LeBron James just won his first Olympics MVP award. In fact, he won the third award ever given. How could that be when the first was given in 2004? That winner, of course, was Argentina’s Manu Ginobili. He dazzled the world with his performance in Athens and shocked the basketball world in particular when he deconstructed the seemingly indestructible Team USA. Clearly, Ginobili deserved some form of special recognition. But one could be inclined to wonder: Is that really what the Olympics are supposed to be about?
The Enigma Of The FIBA Men’s Olympics MVP Award
The FIBA Men’s Olympics Most Valuable Player Wikipedia article is something of an anomaly in basketball-Wikipedia-world. For years, fans have been able to look up their favorite NBA role player who gets 15 minutes a game and learn where they’re from, where they went to college, what awards they won in high school, etc. But look up the Olympics MVP award, and you learn there have been three winners across twenty years and not much else. Kevin Durant in 2021 is the only win other than LeBron and Manu. With MVPs missing from the 2016 and 2012 Olympics. You won’t even find out who votes on it, besides the implication that it is FIBA in some form. LeBron himself claimed not to know. Presumably, the answers lie in the depths of the internet somewhere, but the waters are murky.
Good For Business
The idea that there would be an MVP this year never appeared to be in question at least. FIBA posted a leaderboard on the subject on their own official website. Admittedly, it does feature the caveat that the list itself is official in no way. But in this era of maximized online discourse, missing out on the bump in coverage would seem actively negligent.
Of course, if it was really maximum coverage that FIBA was after, they would have voted in basically anyone other than LeBron. Not because LeBron didn’t deserve it, but because anyone else would have had the bonus of controversy. The controversy of not being LeBron James. It goes without saying, that the fact LeBron is still being effectively declared the very best player in the world at almost 40 is completely remarkable.
It may not be true in an 82-game NBA regular season anymore. It might not even be true in a seven-game series. But in a single elimination tournament, grey beard and all, there is almost certainly no one better. People may laugh at the Los Angeles Lakers hanging a banner for the In-Season Tournament in their rafters this year, but LeBron proved there, and in these Olympics, that he still is the best high-stakes performer in the sport.
Could The Olympics Have Had Any Other MVP?
Unless maybe you want to say it’s Nikola Jokic. Jokic still had a case for MVP after guiding Serbia to victory in the bronze medal match. He secured a triple-double in that game, albeit partly due to a sequence where he missed three consecutive tip-ins right after the commentary booth pointed out he was only two rebounds away (Kendrick Perkins probably showed the clip to everyone he knows). Over the course of the tournament, he outscored LeBron, out-rebounded LeBron, out-assisted LeBron, and dragged a far worse team to a far less assumed result. But then, if LeBron were playing on that Serbian team instead, he probably would have scored more, rebounded more, and assisted more too. Whether the team would have medalled or not is another matter, though.
Stephen Curry was also phenomenal in the elimination stage of the tournament. After a slow start in the group stage, he closed with games of 36 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and then 24, one, and five. His crunch-time night-night celebration three-pointer effectively closed France out in the finals and secured the USA the gold. Under normal circumstances, Curry wouldn’t have been a controversial MVP at all.
The US Way Versus The World
But this was always LeBron James’s team. Despite having arguably the greatest point guard of all time starting every game, LeBron was functionally a lead guard. Furthermore, his leadership in big moments was paramount to the squad’s success. That Team USA will, presumably (though not necessarily), be without him in 2028 is one reason why the country’s approach to national competition may have to change. It’s all very well to rely on having the best players and no chemistry when you have a leader like LeBron to coalesce around. Or even Kevin Durant in 2021, who earned only the second-ever Olympics MVP award for his efforts. But will Anthony Edwards or Jayson Tatum be up to that kind of challenge? Cooper Flagg?
The better approach for Team USA might be to embrace the Olympic spirit and leave the superstar ideology at home. Other nations were able to fight the US so hard this year, partly because of their established camaraderie. Because, believe it or not, it isn’t Nikola Jokic’s team. It isn’t Victor Wembanyama‘s team. It’s the Serbian national team. It’s twelve Frenchmen giving it their all for their country in their nation’s capital. Manu Ginobili probably doesn’t really care about his MVP award. The internet barely remembers he has one. He and his teammates won the gold medal for Argentina. That’s what matters.
The Last Word
The Olympics aren’t going to give up on an MVP award any time soon. It’s here to stay. But playing at home in Los Angeles next cycle, Team USA will have the perfect opportunity to move away from the style of team-building that the award reflects. It merely remains to be seen if they’ll take it.
