LeBron James is not a part of the 2022 Playoffs after his Los Angeles Lakers slumped to an 11th-place finish in the season and couldn’t even qualify for the play-in tournament. However, sitting at home has allowed LBJ to watch a lot of basketball, as he keeps tweeting about the games that are currently taking place.
James is one of the million people watching Game 2 between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Golden State Warriors from home and tweeting out his thoughts. However, LeBron made a fantastic point about Grizzlies guard Ja Morants’ recent win of the Most Improved Player trophy.
LeBron argued that Morant should have never been in consideration for the award because he has been a star since he entered the league and isn’t of the caliber one would award this trophy to.
JA so damn tough!!!! There's no way Ja should even have been in MIP talks. This guy is a flat out ⭐️ and always have been!! Real basketball 🧠s know. Not the majority of dweebs who don't even watch basketball on those voting ballots.
— LeBron James (@KingJames) May 4, 2022
It is hard not to agree with LeBron when we see the history of the MIP award. We also have to agree that many of the voters don’t watch basketball avidly, and they definitely don’t watch the non-marquee games. Their takes on teams that don’t dominate the news cycle show their lack of knowledge on that front.
Morant’s MIP performance this season is eerily similar to what Luka Doncic did in his sophomore season. However, Doncic didn’t end up winning the MIP award because he finished fourth in MVP voting and many believed that a Rookie of the Year winner can’t win the Most Improved Player award the season after that. However, Morant has won both awards in his three-year career.
Morant never needed the shine from a Most Improved trophy. His play on the court does all the shining for him. However, voters rarely see all the sides to these players and how they should be voting. LeBron has said something out loud that basketball fans anyway suspected for years.
