It is no mystery that Warriors star Draymond Green wants to see some major changes to the NBA award-voting process. As a 3x Champion and 9-year NBA veteran, he has more authority than most to speak on the subject.
Earlier this week, he raved about his teammate Jordan Poole, and how he should be the one to win Most Improved Player. He even threatened to start a petition if Poole wasn’t voted as the winner. Just hours later, it was revealed that Poole didn’t even make the final cut.
On his show, he blasted the whole voting system and said it’s “disgusting” that the media can have such an extreme impact on earnings.
“I think the voting system… it’s one of those things that’s completely ridiculous and outdated. There is no criteria in place for any of these awards. There is no ‘you have to play this amount of games or not.’ There isn’t ‘what makes someone the most improved player.’ There is no criteria in place. MVP award: there’s no criteria in place. We’ve seen guys win with their team at 7th, we’ve seen guys win it with their team in first. Joker wins it this year, his team is in 6th. Joel wins it this year, his team is what, fourth in the East? It’s actually a shame that there’s no criteria to this. The voting on it is also a shame. I think when you look at voting for All-NBA, for DPOY and Most Improved, ultimately these things are voted on by the media, which I think is absolutely disgusting. These are human beings that could have personal issues against guys because that does happen. And they ultimately end up deciding on like $40-50 million for guys.”
Say what you want about Draymond, but he does have a point and it’s about time the NBA did something to address it.
Year after year, the interpretation of each award changes, and what helped a player win the year before might not matter nearly as much the year after. Each voter also has their own idea of what an “MVP” or “Most Improved Player” actually is.
These inconsistencies might be more widely accepted if they didn’t often cost players millions. Jayson Tatum, for example, lost out on over $30 million for missing the All-NBA team in 2021.
It’s obviously too late to modify the voting process this year, but perhaps we’ll see some changes soon. If the NBA sets some criteria for each award, it could make the process a whole lot better.
