Thunder's Russell Westbrook wins NBA MVP, but award show does him no favors

The NBA held its inaugural awards show to hand out the 2016-17 season hardware, highlighted by Russell Westbrook winning his first career MVP. USA TODAY Sports

　　Russell Westbrook deserved the hardware.


　　As we discussed more than two months ago, when this debate was front and center and the Oklahoma City Thunder star was putting the finishing touches on one of the more memorable MVP races in NBA history, his triple-double season for the ages deserved to be rewarded. But for the love of Oscar Robertson, was this timing tough or what?


　　It wasn’t Westbrook’s fault that the league decided to wait 75 days to settle the argument by way of the NBA Awards show on TNT, with the 28-year-old beating out fellow finalists James Harden of the Houston Rockets and Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs. But synergy was sacrificed in the name of the almighty dollar. And by the time Westbrook got his hands on the Maurice Podoloff Trophy that belonged to the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry these past two years – nearly seven weeks after the announcement last season – the optics changed on the MVP race in the kind of way that gave the formal crowning a hollow feel.
It’s all a disastrous disservice to the players who deserve better.