Hot Take - Russell Westbrook Should Win This Year's NBA MVP

Welcome to Hot Take! This new series aims to become the hub of quick controversial opinions here on View From The Bridge that will either enrage or delight (but most probably the former!). Unlike other series here on VFTB, Hot Take is powered by YOU! Follow and comment on our Instagram for a chance to see your very own controversial Hot Take included on both our website and app! 

Friday 23rd April - Russell Westbrook Should Win This Year's NBA MVP 

I'll admit it. When this one first came up in conversation, I just heard crickets and rolling tumbleweed before thunderous laughter followed. However, like most on the conversations I seem to have with this weeks Hot Take producer Aaron Sparrowhawk, the more sense he seems to make. 

The 2021 NBA season is on track to produce one of the most tightly contested MVP races we have seen in recent years. At no point did I ever think that Russell Westbrook would be included in this conversation but as the games roll by he's starting to make more and more of a case for himself. As of right now, the main candidates for this years MVP include Stephen Curry, Nikola Jokic and Joel Embid with a smattering of others trailing slightly behind. There is no doubt that each of these players has earned the right to be an MVP in their own right, but Westbrook is completely flying under the radar. 

With what was supposed to be a sell-out season for Westbrook, he is slowly turning the Wizards from a losing franchise into a winning one - together of course with fellow backcourt All-Star Bradley Beal. Right now, the Wizards sit 10th in the Eastern Conference with a record of 26-33 and are currently on a 7 game win streak - 9 wins and 1 loss in their last 10. "Mr Triple Double" has also kept to his name sake so far in 2021, producing numbers that just a few short years ago, earned him a landslide victory in MVP voting, and when compared to this years candidates, you start to see where Mr Sparrowhawk is coming from: 

Westbrook: 21.9 ppg - 11.1 rpg - 10.9 apg 

Curry: 31.2 ppg - 5.6 rpg - 5.8 apg

Jokic: 26.3 ppg - 10.9 rpg - 8.7 apg 

Embid: 30.0 ppg - 11.1 rpg - 3.1 apg 

The very fact that Westbrook can collect triple doubles like infinity stones shouldn't take away from their importance. In the grand scheme of the NBA, 40/50 point performances are probably going to get a player more MVP votes come seasons end. However, Russell Westbrooks continued efficiency and versatility on both ends of the floor, arguably makes him more 'valuable' to the Wizards and therefore should be this years MVP. 

However, as we all know, life is just one big popularity contest and this is where Westbrook falls short. The "Mr Trible Double" catchphrase sold in 2017 and produced a great storyline, which is ultimately what the MVP is all about. For that very reason, no matter how well Westbrook and the Wizards continue to do, Steph Curry's return after an injury ridden season whilst acting as an offensive one-man army will catapult him to the top of the MVP voting list in May. 

Russell Westbrook - Flikr (allproreels.com)