LeBron James is getting his fourth Most Valuable Player award, and the only mystery left is whether the vote was unanimous.

The Miami Heat star will be introduced Sunday as the award winner, according to a person familiar with the results and who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the league has not publicly announced this year’s recipient. James will become the fifth player with at least four MVP awards, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.

No one has ever swept every first-place vote in the NBA’s MVP balloting. After the season he had, James could be the first.

“I don’t know who else you’d vote for,” Heat forward Chris Bosh said Friday. “No offense to everybody else, but that’s just how good he has played this year.”

James averaged 26.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.3 assists this season, shooting a career-best 56 percent. It was absolutely no surprise that he won the award, and given the timetable for Miami’s next game — the Heat don’t open Eastern Conference semifinal play until Monday night against Brooklyn or Chicago — it had been widely assumed for several days that Sunday would be the day.

SATURDAY’S GAME

BULLS 99, NETS 93: Joakim Noah had 24 points and 14 rebounds, Marco Belinelli also scored 24 points and Chicago won at New York in Game 7 of their first-round series.

Carlos Boozer added 17 points as the Bulls shook off injuries to two starters and every run the Nets tried to make in the second half to win a Game 7 on the road for the first time in franchise history. They advanced to a second-round series against Miami that starts Monday night.


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