LeBron James NBA MVP 2011? Making a Case for His Third NBA MVP Award Candidacy
The time to fill out your resume is coming to a close.
If an NBA player wants to receive some extra consideration for the MVP award that is set to be awarded soon, they need to begin making their case now.
To be honest though, the race to the MVP award appears to be a three man race at best, with one player receiving enough media hype that even Lindsay Lohan would be jealous.
Even in a league where maybe six players could receive the award, and there would be no right to complain, it seems that the field has been whittled down to three.
Those three for now seem to be the Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard, the Chicago Bulls' Derrick Rose and the Miami Heat's LeBron James.
Even though his teammate Dwyane Wade or the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant or even the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki are just as deserving as any of those three players, those three are at the head of the class strictly for their ability to lead their team as some of the best in the league.
Dwight has the disadvantage of his team being only 48-29 and currently holding the fourth seed, compared to that of James' Heat, who hold the second seed, and Rose's Bulls, who hold the first.
The MVP is an award said to be given out to the best player on the best team, and if that were true, then it would most likely go to Rose since he is currently leading the Bulls to the second-best record in the NBA and one of their best marks since Michael Jordan retired.
Rose has been the media-anointed MVP since the second half of the season, and for good reason. His Bulls are currently at 56-20 and with the number one seed all but secured.
He is averaging a career high 25 points, eight assists and four rebounds in only his third season in the league. Not only that, but he had to play nearly the entire first half of the season without Carlos Boozer or Joakim Noah for an extended period of time.
Rose certainly has deserved all of the MVP talk and is easily becoming one of the most electrifying point guards since Allen Iverson, but it still doesn't mean that every other player should be written off.
LeBron James has had to deal with just as many set back's and obstacles as Rose has encountered this season. With a new team to work with and a myriad of injuries to some of the teams key contributors, James has had to overcome just as much as Rose.
"But John, LeBron still has Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on his team! Why isn't his team better than Rose's?"
Playing with these two All-Stars has been James' downfall as far as winning an MVP goes.
He has been in a season-long battle as leader of the team with Dwyane Wade, has seen his stats decline and his teams overall record decrease than what it was for the last two seasons when he was with Cleveland.
The preseason hype of the Big Three and the Miami Heat also hurt his chances, considering that it was predicted his team would win at least 60 games with ease.
As far as set-backs go, don't forget that this Heat team lost eight of their games in the first month of the season when they were trying to feel each other's games out.
Four more of the losses came during a stretch when one or two members of the Big Three were out with injuries, and five of the losses came during a stretch against the league's top teams when the Heat blew double-digit leads in four of those games.
The preseason hype though is what ended James' chances of winning the award.
The 54-23 record that the Heat currently stand at is nowhere near what the mainstream media expected James and the Heat to be at. By now, they should have been in heavy contention of testing the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls mark of 72 wins.
Alas, they are going to come short, while not even obtaining the number one seed that could have basically been regarded as a throw-in deal.
LeBron shouldn't have to suffer without a third consecutive MVP because of some preseason hype or some new heir to the media throne.
In fact, no one has seemed to notice that James is still averaging an absurd 27 points, eight rebounds and seven assists on a team with two other All-Stars. The 51 percent shooting from the field is also his career high.
His Heat have also had to deal with a few key injuries to their top bench producers in Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller.
Haslem is a solid 10-point and eight-rebound player that could always offer solid contributions off the bench when called upon. He has been injured since November and the Heat have had to use players like Juwan Howard or Joel Anthony in his place.
As for Miller, he was out for the first three months of the season and has since returned, but he hasn't been able to consistently knock down jumpers all year.
In fact, he has been just dreadful at it, averaging six points per game on 40 percent shooting.
He was supposed to be the knock-down shooter that the Heat had been searching for, but he has easily been one of the teams biggest busts and has been replaced by James Jones as the teams capable three-point threat.
Every critic has a reason not to like LeBron's antics this year, either from his move from Cleveland, to his "inability" of being clutch.
James has been criticized for not being able to hit the last shots against some of the better teams in the league, but he has been the reason for nearly every one of this teams wins this season. He has hit shots late in games and has carried his team on too many occasions to what seemed like improbable victories.
It seems that James is most remembered for his faults rather than his achievements.
Say the game against Portland, where he led his team back from a seven-point deficit in the final two minutes. Or even his 41-point, 13-rebound and eight-assist effort in a close win against Indiana.
Why not mention his triple-double's against the New York Knicks or Los Angeles Lakers? Even that 51-point effort against Orlando should be worth noting, shouldn't it?
Sometimes you can't break people out of their habits.
Since his career started, James has had the incomprehensible habit of winning games and leading teams. He has had his fair share of struggles this year, adjusting to his new team and its non-existent offensive system, but he has still been a key reason to the success of this Miami team.
The Heat being considered legitimate title contenders would not be as likely a possibility if he weren't on this team.
Rose hasn't exactly been crowned the MVP yet, but there isn't that much time left for James or any player for that matter to make a case to why they should be rewarded.
LeBron could definitely help his case if he and the Heat can avoid a four game sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics this coming Sunday.
James has the stats and the team to back up his case for the MVP award. It just depends if the media believes that Derrick Rose isn't the league's most valuable player.
