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Here's one early vote for Kidd as NBA's MVP Harvey Araton, New York Times |
Sunday, April 7, 2002
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East Rutherford, N.J. -- The New Jersey Nets proved Wednesday night that they must focus on seeing the light of May before projecting themselves into the month of June. But already deep in the race with a couple of Lakers and assorted others, and probably the sentimental favorite as they near the finish, is Jason Kidd for the NBA's Most Valuable Player. "The last five years, I don't know what you guys look for," said Shaquille O'Neal, the winner in 1999-2000, in referring to the media who votes for the award. "Stats, guys who are nice to the media. . ." As a one-time voting "you guy," my criteria included the capability of a leading man to make it delightfully obvious that basketball is more about players than it is about coaches. Returning to the professional arena Wednesday sensorially overloaded after a month of direct and television exposure to sanctimonious campus preachers, I was reminded that what Kidd has accomplished this season in that regard practically qualifies as a public service. "We as coaches listen to and follow him," said Eddie Jordan, Byron Scott's assistant coach. "There are times he tells us what to do, what we should be looking for. Like he makes all the other players better, he makes us better coaches." After Bryant made everyone dizzy with awe and brought the Lakers back from a 15-point halftime deficit to a six-point fourth-quarter lead, Kidd did what MVP's do to win. He took Bryant on and forced a crucial turnover and also made the winning basket, a 12-footer in the lane, after the offense broke down in a heap with the shot clock ticking away. As Kidd said, "there are a lot of definitions of MVP," further complicated by position. Last season, a little man, Allen Iverson, was rewarded for his prodigious scoring, and chucking. Gone are the days when the voters simply wrote in the name Michael Jeffrey Jordan, and not the 39-year-old version who Wednesday shut down a comeback season that was fun while it went well and damaged nothing but his knee. Anyone starting a team, of course, would first want O'Neal, who is averaging 26.7 points a game while Kidd scores a pedestrian 14.9. O'Neal shoots a striking 57.6 percent from the field while Kidd weighs in at a frosty 38.5. In a hypothetical draft, Bryant, Tracy McGrady and Dirk Nowitzki, to name three, would all be selected ahead of Kidd. In terms of candidates who don't benefit from playing with a companion star, Tim Duncan carries San Antonio, but Duncan's Spurs have been a Western Conference power, while these Nets had no paradigm for winning until Kidd connected those previously fragile of body or mind with a powerful source of energy and belief. As Bryant said: "Look what he did for Phoenix and look where Phoenix is now. " Out of the playoffs, while the Nets are likely to double their victory total from last season's 26. "Jason's got eight triple-doubles," said O'Neal, up on his inside Kidd stuff. "That hasn't been done in a long time, so I guess he's the main candidate." Here is another set of statistics weighing heavily for Kidd: O'Neal, at 7 feet 1, has 444 defensive rebounds in 61 games, roughly seven a game in a season hampered by nagging injuries like the sprained wrist that sidelined him Wednesday night. Kidd, at 6-4, has 424 in 75 games, or almost six a game, guaranteeing a fast break with the ball in the most capable of hands. "That's just about heart and will," Eddie Jordan said. "All year, his teammates have seen him willing to give so much. Rebounding and on defense, where he'll always help but get back to his man. That's contagious." Shaq and Kobe are two-time champions, the stuff of legend, and the playoffs are another level. The Lakers sagged on defense in the second half and the Nets' offense turned sideways, until Kidd bailed them out as he has from November through this first week of April, which is when the MVP is won. All things considered, and most of all the woeful environment he drastically changed, Kidd has made the greatest impact of any player while making it impossible to turn away when he has had the ball. "Jason Kidd is the definition of a great player," O'Neal decided. For this season, and maybe just this one season when he has seemingly awakened the dead, he is how we should define MVP. |
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