The NBA announced the top three vote-getters for its individual awards on Friday. The list for Most Valuable Player was Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, Houston's James Harden and San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard.
The NBA shouters on television responded with the traditional yelp: "LeBron James is the best player in the world. He is the MVP every year!"
James has four MVP awards (2009, '10, '12, '13) and it was the first time since 2008 he wasn't among the top three.
The fact the list came out with the Cavs steamrolling through the Eastern Conference playoffs and LeBron playing in marvelous fashion gave extra volume to the shouts.
We get this in every sport: MVP information is announced with the playoffs fresh in mind, and there's a clamor that postseason stardom proved such-and-such was the "real MVP."
Wrong. These are regular-season awards. The votes must be in before the first playoff game.
Once again in 2016-17, LeBron was not the MVP of the regular season. He was fourth in the voting; I would have had him fifth, behind Westbrook, Harden, Leonard and Boston's Isaiah Thomas.
The over-and-under on team wins in the sports books before the season had Cleveland at 56.5. LeBron and the Cavaliers put it in neutral for several weeks and finished at 51-31, and two games behind Boston in the East.
