LeBron James: The reluctant MVP

LeBron James #6 of the Miami Heat poses with his collection of Maurice Podoloff Trophies after being named the 2012-2013 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Year for the fourth time on May 5, 2013. (Getty Images)

If there’s anything that the legacy of LeBron James will be remembered for after his career is over, it will be for his numbers. It will be the near triple-double averages, the scoring title, the shooting percentages, the eye-popping efficiency ratings, the rebounds, the assists, the points and the +/-.

Right now, the number that stands out the most in the legacy of LeBron is four. LeBron just won his fourth MVP award in five years. He’s the only other player to do that since Bill Russell in the early 60s. And he’s the only player to have at least four MVP awards outside of Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan. He is also only has two MVPs away from equalling Kareem’s record of six and three more from becoming the most decorated MVP in NBA history. And he’s still only 28.

Even if James doesn’t win as many championships as Russell, Jordan, Kareem, Kobe Bryant or Magic Johnson, or score as many points as Kareem, Karl Malone, Jordan or Kobe, he could become the greatest regular-season performer in history, if he continues bagging the Most Valuable Player award at this rate.

But is that what he wants?

Any observer with a shred of common sense would say, ‘but who wouldn’t want that?’ Who wouldn’t want to be crowned as the best player of the season, year after year? LeBron’s staggering collection of MVP awards are an impressive feat and even at this point, already place him in the pantheon of the greatest basketball players who ever lived. But there’s a reason that, year after year, LeBron has shrugged attention away from this individual trophy to bigger things, or sometimes, different challenges.

A year ago, when accepting his third MVP award and before his first championship he said, “This is very overwhelming to me as an individual award. But this is not the award I want, ultimately I want that Championship. That’s all that matters to me. I would give all three of them back for an NBA Championship.”

LeBron James #6 of the Miami Heat poses with the 2013 NBA MVP trophy prior to Game One against the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the 2013 NBA Playoffs at American Airlines Arena on May 6, 2013 in Miami, Florida. (Getty Images)

And this year, now armed with another MVP award and his first championship, he added, “I tried harder to win defensive player of the year than I did MVP. That’s my goal.”

Here’s the truth: until LeBron won his first ring last season, his collection of MVP trophies were morphing into just hollow consolation prizes, given to the best performer of the less serious part of the season. Year after year, LeBron failed in the playoffs, and the weight of his three MVP awards would’ve been even heavier if he hadn’t finally won the trophy that, as he said, he would’ve himself traded his three MVP trophies for.

This year, after winning it all, he seemed to take his foot off the gas a little at the start of the season, cruising early on until he caught on fire a couple of months in and then didn’t look back. He claimed to be gunning for the DPOY award instead this year (although he was better defensively last season) and claimed to not try so hard to become MVP again. But like a new special female friend that wants you more if you pretend not to care about her too much, LeBron got the MVP award even after playing it cool. All he did was average 26.8 points, 8 rebounds, 7.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game, shooting a career-best 56.5 percent from the floor and 40.6 percent from the three-point line. He defended at a high level again, guarding nearly every position on the floor. He became a better leader who was a central figure of his team’s historic 27-game winning streak and he led Miami to a franchise best 66 wins in the season.

His contenders tried their best to steal this trophy away from him. Kevin Durant joined the elusive 40-50-90 club while leading his team to the best record in the West, improving as a rebounder, defender, passer, leader, and of course, continuing to evolve into one of the best scorers we have ever seen. Carmelo Anthony had a career-year in New York, leading the league in scoring, also becoming a better all-round player and leader, and leading the Knicks to their best finish in 17 years. Chris Paul led the Clippers to their best ever record while Bryant – a far shot but should be mentioned anyways – battled despite injuries and struggles to have his most efficient season to help the Lakers clinch a playoff spot.

And yet, it was LeBron’s trophy to lose, and he didn’t lose it. Unfortunately, on the day fans should be celebrating his achievement, many were too busy worrying about the 1-vote-Melo-drama. 1 of 121 first place MVP votes didn’t go to LeBron but went to Anthony instead. One voter – later revealed as Boston Globe writer Gary Washburn – gave his MVP vote to Anthony. Despite all the brouhaha that followed, Washburn’s opinion made sense, because it was his opinion: Anthony was more valuable to the Knicks having a great season than LeBron was to the Heat having a great one. Good for him: after all, why would the NBA even bother voting for these things if everyone thought the same way? The bigger surprise was that two people didn’t even vote Kevin Durant in the top five. But these are issues for another day.

LeBron James of the Miami Heat speaks next to the Maurice Podoloff Trophy after being named the 2012-2013 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Year. (Getty Images)

LeBron’s MVP award wasn’t unanimous. But does it even matter? What the voting process reveals year after year is that the MVP award is more opinion than fact, more subjective than objective. ‘Valuable’ is a fairly loosely-defined term that could be interpreted by 121 different ways by 121 different people. This season, 120 interpreted it to be LeBron. For one of them, it was Anthony. At the end of the day, LeBron found himself on a similar podium to where he had stood three times before already, giving a similar speech, about being ‘humbled’, about the ‘team first’ mentality, and about ‘aiming for the bigger prize’.

That ‘bigger prize’ is ultimately what will separate him from the conversations amongst the Kevin Durants and Carmelo Anthonys to conversations amongst the Tim Duncans and Kobe Bryants. LeBron has worked so hard to become the best in the league that he is making the MVP award look easy. A career year by Derrick Rose – where the young point guard truly rose to become the best player in the NBA’s best team – was all that justifiably came between LeBron’s streak of trophies. Of course, he cares if this streak continues until the day he retires, but at the same time, he cares far more about starting a new streak. A streak where he can collect Championship trophies at the same rate; a streak that can help him build a dynasty.

Because at the end of the day, each NBA player competes for that final result. The result that is bigger than any averages and individual trophies: the Championship. LeBron already has one, and to further cement his legacy amongst the all-time greats, he will want to win many more. And then the rewards are objective, the rewards are facts. There will be no opinions and differing views on the definition of ‘valuable’, because a champion is the always the most valuable of them all.