The NBA's 2019-20 MVP was announced on Friday, and Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo beat out Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James for the award in a landslide. James, who averaged double-digit assists for the first time in his career under head coach Frank Vogel, finished with only 16 first place votes of a possible 101.
After the results, Vogel weighed in on the results and how much it means to players nowadays.
“It’s an important award,” Vogel admitted. “The best compete to be the best, but at the end of the day, the true great ones really only care about championships. My sense is that’s where LeBron’s mind is: that the championship is the only real thing that matters.”
“It’s an important award. The best compete to be the best, but at the end of the day, the true great ones really only care about championships. My sense is that’s where LeBron’s mind is: that the championship is the only real thing that matters.”
– Frank Vogel on the MVP award. pic.twitter.com/pq2KMcxDnb
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) September 18, 2020
James went out in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals and finished with an easy 15 points and 12 assists in just 31 minutes of a 126-114 blowout of the Denver Nuggets.
After the game, James admitted that he was ‘pissed off' about not getting more than 16 votes for the MVP award.
“It pissed me off,” James said. “That’s my true answer. It pissed me off cuz out of 101 votes, I got 16 first place votes. Not saying the winner wasn’t deserving, but it pissed me off.”




"It pissed me off."
LeBron James was not happy losing the MVP award to Giannis Antetokounmpo 😤
(via @TomerAzarly)pic.twitter.com/iwyh7oqy87
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) September 19, 2020
James took it one step further when he brought up the Defensive Player of the Year voting from 2013, where he finished second behind then-Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol.
“The voting scale is a little weird to me sometimes,” James said, via Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints. “I mean if you take 2012 — if you just stick with me here — 2012-13, I had a chance to be Defensive Player of the Year and also MVP on the same season. And that year Marc Gasol was rewarded as Defensive Player of the Year. But he made second-team All-Defense.”
In 67 regular season appearances this season, LeBron James averaged 25.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 10.2 assists, and 1.2 steals per game on 49.3 percent shooting from the field. Giannis Antetokounmpo, now a two-time MVP winner, averaged 29.5 points, 13.6 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 1.0 steal on 55.3 percent shooting from the field.
Regardless of who you think deserved the MVP award, both Antetokounmpo and James had fantastic years. Frank Vogel, LeBron James, and the Lakers have bigger aspirations than the MVP award, and they'll surely take an NBA Championship over it every single day of the week.