Tristan Thompson doesn’t care who wins the NBA’s MVP award, because he knows it won’t be LeBron James, who, in his eyes, is the real MVP (sorry).
As he said after the Cleveland Cavaliers’ series sweep of the Indiana Pacers on Sunday, per The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd:
Tristan on LeBron: "He should be the MVP, but I heard your guys’ votes are in already. So damn. That sucks. He’s the MVP. Best player."
— Jason Lloyd (@JasonLloydNBA) April 23, 2017
If the Cavaliers defended better during the regular season, or even closed the 82-game schedule on a higher note, he’d have a legitimate case to win the award. And he still does, to be sure. But recency bias coupled with LeBron fatigue—he’s won four times already—will drive down the number of first- and second-place votes he’ll receive. The performances of Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Kawhi Leonard will drive them down further still.
But we shouldn’t have any qualms about Thompson calling James the NBA’s best player. Because he’s right. There will be years in which a player or two has the better individual campaign, but James is more indispensable to a reigning NBA champion than any other player is to their team.
All these years later, that says something about one of the greatest players to ever grace the hardwood. It also says something about Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, and their ability to be alphas on a playoff team without LeBron, but that’s a discussion for another day.
