James is the first Cavaliers player to win the award. He averaged 28.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 7.2assists this season, his sixth as a pro. He also finished second in voting for defensive player of the year, making him perhaps the league's most dominant two-way player since Michael Jordan.
"You look at the guys who have won this award — Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dr. J, Oscar Robertson," James said. "All these guys laid down the path for guys like myself and Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and Dwyane Wade to name a few."
James credited his teammates, who along with coach Mike Brown were present to see him accept the award, for raising their games in the Cavaliers' best season ever.
"Individual accolades come when team success happens," James said. "You look at those 14 guys over there, I got the award because of them. They put in the work."
At 24 years, 106 days on the final day of the regular season, James is the youngest player to win the award since Moses Malone (24 years, 16 days) in 1978-79. Wes Unseld was 23 when he won it in 1968-69.
"I'm 24 years old. To be up here and win this MVP award, I never thought it would happen this fast. I always dreamed about celebrating championships with teammates," James said.
"It takes a lot of sweat," said Cleveland general manager Danny Ferry. "I'm sure he did a lot of sweating right here. I've been fortunate enough to watch him sweat the past four years when no one else was around. I just want to acknowledge that and give it a round of applause."
James vied all season for MVP honors with Bryant and Wade. The three played on the U.S. gold medalist Olympic team last summer and seemed to upstage each other nightly.
"He deserved it," Wade said. "I said all year, I thought LeBron was the MVP of this league. He's a guy who every year is going to be in that conversation. ... He showed it all year, especially with his team's success."
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By the way who was your MVP? Comments please...
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