This isn’t a case of voter fatigue or getting it wrong. Kevin Durant was the Most Valuable Player this season in the NBA and he fully deserves the award.
But he’s not the best player in the game. Let’s not confuse the two distinctions. That honour still belongs to LeBron James, who you can’t even say with confidence is the best player on the planet because he might not even be human. He’s that good.
The MVP award, however, is for the player who had the best season and in the 2013-14 campaign, that was Durant.
The Oklahoma City forward set a career-high with 32 points per game, a career-high with 5.5 assists, set the third-longest streak in league history at 41 consecutive games with 25 points or more, and nearly finished with another 50-40-90 (per cent on field goals, 3-pointers and free throws) season.
All those statistics are more than impressive, but they reach another level of extraordinary when you factor in Durant was used more this year than at any other point in his career.
His 33 per cent usage rate, an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while on the floor, was the highest in the league for anyone who played 50 or more games.
To put it simply, OKC used Durant and they used him a lot. That’s the factor that really pushes his case for MVP past LeBron’s.
It’s not as if James wasn’t relied on heavily either. He played just four fewer games than Durant, averaged similar minutes per game and his 31 per cent usage rate isn’t far behind.
The difference is the Thunder won five more games in a much more competitive Western Conference and Durant often had to go it alone.
Russell Westbrook, the Robin to Durant’s Batman – though the point guard sometimes tries to flip the roles – missed 36 games to injury. After Westbrook went down in the middle of the season and needed another knee surgery, Durant kept the Thunder more than just afloat, he kept them at the top of the league with a 20-7 record in Westbrook’s absence.
James was without his own sidekick – Dwyane Wade – for much of the season as well, but he still had nine-time All-Star Chris Bosh to share the load and the familiarity of the Heat’s system.
As efficient as the four-time MVP was, there were still occasions when he and Miami were clearly pacing themselves for the postseason, but who could blame them? They’ve been to three straight Finals and won the last two.
James knows there’s a bigger prize to play for than the MVP. Durant had more to prove and has essentially been playing isolation-heavy ball night after night against defences that gear their entire scheme towards him.
And it still doesn’t matter. When we look back 10 or 20 years from now, we’ll see Derrick Rose winning the MVP in 2011 and know that the voters got bored voting for LeBron.
A new shiny toy came along and it made voters take James for granted. But that same view can’t be taken this time.
Durant earned his MVP as much as anyone who beats LeBron to the award can. Is Durant the best player in the NBA? No. But he sure played like it.
