LeBron James achieved a lot in 2010.
He no-showed the second round of the playoffs against the Celtics, sending his top-seeded team home without much of a fight. Next, he flew around the country grasping for publicity as he was pursued in free agency before announcing on live television that he was going to “take his talents to South Beach.”
Finally, he led his “super team” to a 5-4 start and asked the world “What should I do?”
Add up all of those landmark moments, and LeBron James has been selected as one of Time Magazine’s 25 nominees for the vaunted Person of the Year award.
Others nominated include the likes of Hu Jintao, Hamid Karzai, Mark Zuckerberg, Barack Obama, David Cameron and Robert Gates. Some nominees, however, are of the lighthearted variety. Lady Gaga, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are also up for the honor.
James called the honor “crazy” when he found out about it on Monday.
“I am who I am and I think I’m in a position of my life where I’m going to get better every day,” James said. “But it’s too much.”
LeBron was particularly honored to be up for the award with the Chilean miners.
“What those guys did, the courage and what they stood for, I should be nowhere near that list. Nowhere near it.”
No professional athlete has ever won the award. In fact, former college athlete Gerald Ford is the only president to not win the honor since it was first given in 1927.
