The NBA has deliberately never published a specific set of criteria for selecting the regular season Most Valuable Player award. The league long ago determined that the controversy and conversation that almost annually surrounds the selection process is good for business. A few unwritten rules have gained general acceptance, most notably that the MVP should participate in the vast majority of the season's games, and that the MVP's team should finish in the top four in its conference.
If one accepts the notion that the NBA's MVP should participate in at least 85% of the regular season games (70 games in an 82 game season, or 61 games in the 72 game season that the NBA is using in 2020-21), then LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Kawhi Leonard, and James Harden are among the players who are disqualified from consideration for this year's MVP. Two-time reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has played in 48 of Milwaukee's 57 games, needs to play in 13 of his team's 15 remaining games to not fall below the 85% participation threshold.
Nikola Jokic (26.4 ppg, 11.1 rpg, 8.1 apg, .569 FG%) has performed so well while playing in all 57 games for the fourth seeded Denver Nuggets that he might be the top candidate even if most of the other top candidates had not disqualified themselves by missing so many games. All factors considered and weighted appropriately, Antetokounmpo (28.5 ppg, 11.2 rpg, 6.0 apg, .564 FG% for the third seeded Milwaukee Bucks) is the only player this season who is competing with Jokic for the MVP award.
The NBA first selected an MVP after the 1956 season. The only NBA regular season MVP who did not participate in at least 85% of his team's games (including the 2020, 2012, and 1999 seasons that did not last the full 82 games, and the 1956-67 seasons when the NBA schedule gradually increased from 72 to 81 games) was Bill Walton, who played in 58 out of 82 games in 1977-78. Walton led Portland to the 1977 NBA title, and the 1978 Trail Blazers went 48-10 with Walton compared to 10-14 without him. Walton was so dominant during the 1976-78 period that the voters rewarded him for his impact on his team and the league despite how many games he missed during his MVP campaign.
Another unwritten rule for MVP voting is that the winner's team should rank among the top four teams in his conference. In 1982, Moses Malone won the regular season MVP while playing for a Houston squad that finished 46-36, tied for fifth-sixth place in the Western Conference. Malone had carried the Rockets to the NBA Finals in 1981, and he had previously won the MVP for the 47-35 Rockets in 1979. Malone won his third and final MVP in 1983 after teaming up with 1981 MVP Julius Erving to lead the 76ers to a league-best 65-17 record (and the 76ers subsequently set the all-time playoff mark by going 12-1 en route to winning the title). Like Walton a few years earlier, Malone was such a dominant player that in 1982 he overcame the voters' usual reluctance to support players from mediocre teams.
Russell Westbrook, whose 2017 Oklahoma City Thunder finished sixth in the Western Conference, is the only exception to that "rule" since 1982, and Westbrook overcame the "rule" by becoming the only player other than Oscar Robertson to average a triple double for an entire season, a feat that Westbrook accomplished in each of the next two seasons before "slumping" to 27.2 ppg, 7.9 rpg, and 7.0 apg last season (during which he adjusted to playing for a new team while also suffering various injuries and overcoming a bout with COVID-19).
This season, Westbrook is averaging 21.8 ppg, 10.9 apg, and 10.9 rpg. He is on the verge of averaging a triple double for the fourth season in a five season span. Robertson averaged an aggregate triple double over a five season span, but he had just one season in which he averaged a triple double. No other player has come close to averaging a triple double for a season. Triple doubles are often used as a benchmark to praise the versatility of players ranging from LeBron James to Nikola Jokic, but somehow Westbrook--whose 172 career triple doubles are just nine short of Robertson's record of 181--is now ignored when the subject of the league's best all-around player is discussed. Westbrook did not make the All-Star team this season (snapping a streak of six straight selections), and it seems unlikely that he will receive much consideration for the All-NBA Team or the MVP. Westbrook's Washington Wizards, who have endured a staggering number of injuries and games missed due to health/safety protocols, are currently tied for 10th place in the Eastern Conference; the seventh through 10th place teams will participate in play-in games to determine the seventh and eighth playoff seeds. The Wizards have a losing record, but they have won five games in a row and seven of their last eight. During that eight game span, Westbrook has posted these numbers:
- 23 points, 14 rebounds, 15 assists
- 19 points, 14 rebounds, 14 assists
- 17 points, 11 rebounds, 14 assists
- 25 points, 14 rebounds, 14 assists
- 25 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists
- 36 points, 15 rebounds, 9 assists
- 15 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists
- 13 points, 11 rebounds, 17 assists
Westbrook had a positive plus/minus number in all seven wins, and his plus/minus number in the loss (-21) was less than the margin of defeat (28). In 11 games during April, Westbrook is averaging 21.6 ppg, 13.4 rpg, and 12.1 apg.
Westbrook has participated in 50 out of the Wizards' 57 games, so he is on pace to play in more than 85% of the schedule. The only possible reason that he is not touted as an MVP candidate is the Wizards' record. However, Stephen Curry is receiving endless praise for his recent scoring feats and three point shooting barrage. Curry is without question a great player and a great shooter. He has played in 50 of the Warriors' 58 games, so he is on track to meet the unwritten participation requirement for MVP candidates. Curry's Golden State Warriors are in ninth place in the Western Conference, but their .500 record places them in a virtual tie with the 10th place team that has played two fewer games so far.
In other words, for all of the talk about Curry's value, impact, and "gravity," he is the best player on a .500 team that is fighting to get into the play-in games.
Why is Westbrook's unprecedented all-around dominance not being as highly praised and prominently recognized as Curry's scoring and shooting feats? Westbrook's team is essentially at the same place in the East that Curry's team is in the West. The Wizards have not been a playoff team since 2018, so Westbrook is trying to turn around a losing team with a losing culture; in contrast, the Warriors have two starters (Curry and Draymond Green) from their teams that won three titles while making five straight Finals appearances, plus they have the same coach, and they have two other rotation players (Kevan Looney, Damion Lee) from their 2019 squad that reached the NBA Finals. Kelly Oubre is a proven scorer (18.7 ppg last season prior to joining Golden State), Andrew Wiggins is a former number one overall draft pick with a 19.5 ppg career scoring average, and James Wiseman is the second overall pick in the 2020 draft. The Warriors have more talent than the Wizards, but the popular narrative is that Curry is some kind of miracle worker while Westbrook is supposedly having a disappointing season.
For historical context, it is worth noting that the Warriors have way more talent than the Lakers had when Kobe Bryant carried the Lakers to the sixth best record in the West in 2006. The play-in format did not exist in 2006, but Bryant's Lakers did not need any help to qualify for postseason play. Bryant led the league in scoring (35.4 ppg, the highest scoring average since Michael Jordan averaged 37.1 ppg in 1986-87). The Lakers' second best player in 2006, Lamar Odom, never made an All-Star team, and would not have started for at least six of the other seven Western Conference playoff team that season (the other seven starting forwards for Western Conference playoff teams in 2006 were Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Shawn Marion, Pau Gasol, Elton Brand, Kenyon Martin, and Kenny Thomas/Shareef Abdur-Rahim for the Kings, with the eighth place Kings being the only other West playoff team for which Odom would have started). After Bryant and Odom, the 2006 Lakers who played the most minutes were Smush Parker, Kwame Brown, and Chris Mihm. I am not convinced that Michael Jordan could carry that squad to a playoff berth (and you can forget about Curry or Westbrook doing so); Jordan's sub-.500 1987 Bulls included Charles Oakley, John Paxson, Gene Banks, Dave Corzine, and Earl Cureton in the main rotation, and each of those players had long and solid careers. Bryant is the only 2006 Laker who would have started for the 1987 Bulls, and not many of the 2006 Lakers would have made that squad as backups (Smush Parker is not beating out Sedale Threatt or Steve Colter, to cite just one example).
Bryant finished fourth in the 2006 MVP voting; he received the second most first place votes, but many voters left him entirely off of their ballots (i.e., they did not consider him a top five player that season). Jordan finished second in the 1987 MVP voting; his Chicago Bulls finished 40-42, while 1987 MVP winner Magic Johnson led the L.A. Lakers to a 65-17 record (Johnson later won the Finals MVP after the Lakers captured the NBA title).
It is interesting that Jordan in 1987 and Curry in 2021 are talked about as legitimate MVP candidates, while Bryant in 2006 and Westbrook in 2021 are criticized for their supposed shortcomings as opposed to being praised for leading their teams to at least the same level of success as Jordan and Curry. I agree with the unwritten rule that an MVP candidate must play in the vast majority of his team's games--a player who missed too many games is of limited value no matter how well he played when he was available--but the inconsistent standards regarding outstanding players on mediocre teams is puzzling.
That's the article: MVP Selection Criteria
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