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From: afb@pucc-i (Michael Lewis)
Newsgroups: net.sport.hoops
Subject: Who will be MVP?
Message-ID: <1319@pucc-i>
Date: Thu, 27-Feb-86 10:29:39 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-i.1319
Posted: Thu Feb 27 10:29:39 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Feb-86 22:34:46 EST
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 45


     Just looking through the statistics in TSN's NBA section and thinking about
who should be MVP this year.  I've narrowed it down to the following group:

   Player                PPG   RPG   APG   Stl   FG%   FT%      Team W-L%

Dominique Wilkins        28.4  7.8   2.6   89    .475  .797      .577

Larry Bird               24.6  9.8   6.2   111   .464  .908      .820

Alex English             29.1  5.0   4.1   45    .506  .848      .574

Akeem Olajuwon           23.6  11.2  2.0   91    .516  .663      .654

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar      23.5  5.8   3.6   36    .569  .790      .750

Moses Malone             23.0  11.8  1.2   45    .445  .777      .642

Adrian Dantley           29.0  5.3   3.3   45    .559  .814      .473

     This is a tough call.  I think I can narrow it down further to Wilkins,
Bird, and Olajuwon.  From there it gets tougher.  I might be tempted to go with
Bird were it not for my innate dislike for the Celtics and the fact that he won
it the last two years.  He said he thought Michael Jordan deserved it last year.
I disagree, but I think Bernard King deserved it the year before.

    Wilkins has had a huge role in turning the Hawks into a winner.  The Hawks
are not stocked with superstars at every position, so Dominique draws a crowd
every night on Offense.  He still scores.  He is definitely one of the most
exciting players to come along in a while.

    Olajuwon was my pick until his recent knee injury.  Now I'm not entirely
sure.  This man is going to dominate the league for years to come.  Ewing is
great and will get better, but I'd rather have Akeem.  If he misses very few
games because of this injury, he's my pick.  Otherwise, I have to go with
Wilkins because of the way he's turned the Hawks around.

     What does everyone else think about it?  Any other candidates you think I
neglected?  I know there are some Boston fans out there who take umbrage at my
snubbing of Bird.  He's great, easily the best all-around player since Wilt.
I just think that Wilkins and Olajuwon have made outstanding contributions
toward winning records on teams that aren't nearly as loaded as the Celts,
and deserve to be recognized for this.

Michael Lewis @ Purdue University