Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson loves nothing more than to offer his expertise and analysis on Twitter.
This week, Johnson weighed in on something of a touchy subject: who deserves to win the NBA MVP award.
As far as Johnson is concerned, there are 14 legitimate contenders for the honor.
He broke them up into tiers.
“The Tier One MVP candidates are LeBron James, Steph Curry, Joel Embiid, [Kevin Durant], Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Dončić, Nikola Jokić, and Kawhi Leonard,” he wrote.
Johnson didn’t stop there, though.
“Tier Two MVP candidates are Jaylen Brown, Damian Lillard, [Anthony Davis], Paul George, Jayson Tatum, and Bradley Beal,” he continued.
As is usually the case when Johnson offers his thoughts, there was some pretty solid logic in some of his picks coupled with head-scratching absurdity when it came to others.
Obviously James deserves serious consideration for MVP, despite being one of the 10 slowest players in the NBA. He is averaging 25.6 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 8.0 assists per outing in the process of leading LA to the second-best record in the Western Conference.
Similarly, Curry is averaging 29.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per outing and has the Golden State Warriors in the playoff hunt despite being absolutely ravaged by injuries.
Yikes. Not great. https://t.co/TbKcmHXfyt
— Game 7 (@game7__) February 9, 2021
Jokic is also in the midst of a historic campaign, averaging a career-high 27.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game while being arguably the only good player on the Denver Nuggets’ whole roster.
Those selections make sense.
Other picks are a little less sensible.
Steph got him. https://t.co/VSNzkice2R
— Game 7 (@game7__) February 9, 2021
Beal, for example, is having an exceptional individual campaign, but there’s no way he could be an MVP with the Washington Wizards boasting one of the league’s worst records. Maybe if he gets traded to one of the two teams who desperately want to trade for him, but not before then.
Along the same lines, Davis’ Lakers are having a great year – but he is having one of his worst individual seasons in years. Draymond Green literally just called him out for being out of shape because of how off he’s been. How could he possibly be a contender for MVP?
There’s obviously still a long ways to go this season, so the MVP picture will likely shift dramatically in the coming weeks and months.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
