NBA MVP Favorites

Most sports website and betting sites have LeBron James as the favorite to win the MVP, and deservingly so. LeBron is putting up his usual monster numbers for what most people believe to be the best team in basketball.

The 36 year-old is averaging 25.5 points per game, 8.0 rebounds per game, and 8.0 assists per game. Additionally, according to ESPN, LeBron leads the league in real plus-minus. However, the most impressive statistic on LeBron this season has been his games missed: ZERO.

That’s right, LeBron has not missed a game. Not a single game! Plus, he has played with much more energy and effort than in recent seasons.

Over the past three or four years, LeBron has been accused of “coasting” on the defensive end. This year, he’s done none of that. He’s playing great defense for the Los Angeles Lakers who have the second best defense in the league, according to ESPN.

With all that being said, the MVP is not just about stats. What voters value maybe even more than stats, is a good narrative, and LeBron has that going for him.

That narrative is, at the end of the day, everyone knows that LeBron is the best player in the league. He has been for quite some time now. However, it’s been a while since LeBron last won an MVP award. In fact, the last time he won it was back in 20134 when he was playing for the Miami Heat.

Being in his eighteenth year, it’s safe to say that he doesn’t have many more MVP caliber seasons left in the tank. Because of this, voters may feel obliged to give LeBron the award.

Voters might look back at prior years and think that they should have given the award to him instead of the guy who won it, so this season may be a reprimands for those years in which he was “robbed” of the award.

Up to this point in the season, LeBron is the MVP favorite, and if nothing crazy happens from now till the end of the season, like a Joel Embiid or Nikola Jokic takeover, then King James will claim his fifth MVP trophy in his 18th season.