About two months from now, Steph Curry will stride to a podium wearing a suit, thank his family, friends and teammates and lift the NBA's Most Valuable Player trophy for the second time in as many years.
At this point, Curry as the league's repeat winner is a foregone conclusion. What isn't so clear, and what is becoming a very real possibility, is another legacy-defining question.
Has LeBron James won his final MVP award?
James remains stuck on four MVPs, one fewer than Michael Jordan and two fewer than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. James will be 32 when the 2017 MVP trophy is awarded. Only four players in history have won an MVP at age 32 or later: Jordan, Abdul-Jabbar, Steve Nash and Karl Malone. Jordan and Malone both won as late as 35.
James is now three years removed from his last MVP season. Of all the players to win it multiple times, Jordan is the only one with a gap of more than three seasons. He went four years between his third award and his fourth -- and one of those years was spent playing baseball.
Still, James isn't ready to concede his reign atop the NBA is over.
"I wouldn't think that way," he told the Beacon Journal. "I think I've been doing what I've been doing for so long that I don't want to say that. But I don't know. I'm playing at a high level still, I'm putting up MVP numbers. We'll see."
James' scoring has dropped the last three seasons, while his 3-point shooting has been sliding a bit longer. His Player Efficiency Rating is up from last year and on par with his first season in Miami.
He'll likely never catch Jordan's six championships now, but James said "of course" it's important to at least match Jordan's five MVP awards. In his mind, he should already be there or past him.
"I think I've been snubbed a year or two," he told the Beacon Journal. "I should have probably five or six right now, to be completely honest."
James wouldn't divulge which years he believed voters got it wrong, but the most obvious was 2011, when he finished a distant third behind Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose and Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard. Then he won it the following season with similar numbers. It's widely believed James was punished in 2011 for the way he joined the Heat, which is why he didn't win.
An informal, anonymous poll of a handful of scouts and league executives revealed they still believe in James. They still believe he could have another MVP run in him. The problem is the way he has seemed to scale back during the regular season. After playing more than 45,000 minutes throughout his career (regular season and postseason combined), James has learned how to pace himself for when it really matters. While it's necessary to prolong his career and effectiveness, it could hurt him in such categories as MVP races.
"He picks his spots more now than he used to when he'd go full-bore 100 mph," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "He's picking his spots and waiting until he needs to be needed. ... He still gets the job done. I wouldn't doubt (James winning another MVP) whatsoever."
Despite Curry's brilliance the last two seasons, Anthony Davis' continued emergence and the presence of Kevin Durant, Casey still believes James is the best player in the NBA today.
"You can make numbers say whatever you want them to say, but I still perceive him to be one of the best players in the league -- the best player," Casey said. "He can take over a game on both ends of the floor and that's how I measure a player. He's won championships. Father Time catches all of us. But he's probably one of the most fearful players to prepare for in this league."
James' ultimate goal remains to win a championship in Cleveland, but matching his boyhood idol in MVP awards is certainly on the list. He would seemingly have to fix his broken jump shot and return more consistently to the defensive menace he was in years past. Whether that's realistic remains to be seen. But James hasn't given up on the idea.
"All I can do is go out and play how I've been playing and let the writers decide from there," he said. "I put my team in position every year to win a championship and I do it putting up numbers. I really don't really think about it as far as winning that trophy. I think about how can I be an MVP for our team, for sure."
