Miami Heat forward LeBron James has been named the NBA's MVP for a third time, putting him alongside some of the game's all-time greats.
James totalled 1,074 points, including 85 first-place votes, from a panel of 121 voters that decided the award.
Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant, the leading scorer for the third season in a row, finished second in the vote, followed by Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers and Kobe Bryant from the Los Angeles Lakers.
Chicago's Derrick Rose, who won the MVP award last year, finished 11th in the voting after missing more than a third of the season because of injury.
"I never dreamt about being an NBA Most Valuable Player," an emotional James said in a presentation in Miami broadcast live on national TV.
"I never dreamt about doing the things that I do now at a high level.
"Now that it's in me now, and it's happening, it's overwhelming."
James will be formally presented with the trophy before Miami's Eastern Conference semi-final opener against Indiana on Sunday. Only seven other players – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Moses Malone – have at least three MVP trophies.
James said last week that while another MVP award "would be amazing and would be humbling," it is not what drives him. In his ninth season, James still has not won an NBA title and winning a championship is his top basketball priority.
"What I'm all about is team, and ever since I was a kid I was always taught it's team first," James told the AP on Friday. "My first time playing basketball, we went undefeated and won a championship and Frank Walker Sr gave everyone on the team an MVP trophy. Right then and there, I knew that this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to see my teammates reap the benefits as well."
Abdul-Jabbar won the MVP six times, Jordan and Russell five times each, Chamberlain four times. They are the only players with more MVP awards than James.
"I think he's probably as committed as he's ever been in his career," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said this week, asked to summarise James's season. "And he's always been committed … We all respond to his energy on the court."
James averaged 27.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists – making him only the fourth player with those totals in at least two different seasons, according to Stats LLC, joining Oscar Robertson (five times), John Havlicek (twice) and Bird (twice).
Add James' 53% shooting and 1.9 steals per game into the mix, and the club gets even more exclusive. Only Jordan had a season with numbers exceeding what James did this season in those categories – 1988-89, when he averaged 32.5 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and 2.9 steals on 54% shooting.
And Jordan wasn't even the MVP that year, the trophy going to Johnson instead.
"I think LeBron is an MVP candidate every year," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said last month. "It's just who he is. He only does everything. So I don't know what more you can ask from him.
"LeBron, to me, is the favourite every year," Rivers added. "The years he doesn't win it, it'll usually be because people are just tired of voting for him. Statistically, if you go all-around game, I don't know how you don't vote for him every year."
James' teammates also lobbied for him to be defensive player of the year this season, noting that probably no one else in the league routinely plays four positions on offense while sometimes being asked to guard anyone from a point guard to a centre on defense. James was fourth in that balloting.
"LeBron has been unbelievable," Heat guard Dwyane Wade said before the playoffs. "He's done it at both ends, every night, offensively and defensively."
Last season's MVP, Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls, appeared in only 39 of 66 regular-season games this season because of a variety of injuries. His season ended in Game 1 of the Bulls' first-round playoff series against Philadelphia, when he tore a knee ligament.
Shaquille O'Neal won his only MVP award before coming to Miami, and James won the 2009 and 2010 trophies with the Cavaliers – collecting 225 of a possible 244 first-place votes in those seasons.
The NBA MVP trophy is named for Maurice Podoloff, the league's first commissioner. Heat assistant coach Bob McAdoo won the award once, for the Buffalo Braves in 1975.
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