James takes the plaudits with second straight MVP Award
TAKING time out from his quest to win a first NBA Championship, Lebron James last night accepted the league’s award for Most Valuable Player in front of a capacity crowd in Cleveland.
The first overall pick in the 2003 draft hoisted aloft the Maurice Podoloff trophy before game two of the Cavs Eastern Conference Semi-Final match-up against the Boston Celtics.
Ahead of what could be a career defining summer for ‘The King’, the Cleveland forward was described as ‘an extraordinary talent’ by NBA Commissioner David Stern, who handed over James’ second straight regular season accolade.
Focus now returns to number 23’s ability to lead his team to playoff glory as the number one seed Cleveland Cavaliers bid to make the NBA Finals for the first time since they were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in 2007’s extremely one-sided series.
Since then Lebron has won an Olympic gold medal in Beijing but also had to experience the heartbreak of his side being beaten in the conference finals for the last two seasons. In 2007-8 their bid to return to the NBA finals was thwarted by their current opponents, the Boston Celtics who triumphed in a thrilling seven game series. Last year the Orlando Magic prevented Lebron from returning to NBA Finals, despite some late game heroics from the man himself. He was later accused “immature and ingracious” by ESPN’s Jalen Rose after refusing to shake the hands of Orlando’s players when they were defeated in Game 6.
The trend of not living up to their regular season dominance when it counts in the post season is something that the Cavs have looked to rectify this time around with the addition of Shaquille O’Neal and Antwon Jamieson to compliment the all around play of James.
2010 has been a terrific year for Lebron and the MVP award is in recognition of the spectacular efforts he has put together on almost a nightly basis. Averaging 29.7 points, 1.0 block, 1.6 steals, 8.6 assists and 7.3 rebounds, James earned himself a sixth consecutive All Star appearance in February and in a 118-116 loss to Denver earlier in the season became the first player in history to record 43 points, 13 rebounds, 15 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks in a game.
On March 13, 2010 James became the youngest player in basketball to score 15,000 regular season points and in winning the MVP trophy he joins Steve Nash, Tim Duncan and Karl Malone as two-time winners of the award. In recognition of his brilliance and stature in the game he received an incredible 116 out of 123 first place votes in the award’s ballot.
The first overall pick in the 2003 draft hoisted aloft the Maurice Podoloff trophy before game two of the Cavs Eastern Conference Semi-Final match-up against the Boston Celtics.
Ahead of what could be a career defining summer for ‘The King’, the Cleveland forward was described as ‘an extraordinary talent’ by NBA Commissioner David Stern, who handed over James’ second straight regular season accolade.
Focus now returns to number 23’s ability to lead his team to playoff glory as the number one seed Cleveland Cavaliers bid to make the NBA Finals for the first time since they were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in 2007’s extremely one-sided series.
Since then Lebron has won an Olympic gold medal in Beijing but also had to experience the heartbreak of his side being beaten in the conference finals for the last two seasons. In 2007-8 their bid to return to the NBA finals was thwarted by their current opponents, the Boston Celtics who triumphed in a thrilling seven game series. Last year the Orlando Magic prevented Lebron from returning to NBA Finals, despite some late game heroics from the man himself. He was later accused “immature and ingracious” by ESPN’s Jalen Rose after refusing to shake the hands of Orlando’s players when they were defeated in Game 6.
The trend of not living up to their regular season dominance when it counts in the post season is something that the Cavs have looked to rectify this time around with the addition of Shaquille O’Neal and Antwon Jamieson to compliment the all around play of James.
2010 has been a terrific year for Lebron and the MVP award is in recognition of the spectacular efforts he has put together on almost a nightly basis. Averaging 29.7 points, 1.0 block, 1.6 steals, 8.6 assists and 7.3 rebounds, James earned himself a sixth consecutive All Star appearance in February and in a 118-116 loss to Denver earlier in the season became the first player in history to record 43 points, 13 rebounds, 15 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks in a game.
On March 13, 2010 James became the youngest player in basketball to score 15,000 regular season points and in winning the MVP trophy he joins Steve Nash, Tim Duncan and Karl Malone as two-time winners of the award. In recognition of his brilliance and stature in the game he received an incredible 116 out of 123 first place votes in the award’s ballot.