trophy, and the player that impacts the winning team’s chances most usually takes home the Finals MVP.
I don’t know what happens in an alternate universe, but what I do know is that Iguodola changed the series for the Warriors in game four.
“He saved the season for us.” said Draymond Green
Despite LeBron’s record numbers, Iguodola deserved a lot of credit for slowing him down (LeBron shot less than 40% from the field). On the other side of the ball, Iggy created for his teammates and made the Cavs pay for leaving him open. Iguodola also hit big shots, came up with big rebounds and critical steals.
There’s a reason that seven of the eleven media members chosen to vote for the Finals MVP did so for Iguodola.
To help some of you that are caught up on LeBron, I’ll use this analogy: Iguodola was the Warrior’s Lebron James averaging 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4 assists and shooting 52.1 percent from the field.
Iggy may not have set records but it;s no stretch to call him the MVP for the Warriors in this series, a series that Golden State won.
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