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This debate would never take place in the NBA.

There, questions about who should win this year's National League MVP would be settled automatically by the standings. It's Step 1 in the weeding-out process. Players, however outstanding through the course of the year, are axed from the short list if their teams tank, while other candidates are elevated despite, perhaps, lesser numbers. Only twice in the last decade (Tim Duncan in '01-'02 and Steve Nash in '05-'06, still known in many local circles as "The Year Kobe Got Screwed") has the winner come from a team not winning its conference. In those years, the Spurs and Suns respectively were both seeded No. 2.

Clearly team success has been baked into the criteria.

Say what you will about varying definitions of valuable and whether voters too often become slaves to win totals (they do) and narratives (even more so), at least in pro basketball the relationship between awards and Ws makes some sense. There's nothing inherently egalitarian about the NBA. Generally, only eight or nine guys on a 15-man roster are relevant. Only five play at once, and in unequal minutes. One player almost always emerges as "The Man." He'll get more looks, extra time handling the ball (hence the invention of usage rate) and exert a disproportionate amount of influence on the final score. On bad teams the same rules apply, except necessity often becomes the mother of invention. Someone will get numbers, so it's the payoff helping separate the wheat from the chaff.

If NBA rules apply, Ryan Braun wins over Matt Kemp. He'll win with those baseball writers believing MVPs should play on contending teams, too. Except baseball, fundamentally built around an individual battle (pitcher vs. hitter) in a team setting, doesn't operate like basketball. In hoops a player can, cliche as it is, make his teammates better. The Dodgers fell short, but derisively asking what Kemp did to elevate his squad is absurd.

Well, he...

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Ursula Coyote/AMC
Things have gotten pretty messy for Walter White and the Dodgers.

For my money, there's no drama currently on the air better than AMC's "Breaking Bad." There also may be no better lead performance than Bryan Cranston as "Walter White" on that same show. He won three consecutive Emmy awards from 2008-2010 and his career has exploded as a result of his outstanding portrayal of a high school chemistry teacher turned meth cook. Cranston is also a Canoga Park native and a life-long die hard Dodger fan who's gone through this season's whirlwind like everyone else in L.A.

With "Breaking Bad's" season finale airing this Sunday, we talked with Cranston about the show, the Dodgers and acting in general. You can hear the entire show by clicking here, or if you want jump to specific parts in the breakdown below, click on the links:

- (4:18) Cranston shares how he fell in love with the Dodgers as a five year old watching Wally Moon hit "Moonshots" out of the Colosseum. These days, however, the Blue spark messier, uglier visions as the McCourt saga drags on with no end in sight. However, as Cranston notes, there's reason for optimism in the forms of Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp, his respective picks for the NL Cy Young and MVP. This led to a brief debate over the merits of Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander for AL MVP, plus Cranston's suggestions to create "The Kamenetzky Award" for the best performance on a bad team, as well as Razzie Awards in baseball.

- (7:58) Cranston discusses the moment Walter White truly "broke bad," and how show creator Vince Gilligan created the character with the goal of putting him through a radical transformation. A shift from "Mister Chips to Scarface," as Gilligan put it. Cranston's response: "I don't even know if that's possible, but if it is, how magnificent of a ride would that be?"

By leaps and bounds, they've pulled it off.

- (15:34) Cranston was once quoted as saying, "Actors basically are the type of person that with three seconds left, we want the ball. Give us the shot to make it or miss it." He describes it as "the actor's arrogance." We discuss the commonality of that mindset for an athlete like Kobe Bryant.

- (21:55) In his fantasy world, Cranston would become the next owner of the Dodgers. Were fantasy to become reality, would he spend money this offseason Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols or more pitchers?

Trolling around for highlights the other day, I came across the clip below, a very funny mock Sunday Conversation featuring Jordan Farmar and Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp promoting last summer's ESPY awards. Both play along very well, though I'd love to see some of the outtakes. There had to be some laughter.



"What was it like working with Bugs?"