As Cleveland emperor LeBron James chases his fifth career Most Valuable Player Award in the 2016-17 season, he’s not letting anything stand in his way, not even limited playing time.
In an interview with Dave McMenamin of ESPN on Saturday, James didn’t mince words when asked if he was concerned about his MVP bid being affected by the prospect of a reduced workload.
“No,” the three-time NBA champion said bluntly. “Because Steph played 31 minutes a game and he won the MVP.”
James, who has averaged 39.0 minutes per game in his career, played a career-low 35.6 minutes a night in 2015-16. Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue has already alluded to the possibility of restricting James’ minutes further this season, which makes perfect sense considering his virtually unprecedented tire tread for a 13-year veteran.
Priority No. 1 will always be to keep The King bubble-wrapped for the postseason. But James does have a point when he brings up Stephen Curry (though he was slightly off with the specifics as the Golden State Warriors sniper played 34.2 minutes per game last year and 32.7 a game in his first MVP campaign the season before that).
For a once-in-an-epoch player like James who can impact a game profoundly on both ends of the floor no matter how many minutes he plays, he’s not concerned about his workload as he chases that ghost in Chicago, and we shouldn’t be either.
