Talk about LeBron James quickly rising up as a potential MVP candidate has flooded the news cycle after the Los Angeles Lakers turned out impressive results against their biggest competition. James outplayed Giannis Antetokounmpo on Friday before turning out a similar performance against Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday — quickly ascending in the MVP race in the process.

However, ESPN's Jalen Rose doesn't want any narrative to cloud what could be a rather historic race for the heavily coveted award:

“Anytime somebody does the argument for LeBron James, let's do it without talking about how old he is,” said Rose. “No, let's not make it a story. Let's talk about how they're playing basketball.

“What ends up happening is we get so nostalgic about who's having the better season. Both of those guys are having amazing seasons, but right now Giannis has the edge. The Lakers are closing. The Lakers might end up having the best record in the NBA. If that happens and he plays the way he plays, LeBron James at that point will likely get my vote.”

People have been quick to inject the age narrative into this MVP discussion, or even worse, invoke the passing of Kobe Bryant as an alternate motive to why James deserves the award. Take, for example, ESPN's Dave McMenamin:

Facts remain that Antetokounmpo has been in the lead for most of the 2019-20 NBA season, and it's only until now that LeBron James has surfaced as a legitimate challenger:

Antetokounmpo is having yet another monstrous season. While James is closely trailing, to say he has leapfrogged Giannis as the front-runner for the award is a leap, to say the least.

There's surefire viability for James to wind up with his fifth MVP award and his first since 2013, but he will have to show more over the last few games of the season to knock the reigning MVP off his throne.