“Michael Jordan and LeBron James would have NINE MVPs!”: Looking at modern voting metrics and how it would tie the Bulls legend and the Lakers superstar

If we went by VORPs and how voting is done today, both Michael Jordan and LeBron James would have NINE MVPs each! 

Nikola Jokic received his MVP award today and he joins a long list of greats that went back-to-back. However, if we look at modern-day voting methods the MVP landscape would be vastly different.

The perception around the MVP award is drastically different today than what it used to be. A lot of players, current and former, disagree with the current voting system.

And it is not just players; coaches, media personalities, analysts, and fans have different perspectives. The main reason for the disagreement is that a lot of people simply think Nikola Jokic did not deserve the award.

While that is a far-fetched thing to say because Nikola’s season was absolutely stellar by all means. He recorded the highest single-season PER in history and was the first player to put up 2k points, 1k rebounds, and 500 assists.

Also read: “When I’m old, fat, and grumpy, I’m going to tell my kids back in the day, I was really good playing basketball”: Nikola Jokic addresses winning back-to-back MVP

Nikola Jokic’s historic bucket which makes him the first

2000 points
1000 rebounds
500 assists

player in NBA history…

…in the most Jokic of ways. pic.twitter.com/J2uHpgIKx4

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) April 8, 2022

Michael Jordan and LeBron James would have NINE MVPs if we went by VORP!

For the uninitiated, VORP or Value Over Replacement Player is a metric that determines an individual’s value when he/she replaces another player.

This metric has become the base for voting criteria in the last few years, this year more than most! So if we went just by this metric, the past MVPs would look a lot different.

Here’s some context.

 

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And if we trace this metric back to the earliest days of stat measuring, we can see that even Michael Jordan would have more than his five MVP awards.

In fact, both LeBron and MJ would have an absolutely ridiculous nine each!

If MVP voting was always done the way it is today, @KingJames would be in an exact tie with MJ for most MVP’s of all time (with 9 each).

This is calculated by who has the best VORP in a given season, since thats the only fact that counts for anything

— RealHANS_BRIX (@RealhansB) May 10, 2022

This does beg to ask the question, is our current methodology of determining the MVP accurate? Should it be changed? Food for thought if you ask us.

One thing is certain, everyone who has won the MVP is deserving, it is just that the lens through which this is determined can be changed.

Also read: “LeBron James won one too many votes”: NBA Twitter ridicule the Lakers superstar for receiving only 1 5th place vote in the MVP race