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If Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year criteria were clearly defined, there would be a lot less debate about who should win them. If voting were delayed until after the first round of the playoffs, the logical choice for both awards would be even more clear.
Which is why the league wouldn't dream of doing either. Debate is the life blood of sport. Accurately recognizing excellence is all well and good, but it's not nearly as enthralling -- or mainstream-market tapping -- as having people argue vehemently over someone being cheated or unfairly feted.
Which is also why this has been a halcyon year for the league. There's as much uncertainty about every individual award winner as there is about who will claim the big prize, i.e., Larry O'Brien's bauble, which could wind up in L.A. or San Antonio again as easily as it could in Sacramento. But then the astrological charts and palm readers are, from what I hear, in a yet-to-be-renovated corner of Page 2. (Take a left once you pass Charley's stack of CBA playbooks, a right after Ralph's busted Ohio Players' 8-tracks, tap twice on the steampipe and wait. Someone will be along eventually to take you the rest of the way.) I'm just here to tell you who I voted for and why, along with a few categories the league doesn't acknowledge.
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MVP: Kevin Garnett, Timberwolves. Since it's never been determined if MVP is really MEP (Most Excellent Player) or MVPOAWT (Most Valuable Player on a Winning Team) or MVPOTBT (Most Valuable Player on the Best Team) or MIP (Most Indispensable Player, meaning the guy whose team would simply cease to exist without him), I selected a MVIEPOAWT (Most Valuable, Indispensable, Excellent Player on a Winning Team) whose season has had the added magical quality of being a cut above anything he's done before. The Spurs' Tim Duncan fits the bill, but he's like Shaquille O'Neal in that he could win every year and I wouldn't protest. It's enough, for now, that he got the award over a more-deserving Jason Kidd last season.
Coach of the Year: Flip Saunders, Timberwolves. No team is better prepared, no coach is more creative. Who else would play KG up top in a zone? Despite losing point guards Chauncey Billups (free agency) and Terrell Brandon (injury), Flip has the T-Wolves on track for another 50-win season. I'm not down on Minnesota for not getting out of the first round; I'm impressed that despite losing key personnel every year, they still make it back there and put up a good fight. Other worthy candidates: Mo Cheeks, Blazers; Rick Carlisle, Pistons; Frank Johnson, Suns.
Rookie of the Year: Yao Ming, Rockets. If it's close or anyone other than Yao and Amare Stoudemire get a vote, someone's either only looking at stats or repaying a favor. Stoudemire is extraordinary for a high school player and is the year's most athletic rookie, but this isn't the MSROY (Most Surprising Rookie of the Year) award. The Suns don't (yet) run their offense through Amare the way the Rockets do with Yao. Opponents offensively and defensively don't make special plans to counteract him the way they do Yao, either. Kings center Vlade Divac: "To me, Rookie of the Year has to change the way his team plays. Stoudemire is a role player. Yao is a key player."
Most Improved: Troy Murphy, Warriors. Another award that would be less debatable if more clearly defined. In my mind, it's not about the player who finally got his chance and showed what he could do (Gilbert Arenas, Billups), or the guy whose numbers doubled because he got more playing time (Ricky Davis). Murphy is one of six players in the league averaging a double-double, something he couldn't have done last season had he played 48 minutes a night. True, those numbers are inflated by the fact that the Warriors play a high-volume, stat-producing style, but if this award is to recognize someone who added the most to their game since last season, he's done so this season averaging a modest 32 minutes after carving himself into a legit NBA power forward -- hour by weight-lifting hour, session by shooting session, drill by exhaustive footwork drill -- over the summer. Truth is, if this weren't regarded as a secondary player's award, Stephon Marbury or Chris Webber would deserve consideration.
Defensive Player: Ben Wallace, Pistons. Yeah, repeat winners are boring, but there's simply no one else who makes the impact he does. Sets tone, work ethic.
Sixth Man: Corliss Williamson, Pistons. Yeah, repeat winners from the same team are really boring, but change for change's sake doesn't cut it. The Kings' Bobby Jackson played best filling in for Mike Bibby as a starter and Earl Boykins for the Warriors misses out because I have a hard time giving two awards to a non-playoff team. Rant about that logic all you want.
The Saddam-Osama Faceoff Award (for the altercation that leaves every basketball fan in the world feeling like Switzerland): The tiff between Ron Artest and Ricky Davis.
|  | | Mark Cuban, left, and Don Nelson, right, didn't see eye to eye on a new deal. |
The Get It While The Getting's Good Award: Mavs GM/coach Don Nelson making a back-channel push to get his contract extended in the midst of the team's early-season invincibility. Nelly is looking awfully smart for making his push then; but if Dallas gets bounced in the first round, owner Mark Cuban looks even smarter for not bowing to the pressure.
The Olden Award (for the player who makes the most ill-advised career move; it's named after Olden Polynice for opting out of his deal with the Jazz and then being hung out to dry on the free-agent market): Antoine Rigadeau, Mavs. Not only did he come to a Dallas team that neither played his style nor had room for him in the backcourt, thereby discounting an illustrious career in Europe, but he's French, which, in the current political climate, deprives him of whatever sympathy card he might have had.
The Milli Vanilli Award (biggest impostors): Los Angeles Clippers.
The Ewing Award (for the most ill-advised and unrealized guarantee): Lon Kruger, Hawks. The former Atlanta head coach deserves it for promising a rebate if the Hawks didn't make the playoffs.
The Dog-Ate-My-Game-Socks Award: Danny Fortson, Warriors. Missed three games on three separate occasions because of the flu, not to mention three games due to personal reasons, four games due to injury and four games because of a death in the family. Along with 42 DNP-CDs and counting.
Ric Bucher covers the NBA for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ric.bucher@espnmag.com. Also, send a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.
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