This is not an attack on LeBron James.  By no means is this meant to demean what was a remarkable, if not an historic, season by the player known as simply "King James."  LeBron led the Cleveland Cavaliers to the best record in the NBA and a franchise record 66 wins, nine better than the team's previous best, while averaging an eye-popping 28.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game this season.  Posting those kinds of individual numbers while enjoying so much team success is a pre-cursor to taking home the hardware as the NBA's Most Valuable Player.  And this season was no exception.  But James wasn't my choice for MVP.

Who is, you might ask?  Kobe Bryant?  Nope.  Dwayne Wade?  Try again. Dwight Howard?  Chris Paul?  No and no.  All of these players are tremendous talents who led their teams to success in the regular season, largely due to outstanding individual performances by the aforementioned players.  Despite the great play from all of these stars who put up ridiculous numbers, the Most "Valuable" Player in the NBA is not among them.  The true MVP in the 2008-09 NBA season was Denver Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups.

Billups isn't as sexy a pick as LeBron or as recognizable as Kobe Bryant.  He isn't as flashy as Wade or as explosive as Paul.  But the funny thing about Billups is that, more often than not, fans and media people alike tend to look at what Billups doesn't do rather than what he does. 

Billups doesn't score a ton of points or rack up assists in huge bunches.  As a matter of fact, Billlups has never averaged even 19 points or nine assists per game for any season over the course of his NBA career.  Billlups didn't average a career-high in any statistical category this season, making the significance of his contributions to the Nuggets this season even more difficult to detect to the untrained eye.

Billups came to Denver having played in six consecutive Eastern Conference Finals, all with the Detroit Pistons.  The Nuggets on the other hand, bowed out of the playoffs in the first round in each of the last five seasons.  Despite the fact that Denver won 50 games during the 2007-08 season, the team entered the playoffs as the eighth seed and was never a legitimate contender in a deep Western Conference, even with a top-tier coach in George Karl and all-stars Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson on the roster. 

When the Nuggets acquired Billups from Detroit just two games into this season, expectations for the team sky-rocketed in Denver.  Billups was a Finals MVP with the Pistons and brought leadership and clutch play to a Nuggets team that was talented but seemingly misguided.  Since his arrival, however, young players like J.R. Smith, Nene and even Anthony, already a two-time Olympian, saw their games elevated to another level.  The team did as well.

Anthony has evolved into one of the NBA's most efficient and deadly scorers with Billups there to distribute the ball.  Smith's game has continued to develop and the long distance sniper has begun to play more a well-rounded brand of basketball under Billups' tutelage.  Without putting up the alarming numbers that some of the game's premier player post year in and year out, Billups has continually found a way to make everyone around him better.

Not only did Billups lead the Nuggets to a franchise record 54 wins this season, and the team's first berth in Western Conference Finals in nearly 25 years, but the impact of his departure from Detroit has been vast and immeasurable. 

Detroit was swept out of the first round of the playoffs by James' Cleveland Cavaliers and failed to reach the 50-win plateau for the first time since 2002-03, Billups first season in with the Pistons.  Detroit won 20 fewer games this season than it did a year ago, despite having largely the same group that won so many games over the last six seasons.  Coincidence?  I think not. 

Chauncey Billups has never shot 50 percent from the field or scored 20 points per game.  He never led the league in assists or steals.  Very few things about Chauncey Billups scream superstar or MVP.  Like Tom Brady or Joe Montana in the NFL, however, the one thing that Billups brings to his team is victories.  Ask Pistons General Manager Joe Dumars who he thinks the most valuable player in the league is. 

Numbers are great and many careers are built around them.  Karl Malone and John Stockton put together Hall of Fame resumes by consistently posting big numbers, year in and year out.  The only problem is that they could never win it all.  Charles Barkley was a great player but could never quite push his team over the top even with his gaudy statistics.  All Billups does is win.  And that is valuable to me.