Tracy McGrady recently remarked that winning MVPs matters more than winning a championship on a recent episode of the Cousins with Vince Carter & Tracy McGrady podcast.
“The MVP of the regular season has more weight than a championship,” McGrady said. “Hell yeah, why wouldn't it? Man, name the tenth or the eleventh player on the Chicago Bulls or the Los Angeles Lakers, or the Detroit Pistons, or the Boston Celtics. Who are they? Any of those teams, name me the eleventh or the twelfth guy.”
Carter struggled to name some of the bench players from those championship-winning teams McGrady had mentioned, strengthening his cousin’s point.
“You can't even think of them. He got a ring, and he can't even think of them. He has a ring, but does he have an MVP? Absolutely not. No. So, yes, the MVP of the regular season has more weight than a championship.”
To McGrady’s point, some of the best players to ever play in the NBA have never gone deep in the playoffs because their teams just never had the right supporting cast to surround themselves with.
On the other hand, there are some middle-of-the-pack All-Stars who have won a championship because they simply found themselves in the right situation at the right time.
For example, Chauncey Billups won Finals MVP in 2004 after helping the Detroit Pistons take down the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.
Billups had a breakout performance in that series, but it was the Pistons’ defense and well-balanced group that ultimately helped them emerge victorious over the Shaq- and Kobe-led Lakers.
Plus, Billups wasn’t necessarily synonymous with some of the biggest names in the league during his time.
When you look at other superstars from that time period who didn’t win championships but won MVPs, such as Allen Iverson and Steve Nash, their contributions are far more remembered because of the gaudy numbers they posted on a nightly basis and the clear impact they had on winning when they were on the court.
Iverson willed the Philadelphia 76ers to the Finals in 2001 and even stole Game 1 from the Lakers in Los Angeles following a 48-point outburst.
Nash helped the Phoenix Suns win 62 games during the 2004-05 season after winning just 29 games the season prior.
It’s easy to see where McGrady is coming from when looking at these points, but this conversation is also a whole lot more complicated than that.
