The NBA Is Finally Announcing Who Won The MVP And The Fact That They Wait So Long Is Beyond Stupid

There are a handful of dumb decisions the NBA continues to make, but one that always made zero sense to me was how long they wait to announce the regular season awards/All NBA teams etc. Everyone's ballots are required to be submitted well before the end of the season, so I'll never really understand the logic behind waiting until the playoffs, and in most cases deep into the playoffs before they announce the winners/teams. Honestly, it's partially what I think plays into people being so stupid when it comes to the discourse around these awards, especially things like MVP. Every single year, we see everyone from fans to talking heads conflate what we see in the postseason with certain guys with what went on in the regular season, which is the exact opposite of what these awards are for!

How many times have you heard

"Player X can't be the MVP, he didn't even reach the Conference Finals!" or "Player X can't be the MVP, look at how much he's struggling in this playoff series!"

It's all so annoying, and really the NBA has nobody to blame but themselves. The NBA season ended on April 13th, it is now May 21st, and finally we're learning who is going to win the NBA's most significant individual award

If the NBA feels like waiting this long somehow adds to the suspense, OK? I don't agree, but if that were the case, then why not announce it AT ANY POINT during the OKC/DEN series? You know, the matchup that had 2 of the 3 MVPs going head to head? Why wouldn't they want those storylines/added wrinkles to the series? Instead, does anyone even really give a shit about it at this point?

Think of what ended up happening. We all saw the whistle/baiting that SGA was awarded with in Game 1 of the WCF. Outside of OKC fans, the discourse around SGA (who is most likely going to win), is about as cooked as it's ever been. Even if you don't agree with that takeaway about his game, the optics sure don't look great around something that isn't even a playoff award, but a regular season one. In the regular season, SGA had a historic season. As did Giannis and Jokic. Why not just announce all this stuff ahead of the playoffs? Why even run the risk of the discourse around the winner and the league being in the gutter because of what fans may see during a playoff run? Maybe I'm just too big of a moron to understand this thought process, but it seems backwards to me.

The NBA doesn't wait until Summer League to announce the Finals MVP ya know? Why not just announce everything in the day or two ahead of the Play In games start?

Now, when it comes to who is going to walk away with this award tonight, I think at this point it would be an overwhelming shock if that player wasn't SGA. Whether or not you believe he should win it, the production combined with the team success and the narrative boost makes it feel like this thing is going to be a blowout. I love following the Award Tracker that @Croesfire puts together, where he tracks every media member's vote, and when it comes to the MVP, things were not all that close 

It's somewhat incomplete, so you take it with a grain of salt, but it gives you a pretty accurate read on how things are trending. You combine this with the final ESPN Straw Poll, which also had SGA way ahead

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and I do find it a little surprising that there is such a gap between SGA and Jokic. But when you factor in voter fatigue, perhaps it shouldn't be all that shocking. In my opinion, there's really no wrong choice between the two, which is what made this year's race so fascinating. When a player like Giannis, who had another 30/10+ season while shooting like 65% from the floor, isn't even close to actually winning it, that tells you just how special the SGA/Jokic regular seasons were. 

I think mostly what it comes down to is people put Jokic into the BITW conversation while suggesting SGA had more of an MVP caliber regular season. Again, I'm sure there are Nuggets fans who would disagree with that, but that does feel like how the narrative shook out this year. Hell, even Jokic's former head coach flipped his tune just last night

after campaigning the exact opposite all year long, before he got fired a few weeks ahead of the playoffs.

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So my money is on SGA walking away with the Michael Jordan Trophy, which means he has a great shot at hitting the Triple Crown of Regular season MVP, an NBA title, and Finals MVP all in the same season. If he were to pull that off, he would join these legends in NBA history:

- Willis Reed

- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

- Moses Malone

- Larry Bird

- Magic Johnson

- Michael Jordan

- Hakeem Olajuwon

- Shaquille O'Neal

- Tim Duncan

- LeBron James

Not a bad list to find yourself on if you ask me.