[textilemonster]

I'm not one to completely dismiss the idea that a team's performance should affect whether or not a player gets MVP (it's good for a tiebreaker, and here we're talking about YOUR choice in YOUR game), but it does make me think that if a great season on a team that didn't make the playoffs shouldn't get MVP, then by similar logic, a very good season by a player on a team that barely reaches the playoffs is more deserving of MVP than a great season by a player on a team that runs away with its division.
If a team wins its division by 20 games, it probably would have made the playoffs without the guy, unless he had a truly historic season. Meanwhile, the team that would be sitting at home if it had lost one more game would certainly not have made the playoffs without the solid performance of... whoever we're talking about here.

Honestly, I think it would be interesting if the MVP Award was definitively defined as the "best performance award" or whatever, and then we also had a "lynchpin award" where we pick who was most important to their team's success, and it would include things like leadership as well as performance. THAT would make for some fun discussions in the Fall!