Bumped to frontpage - ED

To no one's surprise, Chicago Bulls' PG Derrick Rose was named the NBA's MVP this season, and becomes the youngest player at age 22 to win the award.  Rose finished with 1,182 points and 113 first place votes.  Howard finished a distant second, with 643 points.  Miami's LeBron James finished third.

Even though I am a huge fan of Rose and he is my favorite professional athlete to watch, I have always maintained that Dwight Howard should win the MVP because of his historical statistical season of 22.9 ppg on 59.3% shooting along with 14.1 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game, which no one had ever accomplished before.  Howard was also the most dominant player on both offense and defense in the game, and didn't have nearly as good a supporting cast as Rose did with the Bulls.

I would have placed Rose second on my imaginary ballot, as he became just the seventh player in NBA history to average at least 25 ppg, 7.5 assists, and 4 rebounds per game.

What really helped Rose in the eyes of the voters was the fact that Rose was the best - and most prolific - offensive player on the Bulls, along with being the obvious go-to-guy on the team that finished with the best record in the NBA.  The fact that the Magic finished 10 wins behind the Bulls didn't help Howard's cause either.

Rose's inefficiency on offense has been well-chronicled on this blog, but the fact that Rose can drive to the hoop and finish so well along with drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line more than makes up for his inefficiency from the outside.

Congratulations to Dwight Howard on winning the Defensive Player of the Year and finishing second in the MVP balloting!