Pro Hoops MVP

All season long, basketball fans wondered who the best pro hoops player was. This week, fans were finally given the answer. LeBron James was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player, beating out Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade.

The NBA gives out the MVP Award to the top player of the year. A group of 125 sports writers from around the country gets to vote on the award, ultimately deciding who the best player in the league is. This group takes into account a number of factors when they vote for MVP. Not only do MVP candidates have to be very good individual players, but they have to have the ability to make their teams better. Usually, the MVP comes from one of the best teams in the NBA that year. This year was no exception. LeBron plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who had the best regular season record in the league this year at 66-16. They just swept the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

The award is not only special for LeBron, but for all of the Cavaliers and their fans. He is the first Cleveland player to ever win the award. The Cavaliers coach, Mike Brown, won the NBA's Coach of the Year Award earlier this spring. A player can't win the MVP Award if he is not surrounded by good players and a good coach.

Some of the best players in NBA history have won the MVP Award. Kareem Abdul-Jabar, who played center for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1970s and 80s, won six MVP Awards. Michael Jordan won the award five times, as did Bill Russell, a Hall-of-Fame center who won 11 championships with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s and 60s. Wilt Chamberlin was the MVP four times, while Larry Bird, Moses Malone and Magic Johnson all won three MVPs. By winning this year's MVP Award, LeBron joins this list of all-time greats.

One of the interesting things about LeBron is that he accepted his award at his old high school in Ohio. He did this to thank all of the people that helped him to grow up to become a great basketball player: his old friends, teammates and coaches. LeBron has come a long way from the high school player he was less than 10 years ago. And like other MVPs, he looks like he's going to go a lot further.

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