So last night, following the James Harden meltdown in the Western Conference semi-finals, the popular narrative on the internet was a simple "process of elimination" logic about the NBA MVP race.
Kawhi didn't play and his team was great, Harden sucked, and Westbrook has already been eliminated. That must mean LeBron James should have won the MVP.
Aaaand then this tweet from Jason Smith hit the internet and people were none too pleased about it. Despite the fact that people seem to forget Russell Westbrook averaged a triple-double and led a subpar Thunder team to Western Conference playoffs, they tend to forget LeBron didn't even lock up the top seed in the East with the Cavaliers.
He clearly is a different player at age 32 than he was at age 23, and doesn't have that same motor he did before when he carried awful teams all the way to the NBA Finals. He could certainly do it in his prime, but how about now?
LeBron James is a player who divides opinion like none other, but if you really think he would look at Andre Roberson and Enes Kanter and decide he wanted to prove he could still put guys like them on his back en route to a dramatic Finals run, you are sadly mistaken.
At age 32, LeBron is not ready to endure the type of wear and tear that comes from a heavy workload and dependence. He could not do what Russell Westbrook did this season, this regular season, because he doesn't want to. That's a part of the game.
Can you believe Twitter is free?