It started with an opening day thrashing of the defending champion Dallas Mavericks in which LeBron James showcased a completely revamped low post game. And it never really stopped.

“Jordan Vs. Bird” was one of my most cherished Nintendo cartridges ever and it got played to the death.  But if it was “Jordan Vs. Bird- Front Office Executive Edition”, Larry would win every time.

Some picks may surprise, but the decisions are in. Here are our picks for midseason NBA awards. 

HoopsVibe's Very Quick Call: The real question is can they keep it going?

Introducing your 2010 NBA Most Valuable Player, Yao Ming!

OK, not really. But on the heels of Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson being flies in the All-Star ointment, wouldn't you expect such a result from fans being able to vote for the NBA's MVP?

This is just water cooler, or mainly message board, discussions. So called “experts” and highly decorated NBA greats even get their highly biased opinions in through online news clippings. The talking heads on television are fans of the game, too. Do not believe how they present themselves on screen. Deep down, they’re biased as hell. Just like you. Just like me. Slow times for the NBA right now especially in the midst of a nasty lockout, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from running their mouths. Rings matter in this argument. 

The time is here to do it. Following in my NBA league MVP Criteria is the NBA Greatest of All Time Criteria. The endless debates over the past ten years from the media and message board fanatics have added up. The advanced metrics matter in this discussion. Points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks are not good enough. Almost everything matters. One title ring and one league MVP are not enough to be the Greatest of All Time. Just stick with the facts to keep emotions in check.

Are you stuck on a computer all day trying to look up Dwight Howard’s defensive impact numbers to justify his superiority over Derrick Rose for the 2011 MVP award or looking for pictures of Osama Bin Laden's dead corpse?  Step up right in here, slim. No, I do not have any pictures of Osama, but I’m letting you know Derrick Rose got the MVP trophy locked up. What about next season? Let’s break down D-12 step by step right now to see if he has a good chance to win the coveted title in upcoming seasons. This is going to be a fun ride.

What’s going on? Derrick Rose is not officially anointed as the 2010-2011 NBA MVP, but people are coming out from the woodwork to get vocal. They banded together to try to prevent him from getting the award. It just seems that way, which is hilarious. I do not know what the huge deal is. What is the problem? A lot of people are up in arms about this. I have to figure this out. Writers and basketball purists are getting emotional over this. I have to explore the reasoning behind the hate. 

This is not me taking on a war against advanced numbers. I have bigger things to do than just look at digits all day. Numbers do not lie, but people can slant them in many different ways. Think about it. Numbers are numbers. That’s all they are. Numbers. They do not say anything until people interpret them. That’s when we get into trouble. The ordeal is magnified when people hide certain numbers to support their agenda and disregard the others that do not support their position.

I come in peace, but I’ll talk about this. This has to be addressed. Welcome to LeBron’s new nightmare. The Miami Heat is getting $hi#$ed on by the full media blitz. It’s not over. It’s never going to be over with the public onslaught. There is more to come, but no one has mentioned this particular item. I write this with full sincerity - LBJ will not win MVP ever again. This is a bold claim, but there are many reasons to see why.

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Here are the final five studs. You have to pick one because this list will not change. Take one, only one, and roll with him all the way to the finish line. Let’s hope that the MVP race is not effed up like LeBron’s Decision over the summer where insiders knew he was going to Miami all along. Game by game analysis is a horrible way to determine this. People should do a bi-weekly thing. One game at a time causes too much overreaction. Let the games add up, okay?

Many people are claiming that this is LeBron’s MVP to lose especially the LeBron James Defense Force. Where do we start? I cannot think where to begin. I don’t even know where the middle lays. Where does it end? Is the based god real? Is this a slippery slope? Only time will tell. Why are we even arguing semantics? Whose side are you on? Many questions. Not many answers. LeBron James versus The World is shaping up to be better than Scott Pilgrim versus The World.

The newly minted 2011 All Star game MVP worked his way to be the star of stars. 37 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 steals are great numbers. Props to Kobe. It is back to business since All Star weekend is over. Where is Kobe in the league MVP race? Remember, this isn’t the legacy award  like the All Star spots. Everyone has to put in serious work. That includes Bryant who is usually penciled in before the season started. Every great player's time fades away, too. It sucks, but that's life.

This kid and his fan base are going through the ultimate stages of trolling from other people right now. I really mean it. Derrick Rose has more haters than fans. You know what that means? Fear. He has a realistic shot in winning the damn thing. That scares people. Admit it; most of us who are in our late 20s – early 30s have never seen anything like this before. 22 years old. MVP? The hell?

What is the business in Miami? They’re winning. What is the problem? LeBron James recently put in some serious work against Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic with 51 points, 11 boards, 8 assists, and 17-25 from the field. There was nothing quiet about that. Bron dominated that ish. People were writing Wade off. Then Dwyane goes for a triple double against Charlotte (22 points, 10 assists, 12 boards). 28 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 blocks, and a steal against the Clippers. MVP candidates do not take a back seat to anyone, but Wade did?

Since we are still dealing with winter, I have a bone to pick with Ginobili! Charles Barkley has forever ingrained that in my mind. Ginobili! Yeah I know it’s old, but the meme works just like “Dental plan! Lisa needs braces. Dental plan!” Ginobili! is linked with Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone. Why is he an MVP candidate? Themes involved with the question deals with gossip, truth, and self-sufficiency. Let’s explore this because I cannot get my mind wrapped around the idea. Ginobili?

I’ve been watching a lot of Oscar nominated films lately such as The Fighter, Inception, and Black Swan. I figure I might as well implement that with the MVP candidates to create some kind of imagery. Dirk Nowitzki gets The Coen’s True Grit. He does not symbolize the Rooster character. It’s just the title itself fits him. He is playing through a knee injury. Dirk came back too early, but he is grinding it out for more wins.

Seriously. Is he? He does EVERYTHING for the Thunder. He is the facilitator, scorer, and defender (although he’s been slipping). He has more duties than Durant. The kid from Long Beach, California does that stuff very well. I’m wondering if he is a real MVP candidate. He took a quantum leap this year and the numbers are jaw dropping. This is a serious question and needs to be scrutinized. He led the team without Durant to beat the Boston Celtics on their home floor. Without Durant ya understand?

The “I’m from the future” NBA commercials are too creepy. They need to stop. Whoever came up with that idea should be beaten with a dirty used plunger. They were good in quality until the Chris Paul one came up. It looks like they stopped trying. It looks bloody awful. Where is the final edit? The rotoscope and green screen effect are horrible. I thought the NBA had money to polish that sucker up. Looks like they didn’t give a damn either. “Go get it, Chris.” If I was Paul, I would have told the guy to hop back into the damn time machine. Bring back Bill and Ted while he’s at it. Dude.

The streets are buzzing. I’m going to agree with this. The future NBA commercial featuring him and some old black guy standing there talking about his future is creepy. That pissed off Seattle. Sorry, Seattle. That sucked just to watch. You’ll always have Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. And Shawn Kemp’s kids. And grunge. And a band formerly called “Mookie Blaylock” that became Pearl Jam. And Gary Payton’s trash talking. That was the ish back in the day.

There has been plenty of noise about this guy in Orlando. People across the Internet, who truly believe that they know more than the guys who actually write for the big leagues, claim that Howard should be the league MVP. He certainly has a case, but I’m not convinced that he is a front runner. This is his best chance yet to get one. The Magic recently had huge trades to improve the team. Will that be used against him when they cast their vote?

I hear this from fans a lot trash talking each other, “It’s not my fault that your team sucks.” That’s not trash talking. That is just stating the obvious. Of course you’re not responsible. You place the blame on the general manager and players. Way to go, douche. He smiled while high fiving his friend. Then he posted his status to Facebook. I’m willing to bet he quoted himself and placed that underneath his default picture. Lame. Stupid. He had to be a Laker fan wearing a Kobe jersey.

LeBron James will be named MVP Sunday and accept from David Stern before Game 2 Monday night. Only suspense is voting.

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No surprise here. It was LeBron's award to lose even before the season started, and the announcement will only make it official. The real question is whether or not LeBron can add a championship ring to his second Maurice Podoloff trophy. - CYE

Van Gundy says that fans and media "view players primarily as scorers … and view most everything else as secondary," meaning they overlook Van Gundy's guy, Dwight Howard, the favorite to repeat as defensive player of the year.

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