LeBron James named finalist for MVP award

LeBron James has been named a finalist for the NBA MVP Award. The league announced the finalists for their six major awards on Monday night.

The three finalist for league MVP are James, Houston’s James Harden and New Orleans’ Anthony Davis.

For the first time in his career James played in all 82 regular season games and averaged 27.5 points, 9.1 assists and 8.6 rebounds while shooting 54.2 percent from the field and 36.7 percent from deep. His assist average gives him a new career-high while the rebounding average ties the career-high he averaged last season. Along with playing in all 82 games, he led the league playing 37.2 minutes per game.

Harden averaged 30.4 points, 8.8 assists and 5.4 rebounds while shooting 44.9 percent from the field and 36.7 percent from deep. His Houston Rockets put up the best record in the NBA and are currently facing the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

Davis averaged a double-double of 28.1 points and 11.1 rebounds. The Pelicans were eliminated by the Warriors in the Western Conference semifinals.

James has four previous MVP Awards, picking up top honors four times in five years (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013). In 2017, James finished fourth in MVP voting and was not a finalist. Neither Harden or Davis have won the award previously.

According to Basketball Reference’s MVP Tracker, Harden has a 68.1 percent chance of winning the award this season. James is second behind him with an 8.1 percent chance. The winner will be announced on June 25.