The NBA doesn’t have separate awards for “Most Valuable Player” and “Best Player,” so the award essentially goes to the best player each year. Some people like to dig into the semantics of the name, saying the award should go to, well, the league’s most “valuable” player.

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Cavs GM David Griffin was asked about his star player’s comments Thursday during an appearance on the Jim Rome Show, and said James will always be the most valuable player to his team. 

Griffin, and James, have a point. Curry deserved the award for what it’s meant for years, but there is something to be said for the “value” of “most valuable.” The Cavs have talent around James, but they aren’t nearly as efficient without him like the Warriors are without Curry.

“I think so just in terms of the word ‘value,’ and again, we can get into a semantics question there, but I think if we’re really talking about who’s carrying a franchise and a league, I think LeBron does that, and our record without LeBron on the floor is not terribly good. He’s a guy who transcends every analytic metric you could ever use.”

Obviously both players are key to their team’s success, but when you break it down, the argument that James is more valuable is completely valid.