The news we’ve known about for a few days now became official on Sunday, as LeBron James was named the league’s Most Valuable Player for the fourth time in his career.
There was no suspense surrounding the crowning of James, but there was some curiosity to see whether or not he might be a unanimous winner of the award for the first time in league history.
He was not.
James received 120 out of 121 first place votes, and one second place vote. The player who received LeBron’s missing first place vote was Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks.
This matters little in the grand scheme of things, as James will receive his fourth trophy just as he would have had he received every last one of those first place votes. But much like the MVP race in 2000, when Shaquille O’Neal’s season was similarly dominant and he missed out on being the unanimous choice by way of a single vote that went to Allen Iverson, it’s going to be fodder for discussion.
The NBA awards are voted upon anonymously by members of the media, so unless the person who gave Anthony that first place vote decides to reveal himself, we’ll never know the reasoning behind the decision. Something tells me, however, that whoever didn’t vote for James will be more than happy to spend a few moments in the spotlight.
The complete results of the balloting are listed below. Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Kobe Bryant rounded out the top five.
Player, Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Total Points
LeBron James, Miami 120 1 - - - 1,207
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City - 93 21 2 3 765
Carmelo Anthony, New York 1 16 51 27 17 475
Chris Paul, L.A. Clippers - 2 27 39 23 289
Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers - 4 12 23 27 184
Tony Parker, San Antonio - 2 7 8 13 86
Tim Duncan, San Antonio - 2 1 12 10 65
James Harden, Houston - - - 7 12 33
Russell Westbrook, OKC - - - 1 6 9
Dwyane Wade, Miami - - 1 - - 5
Stephen Curry, Golden State - - - - 3 3
Kevin Garnett, Boston - - - - 1 1
David Lee, Golden State - - - - 1 1
Ty Lawson, Denver �� - - - - 1 1
Marc Gasol, Memphis - - - - 1 1
Joakim Noah, Chicago - - - - 1 1
