On the “Hoop Collective” podcast, ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst revealed James’ mindset when it comes to the award. It’s worth noting Windhorst has covered James extensively throughout his career, so he’s a solid source on this sort of information.
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Here’s what Windhorst said about James:
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… In his mind, he believes he probably should have won like 8 of the last 10 MVPs.
… Even his first year [back] in Cleveland where his back was bothering him for a while, and he missed a couple of weeks in the middle of the season, and his stats were kind of down. He believed that everything he had to do to carry that team and deal with David Blatt — he believed that he still deserved it.”
The reason this topic is brought up is because James recently said he’d vote for himself to win MVP. His response raised some eyebrows in the NBA community because it’s pretty rare to hear a player openly say he’d vote for himself to win, but others respected James’ honesty.
What’s interesting is how Windhorst says this has been something on James’ mind in recent years. When Stephen Curry became the first unanimous MVP in 2016, James finished third behind Curry and Kawhi Leonard. Windhorst claims James was “pissed” about placing third that year.
James has been named MVP four times (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013), but he’s been a top-five vote-getter for 12 straight seasons.
