Kevin Durant Finishes Second In NBA MVP Voting

News9.com

NEW YORK – The Miami Heat's LeBron James won the 2012 NBA MVP Award, beating out Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant, the league announced on Saturday.

James received 85 of a possible 121 first-place votes from the panel of sports writers and broadcasters. He had 1,074 points overall in the voting results.

Durant finished second with 24 first-place votes and 889 overall voting points.

It was familiar territory for Durant, who also finished second behind James two years ago in 2010.

Durant finished fifth place in 2011 when Derrick Rose won the honor.

Chris Paul finished third in this year's voting behind James and Durant with 385 overall points and six first-place votes.

Kobe Bryant was fourth (352, two first-place votes) and Tony Parker of the Spurs was fifth with 331 points, four first-place votes).

Russell Westbrook received one fourth-place and one fifth-place vote.

After Thunder practice on Saturday, Durant offered his congratulations to James.

"LeBron, that's like unheard of for a guy to get three out of four MVPs," Durant said. "He's a good friend of mine. I'm happy for him and of course I would love to have the MVP but at the same time, I've just got to keep improving, keep getting better and hopefully I'll have one soon."

The Thunder will play the winner of Saturday's Lakers-Nuggets Game 7 on Monday night in Oklahoma City.