As basketball season nears its end, the debate has inevitably begun over who should win the most coveted awards, especially the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, and the controversy always seems to be stronger in the NBA than in other professional sports (baseball, for instance). Beyond the usual questions about the most deserving candidate, there are also differing views regarding the way the award should be defined—simply to the best player overall, or the one who is most valuable to his team? Despite a loaded field, strong campaigns from LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Isaiah Thomas, and James Harden, as well as the inherent subjectivity of the award voting, there should be no dispute this year. Regardless of how one defines the MVP award, Russell Westbrook should be the clear winner.
He’s the most valuable to his team.
With Kevin Durant now a member of the Golden State Warriors and Serge Ibaka having taken his talents north of the border, Westbrook is now the only member of the Oklahoma City Thunder who has ever been named to an All-Star team. Additionally, of the aforementioned candidates, Durant and James have the benefit of playing in star-studded lineups, Davis shares the frontcourt with fellow All-Star DeMarcus Cousins, and even Harden and Thomas have relatively strong supporting casts. Westbrook, meanwhile, is supported by league-average players such as Victor Oladipo, Enes Kanter, and Steven Adams. He is relied upon to shoulder the load on a nightly basis, and at the end of the regular season, leads the team in all four major stat categories (points, assists, rebounds, and steals), an unheard-of achievement at the professional level. If the Cavaliers did not have James, they would still contend for a postseason spot, and Golden State would likely challenge for the championship without Durant. If Oklahoma City did not have Russell Westbrook, they would indisputably be the worst team in the Western Conference.
He’s been the best player in the league this season.
The average modern basketball fan does not know much about Oscar Robertson, but he serves as an important historical point of comparison here, as Westbrook is the only player to average a triple-double (10 or more points, rebounds, and assists) over the course of a full season since Robertson did so over 50 years ago. Westbrook has scored 30 points on an almost-nightly basis and set up his teammates for high-percentage shots at the same time, and as if that weren’t enough, he leads his team in rebounding, going up against forwards and centers who have as much as a seven-inch height advantage. He has obliterated the rest of the field according to ESPN’s PER (Player Efficiency Rating), an advanced statistical rating system that attempts to condense all of a player’s contributions into one number. Additionally, and perhaps most important, he has accomplished all this against double, and sometimes triple teams on most nights due to his subpar supporting cast.
It may seem laudable to reward a player on a championship contender by voting him MVP, and one might argue that James and Davis have performed better on defense this season, but rebounding is also a part of defense and Westbrook leads his team in that area. Russell Westbrook has accomplished something that had not been done since 1961, when the three-point line and shot clock did not exist. Without him, the playoff-bound Oklahoma City Thunder would be headed for a very high pick in the draft and a very low spot in the standings. Westbrook deserves to be recognized in a class of his own as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for 2017.