WTF Is The NBA MVP Award?

Go to sleeper.com or download the app, and use promo code Rusty and for a limited time you'll get up to a $500 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details. Currently operational in over 25 states. Check out Sleeper today!
Corrections: MJ did not win mvp in 95. Karl's mvp interrupted MJ's 3 peat because MJ won in 96 and 98.
Bird did not win 3 MVPs in 1984.
Chapter 4 title card whoopsies
0:00 intro
1:54 Chapter 1
15:22 Chapter 2
30:52 Chapter 3
48:13 Chapter 4

[@rustybuckets]

Go to sleeper.com or download the app, and use promo code Rusty and for a limited time you'll get up to a $500 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details. Currently operational in over 25 states. Check out Sleeper today!

[@handeggchan1057]

"Jokic making the case for the MVP award on social media" He's more likely to win next year's Dunk Contest than do that

[@sheyarjames4904]

Jokic would rather make a case for his Horses to win their race...

[@AtmosphericAtmosphere]

You re wrong he most like to win another chip that is MVP...not circusant but guz who make histeammate better and is best when needed

[@lifeonthelake4367]

Not the greatest arguments

[@congsience2989]

most valuable pony, he's absolutely in

[@handeggchan1057]

@@congsience2989 he should dunk over one of his horses (he gets injured and is out for the remainder of the season)

[@fridgmanfrustle4376]

I love how reliably you can breakdown Rusty’s video essays into 70% basketball analysis and 30% critique of capitalism

[@i_fuze_hostages6]

You make significantly better long form content than I could have imagined I think the split into this channel being long form and the 2nd channel being for 20 minutes or so has improved your videos a ton

[@fortynights1513]

It certainly leads to the channels having more distinct identities from one another

[@mhead1117]

If you like him so much why don't you marry him?

[@HorizonOfHope]

I am President of a regional power. I was about to oversee the construction of our glorious new super weapon. Then I saw: hour long Rusty Buckets. The regime can wait.

[@meh7348]

Let's be honest, it's really just a glorified Offensive Player Of The Year award.

[@brodro8571]

Modern day yeah for the most part 😭

[@alexanderboulton2123]

Well...offense is the most valuable THING in the NBA 😂

[@ineveryuniverse3953]

To be fair, it probably will ALWAYS be that way. The most basic and fundamental idea in basketball and most sports has always been the goal of scoring more points than the opponents. Scoring in itself is the most important aspect to gain for offense and basketball as a whole. But considering that, there is a reason why we consider more than just scoring and even winning in mvp conversations. Each player at the top of the discussion is one of the best scorers on some of the better teams (trying to consider Luka), so we factor in the rest of their stats, narrative, etc.

[@Jamellii]

It’s a glorified employee of the year award**

[@masonknowsball]

I think Shai would shift the narrative on this, one of the most skilled defensive guards in the league.

[@Tomtainius]

Rusty it’s 2am here in the UK and you drop an hour-long banger on a topic I’ve been waiting to see you cover for ages!? I’m tryna go to sleep dude 😂

[@Tomtainius]

And the sponsor’s name is Sleeper? You’re just rubbing it in my face lmao

[@wisefull]

4 am in Ukraine, doing the same hehe

[@franktuttor-ps3tc]

Just Wipe your mouth

[@borislavgonkov1014]

Bro same but in Spain

[@HaZZb97]

Greetings fellow UK NBA fan!

[@Jeffway24]

The pan to Tim Duncan's feet in that one shot is diabolical LMAO

[@oldhamneal]

Tired: Regular-season MVP Wired: Finals MVP

[@kiteracer]

“So Russ had his newly single Girl Boss moment…and we were all rooting for her.” Jesus Rusty, warn a brother next time lol 😅

[@Georgiaboy_]

“Just because something is subjective doesn’t mean it’s meaningless” Love this quote ! I feel like ppl get this confused

[@ritamariealan93]

I gotta say, I love the way you write your script and lay out everything. Word choice, flow, and organization is top notch!

[@rustybuckets]

Thank you so much!

[@RemmyRiffs]

Word choice and flow? What is he spitting bars? Jk lol. Rusty is great.

[@Dezy623]

@@RemmyRiffs great for falling asleep, takes 60 seconds to get out 15 words

[@yaeevsthewrld3087]

After all that bro said “idk 🤷🏾‍♂️” and dipped 💀

[@wreckfish3198]

As someone who's new to basketball (playing fantasy because my friends needed an 8th) I love your down to earth, non sensationalized videos. Always incredibly interesting and insightful.

[@brayancatano136]

My boy rusty went from content farm to full on NBA Documentary this was fire to watch 10/10

[@cooperhayes1194]

My biggest complaint is people treating the MVP like the scoring title

[@jankjaws9815]

It’s one of those awards where sometimes it’s spot on. The person who won it was completely deserving. On the other side of that coin it goes to someone who is still deserving but the voters for one reason or another don’t think so. Rusty puts it well with voter fatigue, but I think media narratives play a bigger role than people may admit. Edit: he essentially says the same thing lol.

[@5115neo]

So basically, “it matters when I want it to, like when a white person wins it, but it’s bullshit when I don’t want the person who wins it to win!”

[@felipecouto1102]

At this point you became one of my favorite channels on youtube, not just for basketball but overall, the change in format was amazing and I really help it reflects in numbers rusty.

[@davidroos935]

I’m a college student and these videos feel like a class seminar in THE BEST way

[@jto3314]

I started really getting into the NBA during the 2016-2017 season. And if you weren’t watching OKC games at the time and seeing what Russ was doing I truly feel for you, he was the most exciting and spectacularly athletic player I’ve ever seen bar none. I remember staying home “sick” from school to watch his games

[@TherealMatthias1998]

47:06 he nailed that shot on my 19th birthday. Thank you Westbrook

[@4Scoot5]

😂😂😂

[@connorkane1542]

Bro, as a bulls fan D Rose’s mvp speech brings a tear to my eye.

[@DatBoiGloomy]

Man OKC Russ made me start watching hoops again. I had just got instagram at the time and i would always see the crazy shit he was doing that year. Russ was so much fun in his younger days. No one ran the court like him and no one played as hard. Him and KD in OKC was dope af

[@snakexpert552]

The thing I hate about modern MVP discourse nowadays is that players are getting penalized for playing on contenders with deep rosters or adequate help. Like if you want to win a championship, your MVP level player probably has an all star level teammate, but now thats suddenly "too much help" to be in MVP consideration

[@KatarHero72]

Hard agree on DWade. Man is the 3rd best shooting guard in NBA history, and is one of the best defensive players under 6'5 in NBA history. He's the definition of a player who was MVP caliber but never won the award because of circumstances out of his control. Having to contend with Nash, Shaq, Dirk, LeBron, and Kobe with MVP at his peak for the award. It's hard to win MVP even when having an all time season like 2008-09....because the Cavs won 23 more games with LeBron being the superstar despite Wade having better numbers (sans rebounds).

[@fortynights1513]

In his “If the MVP went to the best player” series from 2020, Jonny Arnett had LeBron only narrowly taking the 09 MVP over Wade.

[@KatarHero72]

@@fortynights1513 It makes sense though. As a Miami fan I am biased towards Wade. But LeBron carrying that team to a better record than the Big 3 Celtics, late 2000s Spurs, Kobe B2B Lakers, and Melo/AI nuggets is wild. I know Cleveland's defense was crazy but still, it's a wild thing that it happened.

[@NT_Escanor]

I love the long form content that allows you to approach a subject from multiple sides and really flesh out your argument with evidence and narratives.

[@erstimus5439]

I think the rise of advanced stats is understated in how MVP conversations have shifted away from winning. The allure is that they offer a context-independent, objective measure of a player’s impact, and make it easier to argue that a player is more impactful than another despite fewer wins. A big focus of Jokic’s 2022 case was that he led the NBA in a lot of advanced stats. It’s often difficult to look at box-scores and see how things like turnovers should be factored in, or whether having more points outweighs more rebounds, etc, or how unquantifiable things like defense can be weighed in. It’s also led the debate to be leas focused on scoring alone than in eras past.

[@fortynights1513]

If advanced metrics were around throughout NBA history, and we used VORP to determine MVP’s (which is available since 1974), you’d find a lot of the best players getting more MVP’s: Kareem would have seven (1974-1980) Dr. J and Magic would take 81 and 82, Then Larry Bird would win four straight from 1983-1986, followed by seven straight MVP seasons from MJ from 1987-1993. David Robinson takes the two MVP’s in 94 and 95, followed by MJ again in 96 and 97. Karl Malone would get 1998 and 1999’s awards. Then in the four season stretch of 2000-2003, we get Shaq, Vince Carter, Duncan and Tracy McGrady. After that, KG in 2004 and 05, and LeBron would get eight straight MVP’s from 2006-2013. Then Durant in 2014, James Harden in 2015, Stephen Curry in 2016, Russell Westbrook in 2017, LeBron again in 2018, Harden in 2019 and 2020, and Jokic would be finishing up his fourth straight MVP season. Of those mentioned, I believe only Vince Carter led the league in VORP, and never finished top five in an MVP vote in his career.

[@lazarperic4525]

No, big focus was on: - him playing without Murray and MPJ - having no real 2nd scoring option - having guards that are dogwater awful on the defensive end - similar stats compared to Giannis and Embiid and somehow having a better +/- than those 2 - ending up with similar records as Giannis and Embiid, idk about individual Ws aka the ones they were part of - first ever with the "2000 pts - 1000 reb - 500 ast" season It was "because of the advanced stats" for those media guys and fans who looked at their ppg and seeding and decided that he was nowhere near those two so those stat nerds had to pull out whatever they could to explain all that stat stuff to them. Even that "ppg argument" can be looked at from this perspective: "Even tho he had fg% on his side, Jokic had 3pts less because of FT attempts - if he had more FTs he'd be around 30ppg that season, at least." There ya go cuh, and ngl in that season I actually hoped that they'd make history and give it to both Jokic and Embiid lol ✌️

[@chugcanthoop]

There’s no narrative around Luka cuz no one watches the mavs 😂 if people realized how depleted the roster was for the first half of the season I think there would be atleast some narrative there, there were several games where guys like AJ Lawson and Greg Brown were STARTING (I know what you’re thinking, WHO?!?) but yah it’s a really tough sell if they stay at 7 or 8 for sure even as a mavs fan I would think that’s a bit flukey even considering how close the 8th seed is to the 4th seed atm

[@chriskong9292]

Bro’s pushing out movies every month lol

[@cadenhyde9510]

wake up babe, rusty dropped another hour long BANGER

[@azayfhossain5713]

Outro was peak 😂😂

[@Iso_SSB]

The ending was the best answer I could’ve asked for 😂

[@GoldenRNB]

Thank God you changed your setup. This is so much cozier and chill. Feels better to watch.

[@hoodyfrank7405]

Man I think you have a great understanding of what’s important in sports. Great use of clips and delivered in a great story format. Plus that Russel Westbrook introduction made me smile ear to ear. Love it man

[@fuzzyp]

In depth, well thought out points coupled with an mvp metric breakdown that actually made sense. Great editing too! Keep up the excellent work!

[@matthewthayer9316]

There's another factor in SGA's favor that I don't think you mentioned. He's North American(Canadian). The last 5 MVPs have all been from other continents, and I think people are hungry for a less "foreign" player to win it. It normally wouldn't matter, but this race is so close that I think it matters a great deal.

[@maniravsadhur8409]

That' probably part of the "narrative" factor, but true, there might be some foreigner fatigue.

[@shorewall]

Canadians are still foreigners to me, dammit! :D

[@YumYumTV-wt4si]

Long time viewer here. I feel very sentimental about this channel because of the time I discovered it. Just wanted to say am glad these long videos have amazing scripts, understanding of context both in the NBA and the world in general, great video editing and music. Don't ever stop Rusty

[@Apsburner9717]

An hour-long video on the night where I have to wake up early the next morning. Fuck it🤷🏾‍♂️

[@JOIEGREY]

love the longer form content. the MVP being the “main character” point was a really good one

[@shadovvpanther]

I think we might be in need of a new award. The MVP award might stay for the best player on the best like in the past and the new award would be something like an most impactful player award (MIP), which would be the player that has the most impact on winning aka carries his team the most.

[@vanshz8917]

Bro you're easily making the best NBA content on the platform, loving the change to long form content

[@kenlen8029]

Haven't finished yet but this is such a great video so far. I've seen many of your vids but this one hits different. Well done.

[@drewengel7073]

I feel that if Ant had slightly better stats, he would be in the MVP race, the narrative and the winning is currently there, all that's missing is the stats. There is no better narrative than emerging face of the league leads the worst franchise in North American Sports to their best or second best record. Its the perfect story that NBA wants to push, all that's missing are the stats.

[@grewdordan]

We’re loving the long-form content Rusty, please keep it up 🙏

[@DabiDavs]

Mfer brought up the hero's journey in a basketball convo, Rusty you're such a dork keep dropping these bangers

[@kdawgthechef2855]

You hit the nail on the head with people not relying on watching mainstream media for discourse. Overheard a guy watching your video on scoring in the elevator of my apartment.

[@dadncaleb]

I just started watching after the split. So I don’t know anything different. However, I must say your content is among the most interesting, intelligent and well researched I have seen on the platform. I truly appreciate your opinion and I watch your videos very intently to make sure I understand the full weight of the topic. I’m very glad to have found your channel, keep up the outstanding work!

[@derekp3820]

It’s so great to have you back to this long form stuff

[@thermitebanana]

Damn Jacob - such a slick and polished video. It's great to see you put out such weighty and high quality content

[@Mr.MooseTheGreat]

Your vocabulary and presentation skills have advanced dramatically over the years! Thanks for putting out amazing content and I love the long-form documentary style man keep up the great work!

[@BackWhereYouStarted]

love Rusty's longer form stuff. wish it got more appreciation

[@lucid5194]

The quick edit on Duncans fit 😂

[@allank8497]

By far the best video you’ve ever made Rusty! This is phenomenal work

[@trashtai]

based on the title alone I know this is going to be a multi-platinum banger

[@paksta]

First Rusty in-depth I've seen. Damn, dude you are really finding new gears here and I also like the shorter stuff. Go mate, go!

[@smittydog164]

My biggest problem is voter fatigue I think jordan and Lebron fans can both agree that both players should have way more mvp idc ab voter fatigue idc if Lebron won the award 20 times I want to see the player who deserved it and had the best numbers win the mvp idc how many times he wins and if a 9 seed is averaging 35 10 5 idc he deserve it over the 2 seed 25 8 2

[@juanmanuelmartinez3142]

guys this is extremately good content, could be something you watch on a streaming platform or something, I absolutely love this, congrats to all the team, keep it up!

[@fortynights1513]

3:42 I like the Wilt image there.

[@calvinsomers1197]

They should have named it the player of the year award. That’s basically how it is perceived already.

[@ammonhurst3026]

Word

[@lazarperic4525]

... that was always the point of the award, you give it to the guy who was the most valuable in the season - not for a damn 4 year stretch or his 10/15 years of legacy lol

[@taustin4948]

Completely agree

[@maniravsadhur8409]

Exactly, or player of the season. It could be framed as "which player will we remember most from this season?" - which doesn't necessarily align with the most impressive numbers.

[@sikkouvol.1996]

are you seriously this stupid

[@kostaVHjovanovic]

every time it switches to Rusty i cant help but think ''why is a guy whos head is wider than both shoulders combined holding this basketball'' nice vid

[@Ferris_v2]

This is crazy hard to stop watching even when I have to, banger video

[@BzBuck]

I have been saying this about dirk being robbed!!! I love that you brought this up

[@claudiofamilia2428]

Great video! Really love the topic!

[@huberthumphrey7499]

so nice i’m coming back to watch it again !

[@hbfagen8793]

This video makes me want the NBA to have a player top 100 list similar to the NFL. I wonder how often the MVP would actually be the top spot.

[@willpurvis2561]

I feel like if they did a list like that every year, they would have to basically put the mvp as number 1. Otherwise to the casual public it could devalue the award

[@Championshiporbust]

Thank god there’s another vid been waitin too long, lookin forward to the outcome

[@redpharaoh4527]

Yo Rusty, thought this was like ten minutes, stoked to see that it's over an hour long, tho have to watch after class now

[@thecrisnav]

I’m super enjoying this longer form content

[@shaquille7414]

Watching this a month late but the awards haven’t been decided yet and your videos are always interesting so

[@dominic64tblightning24]

As always, a thought-provoking video from you. 👌🏻

[@nerdzone]

You really returned to form as of late. Good job!

[@__kii6__]

This might be your best documentary rusty keep going 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@jaysenduverney7696]

Rusty, you should make a video talking about the peaks of certain players: drose mvp season, westbrook triple double king era, james hardens peak era, lebrons heat era, allen iverson mvp season, wilts 50pt season, stephs breakout seasons, etc)

[@igotkiwi]

Ya this is the best NBA content out there. So easy to watch. You’re the Alt Shift X of Basketball in terms of quality

[@G-TV_TheOneManArmy]

Made no sense to change that design of the award it looked decent now its like an oscar rip off

[@Sup4ast4r]

Another banger as always.

[@scottydrierwertyhg]

These longer videos are so good

[@jrodninja081]

There's an easy way to fix this: A 3,2,1 vote on every game. Tally the votes up at the end of the season. Most votes is your MVP...

[@dangleblampy1139]

I really like your long-form content

[@cobrallama6236]

Wow. Is this a Rusty Buckets video or The NBA Storyteller? Terrific work! Keep it up!

[@eskewroberts7663]

"every MVP has made the hall of Fame" Hardcore Derrick Rose fans: 😃

[@yisusoflare6225]

he deserves it

[@nickgamble280]

Thank you for recognizing sga's greatness

[@StancedHellcat]

Imo MVP is the person who impacts their team the most while also bringing them to the highest level (with a few exceptions such as Westbrook literally averaging a triple double while dragging the thunder to the playoffs or jokic having one of the greatest statistical seasons of all time) but unfortunately since the mvp voting is amongst people like Kendrick Perkins or Stephen A it kinda just ends up being “Who do I think had the most aura this season”

[@fobreeze4436]

Keep flirting with the camera angles!! I love it

[@joelman1989]

The writing in this video was… I need a good word… exceptional!

[@zsomborszigeti6797]

My problem with Bill's MVP as an example is that at that time the players were the one that voted on MVP and most players hated Wilt, that is clear from almost any player that played in that era.

[@q.7556]

About to sit down and eat this is going to be peak

[@ansnwang1134]

awesome video, like always!

[@failzapper]

almost thought you was going to go all das kapital when you asked what is value lmaooo

[@maxshirley21]

SHAI FOR MVP! thank you Rusty for agreeing with OKC

[@GibranCamus-kr2dc]

Nice. Been waiting on you to do an axiological analysis. Your past discussions of MVP have conflated descriptive with prescriptive. Hoping you can go full prescriptive bc the way narrative influences MVP, in my irrelevant opinion, renders MVP a poor metric for evaluating a player's metric. (Same with all awards that involve votes-they're bottom-rung in evaluating a player's relative greatness.) Cheers sir

[@cheapsket3873]

W ending, it caught me off guard lol

[@TheLazerBird]

I do appreciate how close it is between jokic and sga compared to jokic and embiid. I unfortunately have agendas to push and think jokic is still winning his 3rd

[@onlyfacts3178]

sGA shouldnt even be in this conversation...

[@sikkouvol.1996]

How can you have eyes and think SGA is even close to Jokic Luka or Giannis???

[@nenola504]

@@sikkouvol.1996mvp is not whos better Thas yall problem it go to the most valuable player that season not whos better and also nothing to do with playoff success

[@prelunatic]

What an enjoyable video all the way through. Thanks for this long ass banger video.

[@wem_iii]

Perfect ending Rusty

[@shafiksunderani4230]

You are the MVP Rusty of NBA content

[@el1tefire252]

8am and boy got me saying “oh yea he dropped another banger”

[@JoshWebster327]

You should’ve mentioned the IMDB award which tried to take the human error out of it and tried to give an award to the statistically best player

[@jerrymoody6989]

I know you didn't have me sit here for a while hour to tell me, " I dunno." The audacious nature of this action has prompted a like. Love you're content brother, long time watcher. Bless

[@dobronx4771]

Best video you ever made yet.