What does the MVP award even mean in sports? Everyone has their own opinion of who deserves the honor of being their league’s MVP. But the people who vote also have different ideas of what an MVP is. Generally people consider the MVP to be the best player in their respective league for that year. On the other hand some people take the term at its literal meaning (most valuable player). They believe that the player who has a bigger impact on his or her team winning deserves the award even if they are not the best player that year. For instance, if you go by the stats, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors was the best player in the league this year. However, you could argue that his team would have made the playoffs without him, a point that gains some ground since the Warriors did in fact win a playoff series without him. However, if the San Antonio Spurs didn’t have Kawhi Leonard, would they have made the playoffs? Possibly, but it wouldn’t have been as sure of a thing as the Warriors. So who deserves the award?

Well, this year something crazy happened. For the first time ever Stephen Curry won the MVP award by getting every single vote. No one has ever been a unanimous MVP in the NBA, or any other sport for that matter. Is that right though - even if he deserved the MVP, does it make any sense that no one else even had a chance to win?

That being said, as much as I disagree with him winning the award unanimously, I do like the fact that the voters are all on the same page. I believe that there needs to be a guideline set so that it is very clear what an MVP is, because people have different opinions on what defines an MVP.

An even better example is baseball. Back in 2011 Justin Verlander, a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, won the MVP. For those of you who don’t know much about baseball, a pitcher hardly ever wins that award. Typically the best pitcher in the league wins the CY Young award, which is basically an award for the best pitcher that year, which Verlander also won. The problem with that, is that a pitcher only pitches once every five games. That’s about 30 or so games out of 162 total. He is not out there enough to greatly affect the outcome of the season. That’s why they have the CY Young award. It is basically the pitchers' MVP.

The other concern is that baseball has a position called the “designated hitter.” This player does not play the field at all, he only bats. So he is only playing half the game. How can you give them an MVP award if they are not helping out in the field?

There are so many factors in sports that go into who should be the MVP, and believe me every one of the voters are aware of these factors and they all weigh them differently. That is why we need to have set guidelines on what an MVP is. There will still be people who disagree with the choice that is made, but at least everyone will know the reason why they were picked.