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September 26, 2017
Why LeBron James Will Win His Fifth & Final MVP Next Season
Hey everyone, for Complex News, I’m Pierce Simpson. We’re preprogrammed to root for possible Davids, even as we grudgingly acknowledge the dominating Goliaths. That’s why Karl Malone won an MVP in 1997 and Charles Barkley collected one 1993, instead of adding two more pieces of deserving hardware to the Michael Jordan’s collection. That’s also why, after winning four MVP awards between 2009-2013—bookending Derrick Rose’s win in 2011— LeBron James hasn’t won another Maurice Podoloff Trophy since. But that’s about to change in 2018 for the consensus best player in the world. Complex Sports contributor Spencer Lund thinks the King, LeBron James, will once again reign over the NBA regular season, because this could be LeBron’s last chance to claim his fifth award. He turns 33 in December, and his competition for the award has never been surrounded by so much talent. This year’s prospective ballers for the award, which don’t differ so much from last year’s, have different situations than LeBron. James Harden now has to share time handling the ball with Chris Paul, and we don’t know how those two greats will gel. Kawhi Leonard, despite his two-way brilliance, doesn’t play in a Spurs system that lets him put up gaudy stats. And in Golden State, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, when healthy, basically cancel each other out in the MVP discussion. They’re both amazing, but they play on the same dominant team, making it hard to separate the two when zeroing in on one concrete MVP choice. These great players’ mere existence will present a challenge to LeBron, of course. But with LeBron taking charge as the solo act in Cleveland once again, he’ll be relied upon more than the other candidates to put up monster numbers every night. And there’s little reason to think why he can’t, even at age 33. Individual competitors to the throne aside, one of the biggest reasons why we like him to claim the MVP crown again is because LeBron should be mad. He was already primed to challenge for MVP the day after the Warriors defeated his Cavs in the NBA Finals for the second time in three years. Steph’s wedding video—regardless of how harmless—probably added fuel to the fire. Imitating how LeBron James, our modern day atlas, keeps his body in a cyborg state is daring, to say the least. But remember how petty and funny this was? Well, that’s is the kind of stuff LeBron’s probably been remembering while doing these insane workout videos. All summer his message on social media has been the same: I’m outworking you every day, so expect to feel my full might come this season’s tip-off And still, there’s the perception is that LeBron isn’t cut from the same cloth as the pathologically competitive Kobe Bryant and Jordan, and therefore incapable of a scorched-earth campaign. If you dive down that route, your mistake is underestimating his capacity for vengeance. Just ask the 2012 Boston Celtics or the 2016 73-win Golden State Warriors. Remember Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2012, aka the time LeBron mean mugged his way to 45 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 dimes? This was after Paul Pierce hit a game-sealing 3-pointer on James in Miami to give the C’s a 3-2 series lead, and lip readers clearly saw The Truth mouthing off at LeBron And remember what happened after the Warriors went up 3-1 in the 2016 Finals with two of the three remaining games at Oracle Arena? The 3-1 jokes haven’t stopped since. And when have you not seen LeBron rise to a challenge, even when he's out-gunned? The 2017-18 regular season is another challenge, with new teammates and a rival—the Celtics—that appears to be revamped and loaded to make a run at the Cavs. Allen Iverson is right: LeBron is gonna remind everyone why he’s still the best player in the world. Only this time, it’ll come well before June. That’s all for now, but for more on LeBron James this NBA season, subscribe to Complex on YouTube today. For Complex News, I’m Pierce Simpson.
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