Basketball Is both ends: In Defence of Lebron for MVP
As the season draws to a close, the field of contenders for the MVP award has narrowed to two: Lebron James and Kevin Durant.
Both are playing incredibly well for elite teams and are major offensive forces in their respective squads. Both are putting up comparable numbers: Durant is scoring slightly more, James shoots a higher percentage and gets more assists, they average around 8 rebounds each. Kevin uses his incredible wingspan to extend above a defender and drain a long jumpshot; Lebron will muscle closer to the hoop to get his points, but the effect is the same: the ball will drop through the net and both will run back on defence.
And it’s there where the difference between them comes to light.
Durant has become a serviceable defender, but Lebron is a monster. James is a terrifying combination of defensive attributes; a cocktail of speed, agility, strength and instinct unsurpassed in the NBA. He’s versatile, one night he’ll guard Derrick Rose, the next Pau Gasol. He can defend all five positions (though not at the same time), with the speed to stop Rose getting into the lane and the strength to bump Gasol away from the basket. Lebron will help down inside, knowing he’s quick enough to recover to his man. His strength allows him to hammer through screens (and punish opponents for screening him) and bump players off of drives.
And the blocks? Oh lordy, the blocks! Durant admittedly rejects more shots than Lebron does, but every Heat opponent knows there’s no such thing as an easy fastbreak layup. A shot that looks like an easy two ends up in a fan’s hands as James hustles back to extinguish it.
Again, this is taking nothing away from Durant’s defence, which has gone from weak to solid over his career. He’s a little light to lean on opposing forwards but his reach makes him pesky. However, the gap between his defence and Lebron’s is vast.
Will this disparity matter when the MVP votes roll in? Defence is somewhat of a dark art, being harder to quantify than offence. But if voters consider Durant and James roughly equal offensively, then they should look to Lebron’s excellence at the other end. There, he’s the clear winner.
