Every Rose Has Its MVP Award

Derrick Rose, you are making me look stupid.

See, I want to be cool. I want to be one of the super smart stat geeks who know so much about basketball, who have loudly been proclaiming that you shouldn't be MVP because your advanced stats don't say you are. I want to pick Dwight Howard. I want to talk about point differentials, player efficiency ratings, advanced plus/minuses, all the stuff the cool kids talk about. I want to sound educated and smart, like I'm a TRUE basketball junkie (because apparently while the jocks rule the playing field, the nerds rule the blogs).

Another night, another muscle pulled in my eyeballs popping out of my head.

But every time I go to make the "Dwight Howard for MVP!" case in my head, you drop 39 points on 13-17 shooting. Or you carve up NBA All-Defense First Team selection Rajon Rondo like a turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Or I hear yet another story about how you positively affect your teammates by adopting coach Tom Thibodeau's tough but smart defensive systems. Or I watch one of your rim rattling, high flying moster dunks (not a valid MVP argument, but impressive, nonetheless). Every time I want to say "Dwight for MVP!" I hear another story about his bad attitude, his immaturity, and his inability to stay on the court to help his teammates.

Maybe we, as sports fans, have it all wrong, Derrick. Your effect on your team can't be quantified by numbers or stat geeks, who want to make it all make sense numerically, because basketball isn't baseball. The numbers don't tell the whole story. A player can change a team, which can change a season, which can change a culture around an entire franchise. Just ask Celtics fans if Garnett changed the basketball culture in Boston when he arrived in 2007. The Celtics went from one of the worst teams in the NBA to a 66-16 juggernaut who eventually won the title. But more importantly, the Celtics got used to winning, despite Garnett being robbed of the title by Kobe. They didn't accept losing (until the 2010 regular season, that is). Derrick, you seem to have done the same thing in Chicago. It took a little longer, because you were a lot younger when you started. But you seem to have arrived in a big way.

Best of all? We thought LeBron James was going to win the MVP award every year for the next 10 years. Now, it's still possible. But you can be certain of one thing: he's going to have some competition.

All hail MVP Rose.

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm being attacked by a mob. They seem to be wielding calculators and wearing pocket protectors.