Report: LeBron To Win 4th NBA MVP
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – To the surprise of virtually no NBA fan, ESPN.com is reporting Miami Heat superstar LeBron James will once again be named the league's most valuable player this Sunday.
For James, it will be his fourth MVP award in five years and the second straight. The only question left is how large the gap in voting is between James and Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant, who is expected to finish second.
James has elevated his game to an even higher level in 2013 as he's lead the Heat to the best record in the NBA and a 27-game winning streak earlier in the season. Everything the Heat have needed or asked James to do, he's done it at the highest level possible.
This year, James is averaging 26.8 points, 8 rebounds, 7.3 assists, and 1.7 steals per game. Even more impressive was James' shooting which rose to 56.5 percent on the season. For his career, LeBron has shot 49 percent from the field.
James also improved his 3-point shooting which went from a career average of 33.7 percent to 40.6 percent in 2013.
The advanced statistics showed even more how far James took his game in 2013. LeBron had a league-best 31.6 player efficiency rating and also led the league in offensive win share, or an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player due to his offense.
LeBron also led the league in win share at 19.3, which is an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player.
The award also puts LeBron in some extremely elite company in NBA history. Only one other player ever won four MVP's over five years, legendary Boston Celtics star Bill Russell. In addition, only Russell, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Wilt Chamberlain have won at least four MVP trophies.
But for LeBron the biggest goal is to ensure that he and his Heat teammates hold up the Larry O'Brien trophy at the end of the season as the back-to-back winners of the NBA championship.
