There is no definition for what makes someone the Most Valuable Player in the NBA.
If it’s the best player, LeBron James should have way more than four trophies. If it’s the best player on the best regular-season team, then Giannis Antetokounmpo has been the correct pick in each of the last two seasons. Of late, it’s often been the leading scorer; Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook and James Harden recently won MVPs in scoring-title seasons.
If it’s the player most valuable to a contending team, a case can be made for Chris Paul.
Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul (3) drives around Los Angeles Lakers guard Dennis Schroder (17) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, March 21, 2021, in Phoenix. (AP PhotoRick Scuteri)
Let’s be clear: Paul is almost certainly not going to win the award this year. He’s averaging 16 points and nine assists. That's not enough to move voters. The last time someone with numbers that weren’t eye-popping won the MVP vote was when Steve Nash got his back-to-back trophies in 2005 and 2006. Every MVP since has averaged at least 23.8 points, and four have averaged at least 30 points.
This year’s race is as wide open as it has been in years. And with no clear favorite, there will likely be even more debates about the “most valuable” part of the MVP award.
James seemed like the front-runner, then the Los Angeles Lakers lost a few games without Anthony Davis and now James is likely out for at least a few weeks with a high ankle sprain. Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid moved into that unofficial MVP favorite spot, then he got hurt, as well. Harden has been brilliant since joining Brooklyn, which means he’s in the mix once again.
Denver’s Nikola Jokic could win it this year. So could Portland’s Damian Lillard. It would be foolish to rule Antetokounmpo out in his quest for three in a row. James, Embiid and Harden all still could be the winner. It’s as wide open as it has been in years.
If one criteria — though not usually a top consideration — will be “player most valuable to a contending team,” then Paul deserves a major look.
Let’s start with the obvious reason. The Suns are good.
They weren't bad before Paul's arrival. Phoenix made some noise by going 8-0 in the restart bubble at Walt Disney World last summer in an ultimately futile longshot quest to make the playoffs, but this team is better than that group was — their veteran point guard being one of the big reasons why.
“He’s just such a smart player, man,” Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers said. “Still obviously skilled, still athletic. If you give Chris Paul a team of guys that want to follow — and that’s the key, Chris can be tough, but he’s with the right group, they want to follow, they want to be led — then there’s no better player in the NBA for that.”
They’re 28-13 so far this season, second in the Western Conference entering Tuesday's game at Miami. Anything short of all-out collapse will have the Suns in the playoffs for the first time since 2010 and end the second-longest current drought in the NBA; only Sacramento, which hasn’t been in a playoff game since 2006, has waited longer.
This should be no surprise. Paul’s teams win.
This is his 16th season and the 14th consecutive in which Paul’s team has a winning record when he plays. They don’t just win, they win big: all five of Paul’s teams over those past 14 seasons — the Hornets, the Los Angeles Clippers, Houston, Oklahoma City and now Phoenix — have at least a .600 winning percentage in his regular-season appearances.
Put another way, for every three games Paul plays, his teams win two of them. That’s pretty good.
On Sunday, he became the sixth player to reach 10,000 assists, and either toward the end of this season or early next season -- barring injury -- he’ll have enough points to be the first member of the 20,000-point, 10,000-assist club. James is 331 assists away from joining him.
Phoenix got Paul in a trade with Oklahoma City before the season, not deterred by the $44 million option he holds for next season, one that he’s obviously going to exercise. Other teams were scared off by that or couldn’t make it work while pursuing other free agents. Phoenix general manager James Jones went all-in and made the move.
“He should get the majority of the credit,” James said of Jones, his former teammate in Miami and Cleveland. “He put that team together and then he pressed a button to get CP3 to Phoenix. And we all know CP3’s resume. When CP3 goes to a team, they automatically become a better team.”
Paul was second in the MVP voting 13 seasons ago. He was third in 2012, fourth in 2013, has been sixth or seventh three other times along the way. And he’s never been to the NBA Finals, one of the few empty boxes on his resume.
No, he won’t win the MVP award this year, either.
But, at minimum, he's earned a spot in the conversation.
Tim Reynolds is a national basketball writer for The Associated Press. Write to him at treynolds(at)ap.org
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Ryan Gerard left his home in south Florida at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 13 for a trip he never imagined taking this year, and one he certainly didn't regret.
He returned home nine days and some 20,000 miles later after stops that included Italy on his way to a small island off the coast of Africa, and an eight-hour layover in Paris on the way back that gave him enough time to see the Arc de Triomphe and the Notre-Dame Cathedral.
“I am looking at the Eiffel Tower,” Gerard said by phone Monday afternoon. “Pretty sick.”
Oh, and along the way he picked up an invitation to the Masters.
That green envelope — Augusta National doesn't do evites — might not be there right away. The final Official World Golf Ranking for the year isn't published until Sunday, and the 26-year-old Gerard will check in at No. 44.
And it's all because of his decision to play one more tournament, even if that meant flying over the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to get to the Mauritius Open, the final tournament this year on the European tour and Sunshine Tour schedule.
Despite some 36 hours of travel — he got to his hotel at 1 p.m. Monday local time — Gerard opened with rounds of 68-69 and was tied for fifth. He was No. 57 in the world and needed a two-way tie for fourth to crack the top 50.
“I figured I’d have one more crack at that and give it my best shot,” he said after the second round. “Then I could hang my hat on giving it my all for the season, and the top 50 by the end of the year to get into the Masters. So that’s kind of a kick in the pants to come 10 000 miles from Florida and tee it up. It wasn't on the Bingo card at the start of the season, for sure.”
And then bingo! He posted a 63 at Heritage La Reserve Golf Links the next day to take the lead. On Sunday, he wound up in a playoff with scorching hot Jayden Schaper, the South African who has won the last two tournaments by making eagle in a playoff.
In Mauritius, Schaper holed out from about 60 yards short of the green for eagle to beat Gerard.
“I would have loved to win,” Gerard said. “But it was an unbelievable shot. He flew it perfect. Two hops, check, use the side slope and just trickled in. Hats off to him. He's been playing great golf. Back-to-back weeks where in a playoff he's made eagle from off the green to win it.
“I don't really know how often that happens,” he said with a laugh, "but it seems pretty rare.”
The consolation for Gerard was a big one — his first Masters.
Augusta was on his mind when Gerard played the RSM Classic at Sea Island last month — the final PGA Tour stop of the year — when he was No. 49 in the world. And then he missed the cut.
“I was looking Friday afternoon and was like, ‘Hey, does it make sense to go do anything?’ I was going to try to play the Nedbank (in South Africa), but the tournament deadline was the day before I missed the cut," Gerard said.
The Alfred Dunhill was out because that was the weekend his good friend and former North Carolina teammate Ben Griffin was getting married.
Last on the list was Mauritius. He had heard enough about Mauritius from Christo Lamprecht of South Africa that he checked the schedule, did the math and signed up.
Gerard had already done a fair bit of traveling after he narrowly missed out on the Tour Championship. He played in Ireland and England, Japan and Abu Dhabi. Clearly, he's willing to travel. This summer, he flew across eight time zones from Scotland to Lake Tahoe and then won the Barracuda Championship for his first PGA Tour title.
What's another trip with so much on the line?
Key to this tale was that win at the Barracuda Championship, the same week as the British Open. As an opposite-field event, it did not come with a Masters invitation. But it was co-sanctioned by the European tour, and that gave access to those events.
“I guess I realized it,” he said of his European perk. “I just didn't realize how impactful it might be.”
Chasing points of any variety can be dangerous in golf. Griffin, for example, played 13 consecutive weeks early this year in a bid to make the Masters (he fell just short).
There also was the case of Brandt Snedeker, who in 2017 missed five months with a sternum injury and watched his world ranking plunge. He ended the PGA Tour season at No. 50 in the world and then started sliding.
Snedeker, much like Gerard did this year, flew halfway around the world to play in the Indonesia Masters. It didn't have the same happy ending — Snedeker was near the cut line when he had to withdraw after the second round with heat exhaustion and dehydration.
Gerard wasn't down to his last chance. He would have had three months to start 2026 to either win or do well enough to get into the top 50, but he saw an opportunity.
“Figured I got nothing better to do,” he said. “It seemed like a cool thing, made sure it worked logistically and just went for it.”
On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
FILE - Ryan Gerard hits from the ninth tee during the first round of the BMW Championship golf tournament, Aug. 14, 2025, in Owings Mills, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, file)
FILE - Ryan Gerard watches his tee shot on the second hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, May 16, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
