LeBron James' NBA MVP 2020 race: Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis explain why ‘King’ is a frontrunner at age 35

The NBA regular season 2019-20 is just about to restart next week, but talks on who will be the next Most Valuable Player is already heating up. At least for Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis, the 17-year veteran LeBron James has shown enough dominance this season making him a likely frontrunner in the MVP race.

The case for LeBron James’ potential 5th MVP award

Last season, James’ critics had some momentum online branding him as “Washed King” – a rather negative play to his moniker “The King.” Also last season, the Lakers did not make it to the playoffs and his first year wearing purple and gold was marred with an injury. Today, his performance since season 2019-20 started and the Los Angeles Lakers’ current league standing should enough to silence the doubters – and other NBA stars agree.

Asked to assess his teammate’s standing in the MVP race, Anthony Davis said James’ consistent performance at the age of 35 should make the case for him as a strong contender for the award. “He's playing probably one of his best years,” Davis said. “The things he's able to do on the floor, especially when everyone says he's washed and ... he came back with a dominant performance.”

Meanwhile, Portland Trailblazers star Damian Lillard also said James would get his vote over the reigning MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo. The “NBA 2K21” cover athlete said in the Dan Patrick Show that James having a “dominant” season on his 17th year in the league and the Lakers leading in the Western Conference are some of the reasons “The King” should get his fifth MVP award.

What Davis and Lillard said can be substantiated with James’ stats and the records he broke this season alone. James is currently averaging 25.7 points, 10.6 assists, and 7.9 rebounds, and has been playing at around 34.9 minutes in the 60 games he played so far. In January, he passed the late Kobe Bryant as the top 3 in the NBA’s all-time scoring record after two other ex-Lakers Kareem Abdul-Jabar (1) and Karl Malone (2).

James also broke franchise record after becoming the second player with the most triple-doubles following Magic Johnson. But he is the first-ever NBA player to post at least one triple-double against all 30 teams.

LeBron James isn’t worried the MVP race ended abruptly due to COVID-19

To the delight of basketball fans, league officials opted for the season 2019-20 to restart in the Orlando bubble starting with the “seeding games” on July 30. However, only 22 of the 30 NBA teams are joining the restart leading to NBA’s decision to only count the games before the postponement in March for the MVP race.

James is fine with that inevitable change and he believes his performance before the global pandemic disrupted the league is enough to show what he can do after 17 years in the league. Like Davis and Lillard, James also pointed out the Lakers’ position as one of his qualifications for the MVP race.

This means the panel of 100 independent media practitioners will choose their top 5 players for the NBA’s Kia MVP race based on the games played through March 11 only. Check this votes tabulation sheet from season 2015-16 to see how the points are counted. The names of reporters included in the voting process will only be revealed once the winners are announced.