The Golden State Warriors’ Andre Iguodala has won the NBA Finals Bill Russell MVP Award in what can never be considered a vote for the actual most valuable player.
First of all, credit to Iguodala, who earned the award after Golden State’s 105-97 victory over Cleveland in Game 6 of the NBA Finals series, in which he contributed 25 points, five rebounds and five assists in the ring-sealing game.
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The award was always going to be controversial, given the way the series played out.
Iguodala played his first game of the season from the bench during the Finals and was tasked with guarding Cavaliers talisman LeBron James. He started zero of the 82-games of the regular season.
According to ESPN, Iguodala is the only player ever to win the Finals MVP having come off the bench at any point in a series.
The Championship winning Golden State Warriors put in a true team performance across the board with regular season MVP Stephen Curry never doing it on his own, and Andre Iguoala contributing at a high level.
However – the Cleveland Cavaliers were completely led by LeBron James, who contributed the second highest percentage of team points in NBA Finals history, with 38.3% of team points. Just Michael Jordan in 1993, with a percentage of 38.4%, has ever contributed more.
LeBron James is the first player in history to lead both NBA Finals teams in points, rebounds, and assists – with 46 min per game, 36 points, 13 rebounds and 9 assists.
His statline average across the season doubled Andre Iguodala’s contribution – double the points, rebounds, and assists per game.
James led a team that finished without an All-Star point-guard in Kyrie Irving, point-forward in Kevin Love, starting centre in Anderson Varejao, contained two undrafted free agents – including Australia’s Matthew Dellavedova – and was led by a coach new to the NBA in David Blatt.
Convention appears to dictate that the award is given to “Best Player on the Winning Team” not the “Finals MVP” in terms of points, assists and rebounds.
Without a knock on the man they call Iggy, it’s likely we’ll look back on the MVP award find it hard to believe LeBron James didn’t win Finals MVP.
The voting lines will go down in history. Only four votes of 11 went to LeBron James, the rest to Iguodala. The only consolation is that Stephen Curry received no votes, in what would have been the end of judgment as we know it. Curry was typically deadly in Games 5 and 6, but offered little in the opening games.
LeBron played at the highest level ever seen to somehow find two wins for the Cavaliers against one of the best teams of all time.
pete bloor
Guest
For starters LeBron was incredibly inefficient in the post so any analysis that suggests he should have done that instead of the driving of the dribble should be laughed at. The Hero ball came down to design, they could have run another offence but what good is creating shots for Tristan Thompson, delly, shump or Jr. So the cavs by design said were going to choose bad shots from bron over bad shots from elsewhere. He also had an incredibly high assist rate laying waste to traditional hero ball. It was incredibly inefficient sure, but what choice did the Cavs have?
Ben
Guest
Take Iggy off the Warriors and they probably still win in 6 or 7. Take LBJ off the Cavs and they get swept in 4 by an average of 15-20 points. (let alone going out in the 1st Rnd) There's your MVP.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Well said. Now back to enjoying your time off sir!
Red Kev
Roar Guru
Take Iggy off and James averaged 45pts a game and the Cavs win.
express34texas
Guest
Look how tired James was. If he had to guard Iggy on defense, he'd need a wheelchair to take him off the court before the 4th. Iggy will certainly take James shooting sub .400 with a TS% of .477 all day long. I think he did his job, and did extremely well, plus he wasn't guarding entirely or even half the time. Barnes was the primary defender on James some, and CLE was setting screens on Iggy to get GS to switch, which they normally did. When Iggy was kept on James one-on-one, James royally sucked.
express34texas
Guest
Not the Eastern Conf. playoffs, those sucked. Cakewalk to finals for CLE, even with a banged up team. Sorry conf.
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
I'll take a quick break from my holiday to say that Iggy winning Finals MVP is ludicrous. Absolutely ludicrous. In no capacity was he more valuable, more impactful, more influential, more important or better than LeBron. But other than that, he was thoroughly deserving of the award . . .
ohtani's jacket
Guest
It was obvious that if a Warrior was going to get it then it would be Iguodala since his move to the starting line up changed the series. I don't think we'll ever see a repeat of the Jerry West situation though Lebron sure deserved it. He was tired these past two games though, especially last night.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Hope not Machooka. It was a fantastic Finals. The entire playoffs, too.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
The best team won, no question. The best play is unquestionable. The most valuable - sure. Worth a debate each and every time. But LeBron James was worth the most to his team and was the most valuable player across any definition.
Bill
Guest
Igoudala 'the Flopper' choice makes mvp vote a joke. Note: 1, Note Cavs left him wide open repeatedly to double Curry & better players & when he was guarded it was by James Jones. lol's 2. He had lots of help collapsing on LBJ & lots of rest (50% more than Lebron) as they rotated defenders on Lebron.. 3. Why wasn't Igoudala fouled out, given techs & why won't he be fined by NBA for most egregious FLOPPING ever?? 4 Only scored 16ppg's vs Lebron's 36ppg's 5. Only 4asts & 5 rbds vs Leborn's 8.8 asts & 13.3 rbds per game. 6.If MVP only goes to Winner then - CURRY - who was heavily guarded & collapsed on. Take Igoudala off Warriors & they still win, take Curry off Warriors & they Lose.
Tony Loedi
Roar Guru
And ur right, on the offensive end Iggy was largely guarded by Mozgov - when I say guarded I mean left wide open. I don't think Iggy scores as many on LBJ. I write this as a warrior supporter by the way.
Red Kev
Guest
Did LeBron actually score 30 on Iggy? Again I think you are making poorly thought out statements.
Red Kev
Guest
If Delly keeps Curry to 25-33% across the series and the Cavs win then he would have a legit case for MVP, especially if he came in second in scoring for the Cavs behind LeBron. For mine the outrage over this goes right to the heart of the "superstar driven league" discussion. It is a team game. It comes down to how you are measuring "value", I think too many are confusing it with "best". Whatever James did the fact is that it wasn't enough.
Tony Loedi
Roar Guru
Well, Iggy was DIRECTLY matched up with Lebron defensively and He didn't win that battle. Slowed him down yes, but Lebron was the best player on the court - still averaged well over 30ppg with Iggy on him. Take Lebron and Iggy out of the series and the Cavs lose 4-0 - so who was more valuable?
Aaron
Guest
Cleveland were never going to win this series after Kyrie went down, period. It was just frustrating watching Lebron do the right things for stretches would just then just walk the ball up and proceed to chuck up a junk fade away shot after destroying his defender in the post the play before. Make the warriors stop you before you take hard shots. As for his team mates. Mozgov lead his team in scoring in game 4. Smith when he gets involved properly is a quick athletic wing scorer that can light it up from 3. Get him going, get him a few looks going to the basket. It was obvious that he was struggling from the perimeter and it was mentally affecting him, draw up something new for him then. There was enough there that we didn't have to watch 6 games of hero ball from Lebron so he can gloat about his 30 odd points on 30 odd shots per game
Machooka
Roar Guru
@ Sports fan Ummm... I don't think you'd want a trophy on you mantle for being the MVP of the losing team ? If your comment was taking the proverbial well...
Red Kev
Guest
Just because Iggy was guarding LeBron doesn't mean the reverse was true on Warrior offensive sets. I can't say I really noticed, but "direct match-up" is lazy analysis.
Machooka
Roar Guru
@ Aaron " Lebron played 6 games of stupid hero ball and got trounced for it." A bit harsh don't you think ? Hey, I'm no fan of the guy as a person but as baller... man are you serious ? We've pretty much seen greatness here in this series... and that doesn't come along all that often. In fact, I don't think we've ever seen anything like it... one man on five men... for six straight games ! Although, I might be wrong, as I haven't had the priviledge of sizing ya game... but I reckon, from your comments, it's must be on another planet, eh ?
XI
Roar Guru
Lyndon Baines Johnson? Good for him, making a comeback after all these years.