What's stopping every susperstar from winning MVP

 

The most valuable player award also known as the NBA MVP award is one of the most honoring awards in sports and given to only the best of the best and the players that shine that little bit brighter than everyone else. Year in and year out there is a ton of hype surrounding who will win MVP..so much so that fans try and guess who the award will be given to months before the NBAs arrival. Numerous factors go into the MVP award such as team success, narrative, individual play etc. But what is holding each superstar back from getting the privilege to be the 2021 MVP? Let's find out...

Giannis Antetokounmpo: Over the past 2 season Giannis has presented himself in a manner that proves he should now be held to susperstar status. He accomplished this by averaging statical numbers of over 28 points and 13 rebounds and leading his team to the best record in the NBA for the last 2 seasons now. Because of this Giannis was awarded the privilege to hold up both the 2019 and 2020 Kia NBA MVP award. 

However that could also affect his case this year....Giannis has now been awarded with the last 2 MVP awards and the voters tend to suffer from what we refer to as "voter fatigue" meaning the voters like to switch it up and not give it to the same player to many years in a row. This has prevented players like Jordan and LeBron from adding more MVPs to their total. Winning 2 straight MVPs is already rare but 3 straight MVPs is almost unheard of in the NBAs history. In fact only 3 players in the NBAs history have ever won 3 straight MVPs. And this feet hasn't been accomplished since Larry Bird did it almost 40 years back. 

I would say voter fatigue shouldn't be a factor when it comes to MVP voting but unfortunately it is and voters tend to switch it up every year.

Steph Curry: With the absence of Klay Thompson and the separation with Kevin Durant we all knew Curry would thrive this season statistically. However that also means Steph Curry wont be on such a winning team anymore. Winning plays a very big role in NBA MVP voting. Voters appear to favour the guy that is leading him team to great success. Curry might be able to lead the Warriors to a top 5 seed however since 1985 there has only been 2 seasons in which a player was awarded to an MVP award and didn't lead his team to a top 2 seed in their conference. Those 2 seasons are 2017 Westbrook and 1988 Michael Jordan. But Westbrook in 2017 averaged a 30 point triple double which made a great narrative and Jordan in 1988 was still a top 3 seed in the east. So based on the last 35 seasons the chances of a player winning an MVP and not leading his team to a top 2 seed in his conference is around 5.5%.

Curry could definitely propel this warriors team to a playoff spot but i can't see him leading the warriors to a better seed than the LeBron led Lakers or the Clippers or maybe even other teams in the west like Utah and Denver.

Kawhi Leonard: By the time the season ends Kawhi will probably average 26 points 7 rebounds on good efficiency while leading the Clippers to one of the best records in the NBA which is without a doubt MVP worthy. But Kawhi has never been the flashy type of player which not only means voters don't favour him as much but it also means that year in and year out the narrative and hype for Kawhi wining an MVP is never there.

Kevin Durant: Durant winning MVP the season after returning from his achilles is something that would talked about for the rest of history. However now that Durant is playing on a superteam with James Harden and Kyrie Irving i don't see this happening. As seen in past years playing with so many individual stars hurts your MVP case.

For example, in 2016 Steph Curry was the first ever unanimous MVP. Although the moment he joined forces with Durant nobody considered him an MVP threat anymore. From 2017-19 KD and Curry were top 3 players in the world but were never in serious MVP talks. Even with Kobe and Shaq as well. After Kobe became a star in 2001 Kobe and Shaq combined only had 34 total first place votes for the rest of their time together. Even if you wan't to look at the last 20 mvps i don't believe any of them played on a superteam because you tend to get less votes when playing which such individual great players...even more so if those great players are as talented as James and Kyrie Irving. You can even look back at every MVP of the last 2 decades and none of them played with another superstar (top 7 player in the NBA)

LeBron and Anthony Davis: If i had to point out the biggest thing stopping these 2 from winning MVP it would be that they really have no good narrative this year and the hype surrounding these two for MVP is non existent. Narratives have proven to be a huge part of who wins the MVP award. My biggest examples would probably be Westbrook in 2017 and LeBrons case in 2020. Just last year in 2020 Ramona Shelburne proved this claim to be correct.

 Last year on live TV Ramona Shelburne said: "I did not vote {Giannis Antetokounmpo} for MVP i voted for LeBron James I tend to be more of a narrative based voter."

By this claim we can get a small glimpse of how much hype and narratives can go into an MVP choice.  But this year i don't believe either of them have a strong narrative and theres no hype behind these to to win MVP. LeBron and AD are both gonna have great statistically years and probably be first in the Western Conference but the lack of a good narrative just might hurt their MVP chances.