Now that the Thunder's season is officially over, I have to write one more piece as to why I think, without anymore doubt, that Russell Westbrook is definitely the MVP of the NBA this year.

Yes, his team lost in 5 games, and yes, he took a lot of shots. But, I watched every minute of all 5 of those games and I was left with the thought of, who else was going to score, or do anything of worth on offense for the Thunder? I mean Andre Roberson was their second leading scorer for gods sake. Steven Adams offense completely disappeared in the 5 games. Victor Oladipo just could never get his outside shot to go down with any consistency. Enes Kanter is such a liability on defense, the coaching staff could not count on him to play any big time minutes. After those guys, there is no one else, at all. Norris Cole was playing big minutes for them. That is a problem.

So, for the Bill Simmons of the world to go on Twitter rants after game 5 about what he would have done, I say, shut your god damn mouth. First off, Simmons has had it out for the Thunder since they traded Harden a million years ago. He has bashed them at every opportunity that he has had, and he has a lot of them. He clearly hates this team, and I'm pretty sure he dislikes Russell Westbrook the basketball player. But, for him to sit there and still argue that Westbrook's supporting cast was just fine, enough with that nonsense. They lost the third best player in the league, and it was Westbrook that single handily made that team a 47 win regular season team.

But, just to be some kind of hot take douchebag, Simmons continues to talk about how right he was all along that the Thunder just can't win a title this way, as if he was the only writer in America that predicted this. I'm a Thunder fan, at least I was until KD left them high and dry, and I picked the Rockets to win this first round series. In fact, I'd say about 95 percent of the basketball writers across the country picked the Rockets. So no Bill Simmons, you are not some kind of cleric that was the only one to pick the Rockets. The majority of people that write about and watch basketball picked the Rockets, and it is solely because they have a much, much better supporting cast. Flip these 2 players Harden and Westbrook, and I think the Rockets are just as good, and the Thunder would be lucky to be a .500 team. James Harden is an elite talent, a great scorer and very good at drawing fouls, but he plays no defense, doesn't have the heart that Westbrook has, and has proven to be a choker in big games up to this point in his career. Harden is not a closer, Westbrook is.

Another point that needs to be made, Harden has so much more around him now. His supporting cast is miles and miles ahead of the Thunder. He has shooters all over the floor, plus some big men that don't mind rebounding, playing defense and getting the occasional lob or 2 a game. When you compare the rosters, Harden has guys like Ryan Anderson, Eric Gordon, Trevor Ariza, Nene, Clint Capela and Lou Williams. That sounds a hell of a lot more enticing to me than the Thunder players I mentioned earlier. Russell Westbrook did everything that he could possibly do for this team. He scored a ton, I know he took a lot of shots, but he was still pouring in 51, 32, and 47 in 3 different playoff games. He was still attacking the glass as he has done his whole career. He was still somehow, with piss poor shooters everywhere around him, getting 10 assists a game. There were only 2 guys, Taj Gibson and Roberson, that were doing anything, and Roberson is one of the worst shooters in the league, statistically speaking. And while I love Taj Gibson and the toughness he brings to this team, he is a million years old. Steven Adams was just flat out a no show. That was disappointing to me because I thought he's take the next step. He did not. The bright lights of the playoffs seemed to have gotten to Oladipo. And, imagine how tired Roberson was from guarding Harden.

Also, imagine how tired Westbrook was from carrying this team for 87 games. People will gripe about his field goal percentage, but coming from a guy that plays basketball once a week, by the end of the night my legs are gone. The fact that Westbrook was still out there giving his all makes me love him and his game that much more, and also solidifies the fact that he is the MVP.

The MVP is a regular season award given out to the player that is their team's most valuable guy. No one this year was more valuable than Westbrook was to the Thunder. If he had skipped town like Durant did, the Thunder would have been a 15 win team at the absolute best. But, he stuck with the team that drafted him, averaged a triple double, led the league in scoring and was the guy in every game, especially their 47 regular season wins. So, I do not care what Bill Simmons, Howard Beck, Zach Lowe, Joe House, Tony Kornheiser, any of those guys have to say about him being selfish, a ball hog or obsessed with stats. Westbrook is the MVP, and a damn deserving one at that. I will argue anyone on this.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. When writing about other basketball writers, Ty always puts on his "Come At Me Bro" t-shirt. 

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