Welcome to the long awaited 5th Anniversary of 'McCready Malarkey'!  In this collectible issue we take a look at the Kobe/LeBron MVP debate and the fall from grace of Shawn Marion.  

Kobe V/S LeBron

That seems to be the popular debate on who should be the season MVP (although I'm sure Kevin Garnett and Chris Paul aficionados would like a say, as well).  The debate between these two is the most interesting of the bunch because their games are the most similar.  Garnett affects the game from a post perspective while Paul affects the team by running the offense and disrupting the opposing teams from their point of attack.

Kobe and LeBron occupy the sexier positions, the swingmen (that last sentence brought to you by Larry Flint).  They are the ones whose main priority is scoring the basketball and defending the opposing team's best perimeter scoring.  Mainly, they're constantly in the spotlight doing flashy things.

Let's take a look at the two statistically...

Points: LeBron 30.9 Kobe 28.2
Rebounds: LeBron 8.1 Kobe 6.1
Assists: LeBron 7.5 Kobe 5.3
Field Goal Percentage: LeBron 48.6% Kobe 46.6%
Free Throw Percentage: Kobe 84.4% LeBron 71.6%
Blocks: LeBron 1.1 Kobe 0.5
Steals: TIED!!!!!!!!!!!!~!

Needless to say, LeBron has the statistical edge.  Many point to the fact that Kobe's team has a superior record and that justifies his MVP selection (of course, those same people would probably question last year's selection based on this criteria: Dirk Nowitzki But, assuming everyone was healthy, how do those teams' rosters stack up head-to-head?  It's not really a fair comparison as Cleveland's roster is completely revamped, and the Lakers added Pau Gasol while also losing Andrew Bynum to a potentially season ending injury.

CENTER: Andrew Bynum v/s Zydrunas Ilgauskas

I love Big Z; I named his hookshot the terminally unpopular 'IZ Drip' years back because of the determination he showed coming back from seemingly career-ending foot injuries.  

But those injuries still play a role in Big Z's production as his minutes are always limited.  He's logging the biggest minutes per game in the last three years this season at only thirty minutes per game.  He's an average passing big with range, and he can hit his free throws.  He's one of the league's biggest players at 7-3 and 265 pounds; he can block shots, and he rebounds exceptionally well for the minutes he plays.

Andrew Bynum would've been a prime candidate for the league's most improved player award had he not suffered that left knee injury.  He doesn't have the range that Ilgauskas has, but he's a more powerful and explosive player.  He was leading the league in field goal percentage at 63.6% before he got injured mainly because nearly all his shots were thunderous, unstoppable dunks.  He's improved tremendously on the boards and can now grab them with the same efficiency as Ilgauskas, and he blocks more shots.  That makes him my choice as the superior player if only by a slim margin.

Winner via split decision: Andrew Bynum

POWER FORWARD: Pau Gasol v/s Ben Wallace

The Pau Gasol trade must have been the most frustrating transaction to 29 teams this season, including Memphis.  Pau Gasol is a player.    

For Memphis, the franchise and the fans, to place blame on him for the laughingstock that the Grizzlies are is pathetic.  He's the best thing that's ever happened to that franchise.  Period.  He's a player who has led his native country of Spain above all his European brethren in international competition (with one most recent loss against Andrei Kirilenko's incredible one-man-show with Russia).  In his seven years in Memphis, the best player he teamed was Shane Battier.  No offense to Shane Battier, but that's terrible.

In his prime, Wallace was the greatest defensive force in the league.  However, he's aged.  But he's an undersized player that relied on his athleticism to perform more than his skills, which has really made his overall performance suffer as he ages.  One also has to wonder if the defensively underrated Rasheed Wallace's presence wasn't a factor in Wallace's defensive onslaught of the early 0s.

Wallace still has a role in the league, but Gasol is an All-Star.

Winner via first round knockout: Pau Gasol

Swingman Showdown: Lamar Odom v/s Devin Brown

Not much of a battle here at all.  Devin Brown is a serviceable player but really shouldn't be a starter.  He's mainly a scorer who can't even do that efficiently.  Odom, on the other hand, is one of the more underappreciated players in the league.  He's especially effective against teams that like to go small.  His athleticism allows him to stay with the play in fast break attacks while his size can make him a big time factor on the boards against smaller lineups.

Winner via big boot and legdrop: Lamar Odom

Point Guard Rumble: Derek Fisher v/s Delonte West

Kudos to the Utah Jazz organization for letting Derek Fisher opt out of his contract to be closer to his ailing daughter.  Unfortunately for them, the Lakers are benefiting greatly from the Jazz's generosity.  Fisher is enjoying perhaps his finest year at age 33.  He's not spectacular but gets the job done.  He's not a stupendous playmaker, but he doesn't have to be in a triangle offense that features the players above.  He's a steady shot and a solid veteran presence in the locker room that championship teams need.

Delonte West is a point guard with combo guard tendencies.  He's an active player who can play active defense and get on the boards.  His shot selection is questionable, but he isn't turnover-prone.  The best word to describe him at this point would be 'mediocre', but playing with James could turn things around for him; plus, he's young enough that he could develop into a solid starting guard.

Winner via sly veteran maneuver: Derek Fisher

The Lakers are one of the favorites to win the Championship this year while there isn't much to expect out of Cleveland.  Other than frontcourt depth, Kobe has a better roster in every possible way.  The guards playing with James are laughable, and this team would have trouble beating Seattle most nights without him.  LeBron is continuing his evolution into the most dominant player of this generation; his numbers this season trump all but the best seasons put together by Michael Jordan.  The argument that Bryant is due a MVP is moot.  By that logic, Jerry Sloan should have five Coach of the Year awards by now instead of an empty trophy cabinet.  Jerry West, considered by many to be a top ten player of all time and the man whose image graces the league's logo, came in second place for league voting FOUR times without ever winning.  

Between the two I would pick LeBron as the MVP, but my overall pick is still Kevin Garnett. Ray Allen's year has not been spectacular, and Garnett has turned that TERRIBLE team into a championship contender, but that's another article...


Kobe Bryant, hero to all, saving an old woman from a burning building

How dumb is Shawn Marion?

Shawn Marion finally got the wish he's been asking for years when he was traded away from the Phoenix Suns.

The combination of playing with one of the league's best playmakers in Steve Nash and in Mike D'Antoni's system, where any open shot is a good shot, makes Phoenix one of the league's most desired destinations for any player.  

Just not for Marion.  

Despite having skills that translate perfectly to the system that they run and being the team's highest paid player, Marion always felt slighted.  He always felt like the team's underappreciated third wheel because team officials realized that the games of Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire were the franchise's most marketable talents while Marion's hustle play and defense were not.  Team events or promotions scheduled around Nash or Amare would irk him.  D'Antoni would always have to be conscious of giving Marion his due in any post-game interview and direct questions about Amare or Nash in Marion's favor, if only to attempt to avoid Marion's consistent sulking behind the scenes.

Now with Miami he's firmly entrenched as the second banana in Miami, and he also got the ego boost of being traded nearly one-for-one for arguably the best player in NBA history: Shaquille O'Neal.  His ego is finally satisfied but at what cost?  With the ability to opt out of his contract this year, Marion has potentially cost himself millions of dollars in playing with the Heat by exposing the flaws in his game.

One of the biggest concerns of the Phoenix Suns' coaching staff about Shawn Marion's game was his inability to create his own shot.  Without Steve Nash finding and creating open looks from three and igniting the fast break with breathtaking full-court passes, Marion's scoring numbers have suffered. Without Steve, he's had to create more on his own, and his turnovers have more than doubled, not to mention his shooting percentage has fallen from over fifty percent to forty six.  Statistically, his rebounds are the only area that have really improved, which isn't surprising since the team's second leading rebounder is Udonis Haslem as opposed to Phoenix where it was Stoudamire.  

Phoenix, on the other hand, knew what they were getting in Shaq.  Unlike Marion, Shaq's gregarious personality is actually a positive in the locker room.  And while Shaq cannot be a factor in every game like Marion could, he can be the difference in going against the bigger teams in the league while Amare can still dominate the smaller ones.  This is evident by the team's two most recent wins against the slower San Antonio Spurs led by the Big Fundamental and the Golden State Warriors, arguably the smallest, quickest lineup in the association.  

There's no doubt that Marion is a talented player and maybe the greatest third wheel in the league, but he's shot himself in the foot financially.  He's a player that the best teams in the league would want to pay top dollar for.  Unfortunately for Marion, those teams are all over the cap.  The Heat was a terrible franchise before the Matrix arrived, and they haven?t changed.  The team is 2 - 15 since his arrival.  It's now been proven that he's not a player who can single-handedly win games for terrible teams.  One of those franchise type players. Unfortunately, at sixteen and a half million dollars a year, he's getting paid the amount of money to do so.  No team that would want him have the cap space necessary to pay him anything close to what he's making now, and the terrible teams that could pay him that kind of money now know that he will not change the outlook of their franchises.  

Marion was always concerned that playing in the shadow of the two-time MVP and the Man-Child would make him look like nothing more than a complimentary player and not a star.  How ironic that those two were the shield keeping everyone from knowing the truth.

Any Questions, Comments or A Friendly Hello?  Email Matt McCready at mattmccready@gmail.com