LeBron James won the NBA’s MVP award on Sunday, but he fell one vote shy of being a unanimous selection. The writer who did not vote for LeBron, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe, wrote a column on Monday defending his decision to give Carmelo Anthony a first-place vote. Not surprisingly, ‘Melo doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.
“As far as the guy in Boston, I don’t know why he catches so much flak for that,” Anthony said after Game 2 against the Pacers, via the NY Daily News. “He has the right to vote for whoever he want. LeBron won the MVP. Why is everybody so mad that he didn’t win it unanimously? … Thank you.”
Of course Carmelo understands why Washburn voted for him, even though 120 other voters felt LeBron was the obvious choice. A lot of people think Washburn only voted for someone other than James to make a point and be different, but it’s not as if he voted for a bench player.
Anthony led the NBA in scoring with 28.7 points per game and has carried the Knicks for a large portion of the season. Washburn said he felt Carmelo was more important to the Knicks than LeBron is to the Heat, which is a tough argument to make. Not only is LeBron one of the best offensive players in the game, he was also in the running for Defensive Player of the Year honors. Anthony is more of a scorer than an all-around threat like James.
In any event, we know who Carmelo would have voted for.
