Three reasons LeBron James is playing like the MVP
By Mason Cole
LeBron James has won the NBA Most Valuable Player award four times in his career. James’ last MVP season was in 2013 when he was still a member of the Miami Heat. That season James led his team to an NBA title over the San Antonio Spurs.
Although, that season, that championship, and that MVP award feel like they happened an eternity ago when looking at what has happened since in James’ incredible career.
And yet, seven years later, LeBron’s name is still in the MVP conversation due to his gaudy numbers and the success of his team, which is now the Los Angeles Lakers.
Even among the likes of younger talents such as Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, there is still a great case to be made that if his play continues at a high level, LeBron James should be the MVP of the 2020-21 season.
And that is the case that I want to argue in three points highlighting James’ excellence here.
The first one is clear as day.
Reason #1 for LeBron to be NBA MVP: His numbers are still incredible
LeBron James is having a really good season statistically, but as us Cleveland Cavaliers fans know, that is anything out of the ordinary. In fact, it sometimes seems that James is underrated by critics because of how regularly great his numbers are.
LeBron is averaging 25.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game for the Lakers. James leads the Lakers in points and assists, and he only averages one less rebound per game than the team leader Anthony Davis.
LeBron’s stats are still really good when compared to the rest of the league as well. His scoring places him at 14th in the NBA (11th heading into Wednesday’s games), and his assist splits place him at seventh.
A lot of focus is placed on statistics when talking about MVP contenders and rightfully so. Individual numbers are a great way of representing the success of a certain player. But to add to James’ already good numbers, he’s doing it all at the age of 36 as well.
LeBron James is having a great year in terms of statistics, but that is not the only reason why he should be considered for MVP.