Being crowned as the Most Valuable Player of the NBA would surely boost a player's confidence especially if the selection processes for spotting the winner rests on NBA players themselves. Record shows that since 1981 the NBA's official season-ending awards were based on the votes gathered from the panel of media members selected by the national league. And this year NBPA, which stands for National Basketball Player's Association, named James Harden as the first NBPA's Most Valuable Player during their first ever annual Players Awards.
To note, it has been long emphasized by NBA players that the way fans and media evaluate team and individual performance of every players differ from how they see the game and their fellow players on it. It can be remembered that last All-Star Weekend, Kevin Durant shared his sentiments on the said process saying on an interview that;
"Yeah, I think media and guys get too much power to vote on stuff that, quite frankly, I don't think you really know a lot about [or] as much as we know about it," Durant said. "So, yeah, we play against these guys every single night. We battle against these guys. We know what they say on the court. We know how they handle their teammates. We know how they approach the game. And our vote should count. Our opinions should count. Like I said, I don't think you guys know as much as we do, and I don't see why you have more power than we do."
His statement was vindicated when this year his fellow NBA player James Harden won the title of the MVP coming from their votes and not from the media. James finished ahead on the NBPA's list, outranking Stephen Curry who was the NBA's official regular-season Most Valuable Player. On the official NBA MVP result, Curry took 100 of the 130 first-place media votes, with Harden second with 25 first-place votes. The momentous event somehow echoes the words of Chris Paul saying "when you really think about it, who really knows us players better than our players."
However the MVP award of Harden should not be confused with official NBA award given to Stephen Curry this season. This does not relinquish or diminish the title won by Curry through NBA's traditional selection process. In retrospect, both have shown the marks and character of a champion in their own unique way way all throughout their career, thus both players deserve the awards and respect.
