NBA Baller LeBron James Bags 3rd NBA MVP Award, Joins Elite Group

NBA Baller LeBron James Bags 3rd NBA MVP Award, Joins Elite Group

LeBron James concluded his emotional MVP acceptance speech Saturday saying, "Heat nation, we have a bigger goal," James 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."

This is James’ third NBA MVP award, making him the eighth player in league history to win that many.  The others were Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Moses Malone, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.

James received 85 out of 121 first-place votes from a group of sports writers and broadcasters who cover the league, with fans on NBA.com adding to the points. He earned a total of 1,074 points compared to Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant (889 points), the Los Angeles Clippers' Chris Paul (385 points), the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant (352 points), and San Antonio's Tony Parker (331 points).

Nevertheless, James congratulated the other top candidates for the MVP, and praised his teammates and those around him even more.

"This is a team game and I wouldn't be receiving what I've received in the past and now in the present without my teammates and without my family and friends who've helped me to this point," James said away from the stage. "Even though it's an individual award, I always go back to my teammates. I always go back to my friends and my family. No one can do it alone."

When the results were released, Durant offered LeBron congratulations.

"LeBron, that's like unheard of for a guy to get three out of four MVPs," Durant said. "A good friend of mine. I'm happy for him and of course I would love to have the MVP but at the same time, I've just got to keep improving, keep getting better and hopefully I'll have one soon."

LeBron James’ stats this season – 27.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists and 1.9 steals per game on 53 percent shooting – are extremely far compared to his numbers last season, when he finished a distant third in the MVP race behind Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Monday May 14 2012, 2:35 AM EST. Ref: Google. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0