"According to weight - Sugar Ray Robinson", "Come on, what about Joe Louis?", "I guess you haven't heard of Cassius Clay".
The barbershop scene about boxers from Eddie Murphy's Discovering America is the epitome of what GOAT discussions used to be: diversity of opinion, deep passion, childhood memories, cultural influence.
But we are not there anymore.
Such polemics have been hijacked in recent years by gambling companies and fantasy culture, according to which only what is measurable is important, and what is not - does not exist.
So instead of posting our own MVP rankings, let's talk about Devin Booker and Luka Doncic for a moment.
On the one hand, the former is the leading scorer and the best and most important player (by far) of the Phoenix Suns - the leader of the West (as of Saturday morning).
A team suffering from the strike of Jae Crowder, whose replacement in the five - the promising Cam Johnson - and its general Chris Paul, missed most of its games due to injury, and whose progress of its other star, DeAndre Ayton, has been halted.
And let's not forget the fact that the team opened the season under the fiasco of harassment by the team's owners and putting it up for sale.
So how is she on balance 7:15?
Because Booker started the season excellently and then climbed to new levels.
Why does the one who carries the leader of the Western Conference barely make it to the top 5 in all the MVP rankings that the NBA website and that ESPN and other media outlets publish every week?
Because the debate surrounding the coveted title is one of the most superficial in sports, and most of the bodies in the US are responsible for it, captives of the McNamara concept, the "numbers" temple and blind to nuances.
Because here, on one side, there is a morning - Phoenix's lifeline, despite a difficult situation;
On the other hand, he has Doncic - the darling of the ratings this season.
And why is he such a favorite?
Because Dallas runs over its rivals?
No, she has a negative balance!
Maybe because he has a bunch of idiots around him that he carries beyond expectations?
No, the Mavericks roster has at least 10 players who would fit into the rotation of almost every top team in the league.
Devin Booker.
Carrying the entire Phoenix on his shoulders, photo: AP
so how?
how?
All because of the usage - the figure that measures how many of a team's posers while a player on the field "finishes" himself with a shot or turnover.
In other words - how much he holds the ball and determines what will happen.
Yes - some of the team's basketball concentrations.
And the more usage she gives to one player, the more she "works for him" also in other elements such as rebounding.
Before the constitutional revolution of 2000-04, the margin and triples of the previous decade, some would pass the 30% useful.
Today this exists in about half of the league's teams, and about 80-90% of the players who get at least 30% are "triple threat" players of shooting, passing and penetration in the pick and roll.
Of these, the most prominent of all is Luka - who broke his own record this year and currently stands at 38% usability (the career averages of Jordan, Bird and Magic are 33%, 26% and 22% respectively. Booker stands at 32%) .
And what happens when outside players who like to dribble get 40%-38% usage, we have already seen with Russell Westbrook and James Harden: they make their team look helpless without them, while they themselves are unable to lead them to real successes, but do sweep all the glory - Because it really seems that they are the most "valuable" to the group, even though it is inflated and distorted in view of the non-group method they lead.
So yes, it is legitimate to claim in a barbershop conversation that Luka is better than Booker and that he is the MVP.
But it is not legitimate that there is such a big gap between them.
But in practice, Doncic is playing for a team that is in a negative balance while he is shooting threes at a low percentage.
It doesn't stop him from being well ahead of morning in the ratings of the last few weeks.
Because the totalitarian system he presides over makes him seem more important to Dallas than Booker is to Phoenix.
Thanks to the fantasy earner and the fans of the genre of regimes of this type.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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