NBA
How many times has LeBron James won the NBA All-Star Game MVP award?
LeBron James has the potential to break the record for most MVP awards in the 2024 NBA All-Star Game, which will be hosted at Gainbridge Fieldhouse tonight.
To say that LeBron James is no stranger to the NBA All-Star Game would be an understatement. Team East takes on Team West later on Sunday in the 73rd edition of the game, which has been played yearly since 1951. Every year apart from one, the 1999 game was not held due to the 1998-99 NBA lockout caused by a dispute over the league’s minimum salary.
How many times has LeBron James played in the NBA All-Star Game?
No player has appeared in the All-Star game more than LeBron, who, incredibly enough, is making his 20th consecutive appearance, an outright record. He failed to be selected only once, at the end of his first season with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2004, when he won the NBA Rookie of the Year award. So far, 19 selections and 18 starts match the record set by Kareem Abudl-Jabbar between 1970 and 1989. However, the mathematicians among you will be able to work out that the former LA Lakers center missed one – in 1978.
Team LeBron ever-present
The format changed from 2018 to 2023, with the top vote leaders for each conference becoming team captains. The All-Star Game has featured Team LeBron, who has faced Team Stephen once and Team Durant twice and is now set to take on Team Giannis for the third time.
One record LeBron doesn’t hold – yet – is that of most MVP awards in the NBA All-Star game. That, though, could all change in the next few hours. James has won the award on three occasions. The first was in 2006 when he became the youngest player to win at 21. He won the award for the second time in three years in 2008 but then had to wait another 10 years to record his third victory in 2018. Unsurprisingly, he was on the winning side on each occasion, and, intriguingly, he has only ever won it as a Cleveland Cavaliers player. That doesn’t bode well for this year...
LeBron hoping to make MVP history
Should LeBron win his fourth MVP award in Indianapolis, he will tie the record set by Bob Pettit, which has stood since 1962 (he also won in 1956, 1958, 1959), and the late, great Kobe Bryant, who was voted MVP in (2002, 2007, 2009 and 2011) before tragic death in 2020.
But Pettit and Bryant both shared the award once, which means LeBron could become the first man in NBA All-Star Game history to win four outright MVP awards.