This year's NBA Most Valuable Player Award race started at last season's Larry O'Brien Trophy presentation.
That's when LeBron James, while cradling the Bill Russell Trophy for winning NBA Finals MVP, declared, "I want my damn respect, too" after the Los Angeles Lakers took the championship.
It was at the end of a pointed victory speech in which James called for respect, reasonably, for coach Frank Vogel and general manager Rob Pelinka, both of whom were not recognized in awards voting. James himself had finished a distant second to Giannis Antetokounmpo for MVP. But his performance in the Orlando bubble made clear his status as the league's top player despite Antetokounmpo's back-to-back awards and Kawhi Leonard's 2019 Toronto title run.
It's been eight years now since James won his fourth MVP. His pursuit of a fifth, which would tie Michael Jordan and Russell for second most behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's six, has been complicated.
He has an opportunity over the next month to solidify his standing with the Lakers slated to play without Anthony Davis sidelined with aggravated tendinosis in his right Achilles. If James carries the Lakers through during this post-Super Bowl period, when the high-profile made-for-TV games launch -- his play has been typically strong this season anyway -- he will have an important pillar in any MVP argument firmly on his side: narrative.
The Lakers are 4-2 this season when Davis is out. James' points, rebounds, assists and minutes (largely because of overtime games) have gone up in those games, not to mention his role on defense, often magnified as he checks bigger opponents.
Part of the Lakers' strategy this season has been to ease the burden on James. Adding Dennis Schroder at point guard has relieved some of the pressure. Until Davis got hurt, James averaged the fewest minutes of his career. Since then, through three consecutive overtime games, James has kept the Lakers stable, maintaining the league's best defense and second-best record.
Fair or not, the narrative component of the MVP has worked against James at times in his career. The classic case was in the 2010-11 season, James' first in Miami, when Derrick Rose captured the honor. Rose had a great season, and the Chicago Bulls won 60 games behind a strong defense and were 3-0 during the regular season against the Heat.
James averaged more points, rebounds, assists, steals and minutes than Rose and had better advanced statistics. But there was drama, after "The Decision," a rocky 9-8 start that had James reportedly pining for Pat Riley to replace Erik Spoelstra as coach, and some brooding as he was booed routinely during the season. James said at the time that he suspected the drama might affect the vote.
Knowing this, James even endorsed Rose as MVP late in that season when he said: "I think Derrick Rose [is the MVP]. What he's done for that team, with all the injuries they have and them being first in the Eastern Conference -- they're playing some really good basketball."
After James and the Heat crushed the Bulls 4-1 in the East finals, the 2011 MVP vote has been classified as one where the narrative might have been punitive to James.
After winning the award in 2012 and 2013, James finished second to Kevin Durant in 2014 by a large margin. The Oklahoma City Thunder won five more games than the Heat during the regular season, and Durant won his fourth scoring title in five years. But James carried the Heat, posting the best shooting season of his career while Dwyane Wade dealt with knee issues that sidelined him for much of the season.
Durant had finished second to James in the MVP vote three times by then and lost to him in the 2012 Finals. At the time, James was gracious in conceding the trophy to Durant, whom he'd trained and built a relationship with in previous summers. In retrospect, James' case that season was as strong as in any other, and he faced the burden of living up to his own outsized expectations more so than being outclassed by Durant.
It's not remembered as controversial -- Durant's "you the real MVP" speech is iconic -- maybe because no one thought it could be James' last MVP.
"I think KD has had one heck of a season, and if he was rewarded with the MVP, it would be great," James said in 2014. "He has played MVP-type basketball. The most consistent basketball player as far as MVP this year. He has put up some great numbers."
It's not fair to say James has been chasing a fifth MVP since -- he went through a period in which he strategically prepared himself for the playoffs during the regular season. This was particularly true during the run in Cleveland from 2014 to 2018, when James conserved his energy in the midst of eight straight Finals runs.
After Stephen Curry took the award in 2015 and 2016, the latter year becoming the first-ever unanimous winner, James started to grumble a little. Curry was simply incredible in those two seasons and in 2015-16 led the Warriors to a record 73 wins. James believed that voters didn't take into account his contributions as a leader -- he felt he had to take on extra responsibility under first-time NBA coach David Blatt, for example. Same goes for his willingness to work with the front office on trades, such as when he advocated for the Cavs to trade for JR Smith and took responsibility for guiding the mercurial guard.
"I think sometimes the word 'valuable' or best player of the year, you can have different results," James said after Curry's 2016 win. "Look at Steph's numbers. He averaged 30 [points], he led the league in steals, he was 90-50-40 [in shooting percentages] and they won 73. Do you have any debate over that, really, when it comes to that award? But when you talk about 'most valuable,' then you can have a different conversation. So take nothing away from him, he's definitely deserving of that award, for sure."
In 2017, Russell Westbrook had the narrative firmly on his side when he averaged a triple-double the season after Durant left for Golden State. James finished fourth in the MVP vote -- even though he was the third player in history to average 26 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for a season. The other two were Oscar Robertson and Jordan.
"What are you going to do about it at the end of the day?" James said then. "I know what I bring to the table. This league knows what I bring to the table."
And that's when things started to turn a bit. After a few years without getting the award and after his incredible 2016 Finals, James' view on how he was treated in the MVP race became more coarse.
In 2018, after a few close misses, James Harden won as the Rockets put up a 65-win regular season and he won the scoring title again. The Cavs finished fourth in the East, but after Kyrie Irving forced his way out of Cleveland, James played in every game and took over more playmaking to finish with a career-high assist average.
"I would vote for me," James said about that 2018 race. "The body of work, how I'm doing it, what's been happening with our team all year long ... to be able to still keep this thing afloat, I definitely would vote me."
Harden's play fizzled in the conference finals and James carried the Cavs to the Finals, becoming the first player to average a triple-double despite cracking a bone in his hand after punching a blackboard following Game 1.
All this leads to last season, when James railed against the media for not giving him more votes for MVP despite a historic season from Antetokounmpo, when the Bucks superstar won MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.
Last year might've been James' best regular season front-to-back since his last MVP in 2012-13. The Lakers earned the No. 1 overall seed, he led the league in assists as he modified his game to better suit Davis' arrival, and he played his most aggressive and active regular-season defense in years.
Antetokounmpo got 85 of the 101 first-place votes.
"It pissed me off. That's my true answer. It pissed me off because out of 101 votes I got 16 first-place votes," James said when Antetokounmpo was named. "That's what pissed me off more than anything. I'm not saying that the winner wasn't deserving of the MVP, but that pissed me off."
So here we are. No matter how these next few weeks play out or whoever wins this season's award, it won't have a material effect on James' career. But James' legacy is set because he cares about every MVP every year -- and every last vote.