This season’s MVP race has generally been between three players: Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic and LeBron James.
People have mentioned other names occasionally like Steph Curry and Damian Lillard. And James’ candidacy has started to tail off as the Lakers have sputtered with Anthony Davis out of the lineup in recent weeks.
But those have generally been the names we’ve heard. Until now, anyway. Charles Barkley is throwing another hat in the ring: Chris Paul.
Barkley mentioned Paul’s name in a heated debate on Thursday’s episode of Inside the NBA. At 25-11, the Suns are the second best team in the Western Conference and Paul is arguably their best player.
So, because of how much they’ve improved from year to year, Barkley thinks he should be mentioned along with Embiid and Jokic as an MVP candidate.
Shaq wasn’t buying it, though. He doesn’t think that team success should win a player an MVP award — it’s for individual performance. Of course, that led to another heated debate between Barkley and Shaq about the award.
Barkley said team matters. Shaq doesn’t really think so.
“Player is singular. P-L-A-Y-E-R. SINGULAR.” 😅
Shaq got fired up debating Chuck's MVP case for Chris Paul. pic.twitter.com/QNEWR5ugmZ
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) March 12, 2021
“Barkley: First of all, [Shaq] is 100% wrong. He said the team doesn’t matter. The team does matter. And my only point is we talk about all of these other guys who are playing great…
Shaq: Yeah, but if you have two guys, for example, Joel Embiid and [Nikola Jokic], that are putting up great numbers, you can’t say ‘Ok, because this guy has a better record he should get MVP.’
Barkley: Why can’t you? When Steve Nash won MVP he wasn’t better than you. He wasn’t better than Kobe. But they had a better regular season. And all I’m saying is he should be in the conversation.
Shaq: Change it to the most valuable team, then. Not most valuable player. Player is singular…P L A Y E R is singular.”
Whew that was fun. It’s an interesting debate. Paul generally isn’t considered a consensus MVP candidate, but he’s definitely the reason the Suns’ season has turned around the way it has.
They both make pretty valid arguments here. I’d still put my money on Embiid, though.
