Paul Pierce keeps taking every opportunity he has to take shots at LeBron James. The Boston Celtics icon has been involved in a couple of controversies lately after all the bold statements he’s made about Bron, his career and his teams.
Now, Pierce made the case for Giannis Antetokounmpo as the rightful MVP award winner in this campaign. Giannis was having a terrific season this one before the NBA was suspended after Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 back in March. Before that, the MVP quest was a one-man race, with Giannis seeing everybody from the top of the rankings.
However, right before the league entered a hiatus, Bron had defeated the Greek Freak and the Los Angeles Clippers, their biggest rivals this season, in back-to-back games. Given that LeBron had two great games against those teams, more people started to believe he deserves to be named MVP for the fifth time in his career this year.
Yet, not everybody is sold on that idea. For instance, if it was up to Pierce, he would give the award to Antetokounmpo without any hesitation (5:55 mark).
“You don’t base MVP off of one game like it’s the All-Star game,” Pierce said. “LeBron won the battle (against Giannis), but the war is already won by Giannis. (…) He’s putting historic numbers for a guy his size, he has the best team, a record-wise and the numbers speak for themselves. He’s been dominating all year long, so I take him for MVP and I’ll take LeBron second.”
Before the league was suspended, most fans and analysts put Giannis as the MVP of the season. The Bucks had the best record in the league, became the fastest team in history to reach the playoffs, Giannis was posting incredible numbers while playing barely 30 minutes. The guy was set to win his second consecutive MVP award.
LeBron was doing a terrific job with the Lakers, too, taking them from missing the playoffs last season to be the best team in the West this season. However, there is no doubt that the Greek Freak did the job and unless something extraordinary happens, he will be crowned the NBA MVP for the second year in a row.
