Lebron Wins Fourth MVP in Five Years

LeBron James was at his best this season, and the voters tasked with selecting the NBA's Most Valuable Player took notice.

During the 2012-2013 regular season, Lebron James clearly displayed why he is considered as the best player in the world and the voters tasked with selecting the NBA’s Most Valuable Player agreed. Lebron came within only one vote away from becoming the NBA’s first unanimous MVP in history. 

The official presentation of the award came Sunday May, 5 and Lebron was welcomed with a heartwarming introduction video of his family and closed showing their appreciation. He then accepted his award and gave a very genuine speech showing appreciation to all those who have helped him be the man he is today. He highlighted his speech by thanking his family and friends for being a great supporting cast, and paid homage to his teammates, stating that without them, none of his individual accolades would be possible.

Throughout this season, Lebron has accomplished some pretty amazing things that will probably never be done again. James was the only player in the NBA to lead his team in scoring, rebounding and assists per game this season, had a record six straight games of scoring at least 30 points while shooting at least 60 percent, became the youngest player in league history to break the 20,000-career-point plateau and won five of the six Eastern Conference player of the month awards. James has also became the second player in NBA history to post at least 2,000 points, 600 rebounds, 500 assists and 100 steals in a season twice, joining Larry Bird, who did it three times. The only other player to do it once was Jordan.

I mentioned in an earlier post, James for MVP that Lebron would win the MVP and now I’m ecstatic to see that the voters witnessed the same level of greatness that I witnessed from Lebron.

James's for MVP

With his extraordinary level of play this season, Lebron James is on par to be crowned this year’s regular season MVP.  That would make it four out of the last five years that James has been given the prestigious award. But this season of all his wonderful years in the NBA can arguably go down as his best yet.   

 

James is leading his Miami Heat team with 27 points per game, eight rebounds per game and seven assists per game, while shooting an amazing 54% from the field. The consistent level of play has been on display for the entire season and each game James seems to excite his fans more and more by doing something more amazing than the game before.

Assuming James ends up being named MVP, he would become only the fifth player in NBA history to win the award at least four times, joining superstars Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six), Bill Russell (five), Michael Jordan (five) and Wilt Chamberlain (four). He would also become the first player since the NBA-ABA merger back in 1976 to win the MVP four times within a five-year span.

I honestly believe that this should be James fifth MVP, in my opinion he was wrongly robbed of the award in the 2010-2011 season, which was given to Chicago Bulls superstar guard Derrick Rose. Even in that season, James was playing the best basketball but I believe that his decision to go play for the Miami Heat that season, which was already equipped with two other stars, weighed heavily on the voting. 

As a Lebron fan, this additional career achievement will feel great because it shows me that the world is coming around to the idea of James being the best player in the game today and maybe even the history.  

Lebron James:The Most Criticized Player Ever

Is it weird to you that some may say Lebron is the best player to ever play and then others say he is the most overrated of the superstars ever? I find it mind boggling that Lebron receives the amount of flack he does. He’s coming off of a championship season and yet he still is considered a under achiever in the eyes of many critics.

Lebron has won three of the last four regular seasons MVPs by exhibiting a tremendous separation in level of play between him and every other player in the NBA. This past summer, he led the USA Men’s Basketball team to a gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics, a USA team that consists of today’s premiere stars in the NBA. Even taking all his recent success into consideration, there are many who still believe that Lebron has to prove he is worth all of the recognition. I find it hard to believe that anyone who understands the sport of basketball can still argue the greatness of Lebron James.

Night in and Night out, he still amazes everyone with his incredible play on the basketball court. Each year that James has been in the NBA he has added a new component to his arsenal of basketball maneuvers.

It is beginning to seem as if it is a possibility that Lebron may never escape from the negative attention. There will always be someone there to compare him to Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, two of the greatest players in NBA history. In my opinion, the world should stop comparing Lebron to the two and allow him to become his own legend. Lebron has never expressed that all of the criticism affects him or his play but he did not prove that in the 2011 NBA finals when the Miami Heat lost to the Dallas Mavericks. The Heat lost mainly because Lebron played the worst basketball he has ever played in his entire career.

The most pressure James has ever faced came when he left the Cleveland Cavaliers and signed with the Miami Heat, teaming with fellow superstars Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.  Then to lose in the Finals to a team who obviously were the underdogs, created a national abundance of criticism towards James and to an extent it was deserved. I believed he deserved a little of the harsh analysis mainly because I’m a fan and it hurt to see Lebron playing so little in such big moment but the remarks began to get to personal  and offensive. 

Statements from greats such as Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson about how they wouldn’t have done with Lebron did and they would have won on their own began to surface. The fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers celebrated the Heat’s lost just because they knew that meant Lebron had failed. Comments and reactions like those surfaced all summer but instead of killing Lebron’s spirit, it made him want to win even more.

In the off season of 2012, Lebron worked on his craft and added a post game which many say was going to make him uncontainable.  Lebron came back in the next season on top of his game and led his team to a championship ring.  Even after doing so, the criticism still came in Lebron’s direction. He just continued to work on perfecting his craft and he entered this current season on an “unstoppable” streak.

Becoming the youngest player to ever record 20,000 career points and breaking many other records, I believe it is time that the world recognizes the greatness that Lebron James is delivering to us.  Not only is Lebron the face of the NBA, but he is also a philanthropist and is very influential in the communities across America. It is time that the criticism cease and the appropriate recognition begins.

A Little Background Info

Born in December 1984 in Akron, Ohio Lebron Raymone James showed early in his life that his talent for basketball was continually growing, and he began to earn a reputation as a prodigy of the sport. James was selected number one (1) overall in the 2003 NBA draft by his hometown team the Cleveland Cavaliers. Ten years later, James continues to dominate in all aspects of the sport, as well as developing into a global phenomenon. Overcoming every obstacle and accomplishing many achievements, even when many believed he could not, contributes to James' global iconic status as well as inspires others to achieve greatness.
In his ten year career, James has averaged an astonishing 27.6 points per game, 7.2 rebounds per game and 6.9 assists per game. These fantastic averages are numbers that James has grown accustomed to as he averaged nearly identical statistics while playing his four high school years at St. Vincent St. Mary’s, in Akron, Ohio. The only difference came in points with James averaging 31.6 points per game in high school.  Upon graduating high school, James decided to forgo college and enter into the 2003 NBA Draft. Once the decision to go pro was announced, the negative criticism came down hard on James. The comparisons to NBA legends, the questioning of his physical and mental readiness and James’s life being put under a microscope began. James quickly proved his doubters wrong by dominating in his very first NBA game, where he finished with 25 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. James showed that his first performance was just a preview of things to come.
Over the next seven seasons, James’ skill level continued to grow in many ways that made him impossible to defend. James and his Cavalier teammates managed to record winning records each of the seven seasons and making the playoffs in five of the seven.  In 2006-2007, James led the Cavaliers to the NBA, where they were shut out in the series 4-0 by the San Antonio Spurs. After losing in the Finals, the questions of James ever being able to win a world championship surfaced.  In the summer of 2010, James became a free agent and had the entire NBA anticipating which team he would sign to. James eventually signed to the Miami Heat, teaming with superstars Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. The team was designed to win championships immediately but fell short of the goal as they lost to the Dallas Mavericks 4-2 in the 2011 Finals. The Heat entered the next season refocused and used their losing experience as motivation to win the championship. Led by James, who was named MVP of the regular season, the Miami Heat beat out the Oklahoma City Thunder in a convincing fashion 4-1. Below is a brief highlight reel displaying a few of the many great things Lebron was able to do during the 2011- 2012 championship season:

After winning a championship and silencing his critics, James continued his excellent level of play and helped lead the USA Men’s Basketball team to a gold medal in the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
James consistent level of play has the sports world intrigued to see what's next to come in the already legendary career of his.