Giannis Winning His Second MVP Shows The NBA Is Using Theatre To Manipulate Ratings

The NBA announced this morning that Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo won back-to-back MVP awards. The playoffs exposed that Giannis didn't actually get any better, but he simply tried harder. Awarding Giannis with another MVP proves the NBA doesn't want LeBron James to steal Jordan's seat as G.O.A.T.

We started off three weeks ago announcing the Greek Freak as Defensive Player Of The Year and the foolishness never stopped. How could NBA writers believe he was more impactful on the defensive side of the ball than any other player in the game? The answer isn't that they were fooled, but they had an agenda.

Writers are suddenly falling in love with accumulating stats rather than asking if a team could stay afloat without that player. The Milwaukee Bucks play in the Eastern Conference, which was conveniently held against LeBron for a decade. Now that Giannis accumulates rebounds and points at a high clip, we suddenly don't care about conference competition.

A narrative started months ago while LeBron was manhandling the now 2-time MVP head to head that Anthony Davis was hurting LeBron's MVP bid. We didn't water down Michael Jordan when Scottie Pippen was an 7-time all-star and named to the All-defensive team eight consecutive seasons. So why do we insist LeBron to play for teams that literally stink for him to be recognized? Reality is that the media wants LeBron and his fanbase to feel snubbed to drive ratings.

Giving up the G.O.A.T crown does more to settle the debate when the league knows they need the conversation alive.

Imagine Bron & Giannis Switched Teams

Giannis finished the season averaging 29.5 points, 13.6 rebounds, and 5.6 assists that can't be ignored. Let's imagine that player was now responsible for bringing the Lakers back to contention after ten years of unfulfilled pressure. Giannis has proven he can't overcome the narrative that he shrinks in playoff games, so now we expect him to rise to that challenge? No way the media is naive enough to praise Antetokounmpo for dominating an inferior eastern conference they just crucified LeBron for.

Hopefully we aren't claiming it suddenly improved when Bron headed West.

These NBA nerds that vote for these awards will tell you they're simply evaluating metrics to vote Giannis. Where were these metrics when LeBron was torching the league and they gave Derrick Rose the award in 2011? Oh yeah that's right they just vote for whoever creates the most lucrative narrative next year.

What now?

LeBron is undoubtably going to take this year's MVP snub as motivation to torch the Denver Nuggets then the Miami Heat in the finals. A motivated LeBron (and his fans) spikes the ratings creating an illusion of the last laugh. LeBron then goes into 2021 with the goal of winning MVP to tie Michael Jordan. The NBA is theatre and while the game might not be fixed, the narratives are.

Charles Barkley winning the 1993 MVP over Michael Jordan was the same play to force a narrative. Firing up an entire fan base with frustrating MVP snubs is the NBA playing our emotions. It's working and there's nothing we can do to stop them.