Superstar forward LeBron James has been named the Most Valuable Player of the 2020 NBA Finals, as the Lakers clinched the 17th title in franchise history on Sunday night with a 106-93 win over Miami in Game 6.
It’s the fourth championship and the fourth Finals MVP award for James, who previously earned the honor in 2012 and 2013 with the Heat, and again in 2016 with the Cavaliers.
Entering this series, LeBron had been one of five players in NBA history to earn at least three Finals MVP awards. Now he’s one of just two players to earn that honor four or more times — Michael Jordan won the award six times. James is also the first player in NBA history to be named Finals MVP with three separate teams.
While Anthony Davis had a monster series for the Lakers, anchoring the defense and averaging 25.0 PPG, James led the club in points, rebounds, and assists, making him the obvious choice for the MVP award. He received all 11 votes from the media panel responsible for naming the winner.
In six games against the Heat, LeBron averaged 29.8 PPG, 11.8 RPG, and 8.5 APG while shooting 59.1% from the floor and 41.7% from beyond the arc. The 35-year-old capped off an impressive playoff run with his 28th career postseason triple-double (28 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists) on Sunday, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (Twitter link).
The Lakers’ title represents the first career championship for a number of notable veterans on the roster, including Davis, Dwight Howard, Jared Dudley, and Markieff Morris. It’s also the first championship for veteran head coach Frank Vogel in his first year with the organization. Meanwhile, Danny Green is the only player on the Lakers to hold an active streak of two consecutive titles, having also won a year ago with the Raptors.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Good, now that that is over with, let’s get back to the real fun of the NBA. The off season.
Might be longer then anyone wants
In fairness, the offseason would be ending right about now in a normal year. I’m okay with 2-3 months to have some transaction/draft fun without having to worry about all these silly games bothering us. hehe
Of course they will extend the offseason well into 2021 so LeBron can rest up after winning his final championship.
Oh god, from backing actual cheaters to creating conspiracy theories that others cheated you
Way to go Lakers, well deserved…can’t wait for next year’s run!
Lakers have the best coach in the nba
Stop.
You’re right, LBJ is a great coach
Agreed. He does it all and it’s worked twice now. In Cleveland (the second time around) and in LA.
Still feels like they won a high-level TBT tournament, but whatever… somebody has to persevere and win it.
Congrats LeBron and the Lakers!
Butler deserved it tbh.
No he didn’t… LBJ was better, clearly!
Postseason played out exactly as we all thought. Bucks choked. Clippers choked. Rockets choked. Toronto overachieved. Sixers fell apart. Nuggets showed their youth. Mavs are knocking on the door. And the Lakers beat whoever made it out of the East.
The format, the bubble, the pandemic shutdown… the quality of basketball got better once the rust was shaken off. Yes, it had the look of the draft combine scrimmages / summer league. But no asterisk, it was a real championship.
Anyone that says it’s not a ‘real’ championship must be employed by the NCAA, and thinks vacating wins and championships means they never actually happened.
NBA got over 70 regular season games in. Anyone who thinks there is an asterisk is a troll. There is not 1 reason why this shouldn’t count.
Anyone who doesn’t think there is an asterisk for the Lakers this year is just another Houston Hater. All 3 of the titles here were given asterisks, so why shouldn’t the Lakers get one too? Obviously they won’t because the NBA, and most of its fans, always bend over backwards to accommodate LeBron and the Lakers. Pathetic.
LOL the resident Rockets trolls trash talk has reached the pinnacle low. A Rockets hate? Really??? No one has time for them 2nd round bums who let CP3 take them to the limit. Harden is the biggest superstar failure of the decade
You keep calling it Rocket hate but it’s likely HWMvps hate. Although Houston the city and Houstonians are annoying if you must bring it up… can’t trust anyone from Houston.
Harden drives howard out of town.. howard wins a ring.. butler has more wins in finals than harden.. must suck to be overrated..
Ffs you cry a lot harden-Westbrook no rings
All 3 titles? When was the 3rd?
Two rockets titles when Jordan was retired 94-95. Then the Astros title 2 years ago with the cheating scandal stuff.
Ah, OK, thanks. I don’t really follow the MLB.
Salt merchant.
I would say this title was the hardest.. being in bubble for 3 months.. not having home court advantage that they earned.. bucks were always gonna lost to heat.. heat handled them in regular season as well.. clippers didn’t have any winning players on team other than kawhi.. championship experience is huge in playoffs.. lakers could’ve folded after game 5 but that championship experience led them to come back and destroy heat in game 6
Yeah, the Heat could also have folded after game 4… it didn’t have anything to do with championship experience: they just had the two best players in the series (even if Butler was superb throughout). It’s as simple as that.
@harden cant be fun being you right now. What makes this title even better is that we outplayed and out coached the Rockets. Too cool.
Viewership down 70 percent from last year I wonder why?
Maybe because WNBA, football, college football And nfl all going at one time.. you really are mindless..
And baseball playoffs
When you said WNBA you just bombed your whole comnent
Just trying to be correct with the times.. not a
WNBA fan though
Because those WNBA ratings are off the charts…
I was messin with you
Yeah I don’t think anyone was taking that seriously.
I probably watched 70% less myself. And I usually watch a lot of bball. Just had other things going on. Lot of people forced to focus elsewhere.
That’s the real reason for the ratings drop. The break in sports and people focused elsewhere
I think people are less involved in others than before. The drop is alarming considering people were starved for live sports.
Let me say congratulations to the Lakers and all their fans. They got it done, it was no easy task. All starts with Jeanie Buss and hiring Rob pelinka to put the house in order.
LeBron James getting the crew together working well and putting his game in the backseat to accommodate Anthony Davis.
Also getting rid of Magic’s all Shaqtin A Fool roster and acquiring some good veterans. Dwight Howard was awesome, Rondo was awesome Pope and Danny Green were very good. Lakers played great defense tonight. Nice Championship run for the Lake show !!!
(I can’t wait to run it back again next season with my Warriors hopefully at full strength. Fingers crossed, Go Warriors.)
LAC will be ready to make things interesting ;)
No they won’t..
@jump. Laughable. Just stop
So what now we don’t have to hear anymore about all this James BS baby crap. He’s good but it’s lost with his I’m the best. Just a bully that thinks he can intimidate the Refs. It was rig from the day the Illuminati satanic Kolby sacrifice for the lakers.
Kolby? So funny coming from some kid named sports fan 101. Get off YouTube dude
Should have been Davis but congrats to him, the team and their fans. Well deserved. It was a good Finals too. Heat at least made it interesting.
LBJ should’ve accepted the award and then gave it to AD.
LeBron definitely deserved it. Averaged the most points, rebounds and assists while leading the offence. AD in the third game loss had a stat line of 15-5-3, whereas Brons worst stat line was 25-10-8.
Like it’s clearly a fact Bron played the best in this series. Why do you have to try discredit him? I understand he might not be your favourite and you may not like the Goat talk but don’t act like he didn’t just play like an absolute boss.
I don’t think a lot of these fools want to hear actual facts or acknowledge reality.
AD was great, played at MVP level for sure… but I am afraid LBJ was clearly better by a country mile!
Saying that as a huge AD fan, actually as much as I like LBJ I think AD right now is the better player, best in the league, but for this 6 game finals, LBJ was the best as simple as! Right winner!
6 is still greater than 4, Jordan is still the GOAT.
Yes while that is true, James will still win another title in LA before the Rockets even sniff one.
Sorry, but it’s LBJ’s 4th and final ring.
You have no idea what you know.
4 is still more than rockets franchise has total in their history
If all you are factoring is rings, Jordan is better than LeBron, but neither is the GOAT. Bill Russell’s 11 is more than both of them combined.
Both Jordan and Russell are above LeBron on the all-time list of greatest NBA players, everyone over 40 knows this.
I think Kareem always gets overlooked in the debate too. Sure he stayed around too long, but he dominated the 70s the same way Jordan dominated the 90s except he did it on a Bucks team that could not (refused to) surround him with any real talent after his 1 title there.
I am 46, following the league for the last 35 years & I most certainly don’t know this, dude IMO the GOAT is a 4 man race:
1) Larry Bird
2) LBJ
3) Magic
4) Jordan
The real goat list is
1. Mj
2. Kareem
3. Magic
4. Duncan
5. Kobe
6. Shaq
7. Lebron
Sorry but winning is very much is an important element of being the goat. Also who you play with factors into that equation.
But you leave Russell off your list?
When did you watch bill russell play?
Big shot bob robert hurry has 7 rings.. is he better than Jordan?
Greatest winner – he and his teammate Sam Jones. But Russell was a mediocre-at-best offensive player, even while playing against little dudes, so no way is he qualified as anything more than an all-time great. Definitely not the goat (unless Sam Jones is too).
1) Jordan
2/3) James/Alcindor (whatever order you want)
You are forgetting that Bill Russell played his entire career without the 3 point line. That meant defense were not spread nearly as far on the court which prevented him from being so dominant offensively. Russell/Chamberlain/young Kareem were the best for their game, but once the 3 point line was created the game changed significantly. It is the single most game changing event in the history of the sport. You cannot compare players from before to players after because it really is 2 different games.
Anyone who talks about Russell like this. Only shows his lack of knowledge. Get some film and books. And come back. There’s a reason why the MVP is named after him. Russell is probably greatest team player ever. You watch Bron do all he can for his teams to win. Russell did more. He gave up points to be the defensive anchor. He has 21, 620 career rebs. In 13 yrs and 963 gms. There’s not a player alive or person. Who will ever come close to that. Howard is closest at 13,691. Shaq had 13,099. Rebounding is playing D. It’s one way to control a game. Before you diss a great. You should at least do your research lol.
Personal opinion, I don’t really ever care to say who is the GOAT. Cause there is so much of an argument.
But personally I think anyone who says the top three in any order isn’t Jordan, Bron and Kareem are idiots.These are the only 3 with a real goat argument and are the all time top 3. I can understand if you have Jordan, Reem or Brom as your number 1 and respect that but if you think Bill Russell, Wilt, Magic, Kobe or anyone else is better than any of these three your dumb.
Personally I think prime Jordan beats prime Bron, however it terms of all round play, longevity, and everything which makes up the sport of basketball I think Bron is the best
All around play? Jordan was the best offensive player of his era, but he was also arguably the best defensive player of his era as well. What more all around play is there? LBJ is probably the best offensive player of his era, but he is nowhere close to the best defensive player of his era.
Jordan wasn’t even the best defender on his team. And by all round play I mean scoring, defending, rebounding, passing, everything.
9 time All Defensive Team says otherwise. The only player from that era that I would say could be argued as a better defender would be Hakeem Olajuwon.
GOATs can blow. Harden should be modded being a grim failure at promoting the Rockets and hating everyone else.
LJ in his speech said he should get some (—–) respect too. I think he will be leaving LA in 2021 after 3 years. He may even get some R&R next year. A team that doesn’t get Giannis may get LJ!
He’s not leaving lakers.. the only way I see him leaving is to play with bronny jr..
WestbrookHarden rings are a stupid way to compare players its a team accomplishment, Robert Horry has 7 rings he’s way better than Jordan will ever be
4 rings for The King is still double than HOU will ever have… so must be very sad to follow a franchise knowing that they will never, ever win another ring!
Lebron was sure lucky that the LAKERS traded for AD.
I’m very sure that he didn’t have anything to do with AD going to the LAKERS ………. it was all Pelinka & Klutch.
I believe he’s the first finals MVP to have walked off the court with the clock running to sulk in the locker room
He suck
People can rag on LeBron all they want and make argument why Bill Russell is the goat why Michael Jordan is the goat but here is some thing no one else has ever had other than LeBron, for NBA finals MVP‘s in an era with nothing but stars. You really have to wonder what Jordan‘s legacy would be if he was in the area today where there are loads of stars and there are at least eight teams every year you can see winning it all
Jordan played in the same era as Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Gary Payton, Clyde Drexler, Dominique Wilkins, or a handful of others. There were the loads of stars that every year you could see winning it all. And once he got started, Jordan beat them nearly every time. LeBron didn’t beat his contemporaries as much.
The NBA was tougher back that as well.
Than*
That said I think LeBron would be great in any era. The guy is a freak of nature.
This about Bron and Lakers winning. Bron deserved it. He was the MVP of Finals. He’s not just a great player, athlete. Probably one of best team players ever. Only Bill Russell might be better. Magic, Bird, few others. Bron is a mix of greatest talent and greatest team player. That IMO only Bill Russell competes with him. Bron got the stats. Bill got the D stats and the Rings. MJ learned to be a team player later on. These three are probably greatest 2way players ever. Like Bron said. Give him his respect. If you are truly an NBA fan, a baller. We are witnessing a great talent. Be thankful you got a front seat.
Next year will be interesting. Who will return for the Lakers? What will Golden state do with the pick and trade exemption? Who will coach LAC and Houston? How Will Durant and Irving and coach Nash mesh? Will Bucks bring help fir the Greek freak? Will Miami bring in another superstar? That are the main story’s in the offseason . Congratulations to the Lakers for the win
Almost everyone.
Bring in a star veteran.
Ty Lue and someone cheap$.
Pretty well, get to 2nd round.
No one of consequence.
Oops didn’t see Miami at the end there. I don’t think they have enough money to bring in another star.
With Miami, I just wonder if they are willing to sacrifice depth in order to get a 3rd star to go with Butler and Bam. Although with all of their departures, they might be able to take on an expensive contract that another might want to part with like Chris Paul or Russell Westbrook who would both fit well. How about this?
Heat get
Russell Westbrook
Rockets get
Meyers Leonard (via sign and trade)
Kendrick Nunn
Miami’s 2025 1st round pick
Even if that money works I don’t think the Heat would do it. Imagine Jimmy Butler playing with Russell Westbrook? I can’t imagine anyone trading for Russell Westbrook at this point in his career.
Even if you were to benefit on paper and send scrubs away you’re not going to bring in a firecracker like that. He’s going to be on the floor 35 minutes a game, you can’t not play him and he’s just so unpredictable. He’ll get the stats but at what cost?
He’s such a lightning rod that the only team that would trade for Russell Westbrook is the Houston Rockets who were desperate to somehow unload Chris Paul and thought Russell could play with James Harden because they were familiar with each other earlier in their careers with OKC. I think the Rockets are stuck with Russell through the end of this contract unless something crazy happens with him in a contract year situation and someone like the Knicks are desperate for the name/draw.
The money works because you could sign Leonard to a max 1 year deal and then go from there. Plus the Heat only have Butler and Iguodala on their cap that make over $3MM next season. Bam will be due a big raise, but that won’t kick until next off season. So if they are going to acquire a 3rd star, this is the off season to do it.
They could risk signing players to 1 year deal and attempting to sign Kawhi or Giannis next year, but that’s a much bigger risk than Westbrook in my opinion. I really believe Westbrook gets way too much flak because he is getting paid max money. He is an All NBA player and a future HOFer. Westbrook at PG, Butler and Herro at the wings and Bam along with a vet center with Duncan Robinson as a 6th man would be a killer lineup, especially in the East.
I just don’t trust Russell on the floor. If it was me I wouldn’t want him. But if he WAS on my squad I would take him aside and say, Russell do not shoot jump shots. Go to the hole every single time and either finish or kick out or don’t pick up your dribble and create something somehow.
Yes he’s capable of hitting jump shots but he does shoot them at the wrong time. He is so headstrong though he would never listen to you on that and he walk away shaking his head, mumbling some kind of offensive adjectives.
I do agree though that Russell Westbrook is one of the most amazing athletes to ever walk this planet. 6 foot 1 or so and amazing athletic ability on the floor with speed and quickness, and in the air with jumping ability. His strength is amazing and his “get it done anyway anyhow” attitude is amazing as well. But I would never trade for him. Never.
I definitely respect your opinion on Westbrook because you have probably watched him play a lot more than me. I do watch the NBA, but I watch a lot more college hoops. I enjoy following the pro careers of players I watch a lot in school, but I find the college game more fun to watch. The main reason for that is I like in Kentucky and college hoops are far more prevalent, but also because the NBA considers the Cleveland Cavaliers my “local” team and I have hated since before LeBron was even born.
It seems like a long digression, and it was to some extent, but I actually do have a point here. One of my least favorite players of all time is Mark Price. Most people would argue that Mark Price was a great player, but I wouldn’t take that guy in a trade no matter what.
Oh my but Mark price was so talented. He was an early version of Steph Curry without the extreme distance on his shot. But he could handle, he was small and could shoot very well. He was the king I mean the KING of splitting double-teams. He would do it quite often whereas you never see it really from anyone else today.
I hear you on the college game.., I love March Madness yet I don’t watch much of it before then. I do have a major college basketball contact so I’m able to see a couple of games live per year. Great atmosphere lots of fun and I’m extremely thankful for this friend who hooks me up.
And then I go to Vegas to watch the young guys in the summer Pros and try to gauge the ability of the young guys there. I’m usually wrong but it’s still a lot of fun.
So you’re near Cleveland or you used to be, but you’re a Rockies fan? That makes as much sense as me Red Sox and warriors but never lived in Boston LOL.
I’m not near Cleveland. It’s about a 5-6 hour drive from Richmond, KY where I live. But that is still the local team on the closest Fox Sports affiliate to me. And it is probably the closest NBA team to me. Although Charlotte or Memphis might be a bit closer. Either way, nothing is close enough to actually go to the games, so local doesn’t apply.
As far as the Rockies go, it was more of a timing thing than a location thing. I spent most of my childhood rooting for players more than teams in baseball, but at the time my favorite players, Fred McGriff and Eric Davis, were both being sent to teams I always hated in the Padres and Dodgers. So I decided to pick a team, but the problem was that none of the 26 teams at the time fit all of my criteria. Then it was announced the Marlins and Rockies were joining the league. The Rockies ended up with more known players to me in the expansion draft than the Marlins, so I went with them and it stuck.
Okay got you. Makes sense now. Good stories. The cool thing now is with the internet we can get the inside scoops on our favorite teams that are thousands of miles away. Good stuff.
We can now all see what does work. Draft right. Then bring in one guy close the gap a winner. Both finals teams used that approach.
Look at the shooters Miami drafted and then the defensive shot blocking Big Man. Of course good coaching is critical and then you bring in your star to get you over the top.
Lakers the same thing. They drafted well and had the assets to send to the Pelicans for a star. Of course being Los Angeles you got LeBron and brought in good coaching.
Seems like there’s no shortcut besides drafting well. That’s why the Kings and the Hornets are terrible. Never draft well. And then of course they can’t be bailed out by being a free agent destination so they will forever be crappy.
Location has a lot to do with it as well. Jimmy Butler would not have been asking for a trade to Charlotte or Indiana regardless of how well they draft. LeBron only went back to Cleveland because he was from there. LeBron would not sign with Sacramento regardless of their picks in the past few drafts.
I would also argue that the Lakers did not draft well. They didn’t do anything despite having the #2 pick 3 drafts in a row. Russell, Ingram, and Lonzo were all better players after they left LA. They just got lucky that a star from a small market team forced a trade to them.
Market is not everything, because look at the Knicks. But big market teams have a lot more room for error than the Kings, Hornets, and T-Wolves of the league.
Yes that’s true. Anthony Davis specifically wanted to go to the Lakers. You’re right about that. My thought was that the Lakers drafted well and were able to get a star like Anthony Davis. Those players were enough to get a star and they drafted well.
But you’re more correct in that Davis wanted to come to LA and the Pelicans just took the best deal they could. Ingram may turn out to be something but Ball and Hart are just “guys. Even though Hart was a steal at number 30, the Lakers did NOT necessarily draft well. It was the “Los Angeles” in their name which Lured LeBron and thus in turn, Anthony Davis. Good call.
Lakers being from LA have the confidence to believe they can lure FAs, so they can clear their books and still put a good team on the court when the time comes. Even now they only have one player (so far) to pay past 2022— LJ! Someone’s going to get to pick their teammates then, even if LJ opts out.
Congrats to LeBron and the Lakers. They beat us. We’ll be back though. We had a fun sports year in Miami with the Heat and the Marlins overachieving.