LeBron James was one vote away from being a unanimous MVP – that vote went to Carmelo Anthony instead.
Nearly a decade later, James still harbors ill will toward the voter, who prevented him from becoming the first to win the unanimous prize. Shaquille O’Neal suffered the same fate in 1999-2000, receiving 120 votes out of 121. It wasn’t until Stephen Curry (2015-16) that someone was unanimously named MVP.
And James feels like he’s been robbed of his right to become first. He didn’t particularly like it and apparently threatened to report the voter who did it.
“I also had the opportunity to be the first unanimous MVP if I got all 120 votes,” he said. “But I got 119.”
“I know who voted,” James added. “He voted for Carmelo… He was a Boston writer – of course. I know his name too, but I’m not going to give him that light just yet. I’ll wait for the doc on this.
The problem is that everyone already knows who the voter is: Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.
At the time, James thought it was a New York writer, but that wasn’t the case.
“It was probably a writer from New York who didn’t give me the vote,” James said at the awards ceremony, via ESPN. I know the history between the Heat and the Knicks, so I understand.
Washburn explained in an article published in the Globe a day later that he was the voter who voted for Anthony instead of James.
Why my MVP vote this year was Carmelo Anthony via @BostonGlobe
– Gary Washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) May 6, 2013
Washburn argued that Anthony had more of an impact on his team during the 2012-13 season than James. The columnist credited Anthony with reviving the Knicks, who at the time had won their first division title in nearly 20 years. He felt that the Knicks would not have made the playoffs without Anthony, while the Miami Heat had Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh alongside James.
He also predicted that James would eventually be the NBA’s first seven-time MVP, emphasizing that his vote was not biased in favor of James. The irony here is that this would be the last time James, now 39, would be voted the league’s Most Valuable Player. So it’s understandable that he’s still angry that he was “stolen.” to be the first unanimous MVP in league history.
But saying he knows the voter by name when everyone knows it was Washburn who did it implies that James knows something that everyone else doesn’t. Trying to expose someone who has already exposed themselves seems like a strange justification. You don’t have to agree with Washburn — and many people don’t — but it’s not like he hid behind anonymity and waited to publish a tell-all book a decade later.
It’s also worth noting that James assumed the elector was from New York, which was later proven to be incorrect, even 24 hours after he gave his acceptance speech. He now knows that the writer is from Boston but refuses to shed light on anything other than his name. Perhaps this was his selling point in revealing unknown information that will be visible when this “document” is revealed; maybe not.
This is a bit strange, considering that Gary Washburn already came out 10 years ago.
(HoodiiBron on X via BroBible)
