INDEPENDENCE: LeBron James had some catching up to do Wednesday before he could tackle the debate of Most Valuable Player — which even he conceded wasn’t much of a debate at all.
As part of James’ social media blackout, there were a few items on his agenda he needed to work through since he couldn’t post about them himself. He sent his condolences to the family of Howard Garfinkel, founder of Five-Star Basketball camp that James was part of a lifetime ago.
He congratulated Dwyane Wade for passing both Scottie Pippen and Magic Johnson on the postseason scoring list. Wade is up to 14th on the list where James ranks fifth and will most likely pass Shaquille O’Neal during the upcoming conference finals.
First and foremost, however, James congratulated Steph Curry for winning his second MVP award in as many seasons. Curry became the first unanimous winner in the award’s history and the first player to win consecutive MVPs since James did it in 2012 and 2013.
James, who finished third behind Curry and the San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard in voting, acknowledged to the Beacon Journal in February he believes he has been snubbed a few years and should have more than his four MVP trophies. Given what Curry accomplished this season by making 402 3-pointers and guiding the Warriors to 73 victories, he didn’t sound as if this season was one of them.
“I think he definitely deserved it,” James said. “Look at Steph’s numbers. He averaged 30, he led the league in steals, he was 90-50-40 [free-throw percentage, field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage] and they won 73 [games]. Do you have any debate over that, really, when it comes to that award?
“But when you talk about most ‘valuable’ then you can have a different conversation. Take nothing away from him, he’s definitely deserving of that award, for sure.”
James’ point was that “valuable” isn’t always the same as the player who had the best season.
“I think there’s a lot of valuable guys in our league that adds value to their team,” he said. “If you do it by a year-to-year basis, I think sometimes the word ‘valuable’ or best player of the year, you can have different results.”
James remains one MVP award behind Michael Jordan and two shy of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He is now three years removed from his last MVP and he’ll be 32 next year. Only four players in history won an MVP at 32 or later: Jordan, Abdul-Jabbar, Steve Nash and Karl Malone. Jordan and Malone both won as late as 35.
Still, James told the Beacon Journal in February he doesn’t believe he has won his last MVP.
“I wouldn’t think that way,” he said at the time. “I think I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for so long that I don’t want to say that. But I don’t know. I’m playing at a high level still, I’m putting up MVP numbers. We’ll see.”
Hitting the gym
The Cavs returned to practice Wednesday after taking two days off following their sweep of the Atlanta Hawks. They still don’t know their next opponent or when the series will begin. If the Heat and Raptors conclude in six games, the Cavs open the conference finals at home on Sunday. If the Heat and Raptors go to seven games, the conference finals will begin on Tuesday.
With plenty of days off and no opponent yet to study, coach Tyronn Lue said the Cavs are doing a lot of conditioning this week and getting back to their defensive principles after juggling defensive game plans against the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks.
The Cavs blitzed the point guards in pick-and-rolls against the Pistons, then went under screens against the Hawks in an effort to take away driving lanes and dare the Hawks to shoot. Both were successful.
“Just trying to adjust and get us back to the frame of mind we were in before we started the playoffs,” Lue said. “We don’t know which [scheme] we’re going to use yet, but we’re just trying to cover all the boundaries right now.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.