MV3 Voted MV5

Lebron takes two, and the Heat's MVP is dragged down to fifth. For the last time, we hope.

It's indicative of a (hopefully last) lost season that Dwyane Wade didn't finish where he did in last year's MVP voting, right behind Kobe and Lebron.

Instead, Wade was fifth, surpassed in the eyes of the panel by Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard and relegated to the bench, so to speak, while Lebron took home his second MVP in a row.

Wade received more fifth-place votes than any other player, but the first four candidates each sported a vote total more than three times Wade's.

Was he that different than last year? Well, a miniscule amount, statistically, but recognizably in terms of his desire to not do all the heavy lifting. Where last year Wade wanted to prove he hadn't been hobbled by injury, this year he wanted to take a small step to the side, asking his teammates to do more.

They didn't, or couldn't, depending on how you feel about Michael Beasley.  Another teammate, Rafer Alston, skipped town and quit the team altogether. The playoffs were mostly a disaster.

And now our MV3 is fifth, quite possibly the lowest-ranked MVP a franchise can't even begin to afford to lose. So, um, please think of it this way, Wadeykins: no one appreciates you more than us. Least of all those know-nothing voters.

Janie Campbell is a Florida native who believes in the pro-set and ballpark hot dogs. Her work has appeared in irreverent sports sites around the internet.

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