ESPN announced yesterday that the National Basketball Players Association is launching its own annual awards, where players will be able to vote anonymously. It was announced in a memo this week by Michele Roberts, the Union Executive Director. She implemented the awards because several players expressed that they wanted to have a say in high-profile awards. "This program was created at your request to recognize outstanding performance of your peers, on and off the court. No one knows better than you what it takes to shine,” ESPN reported that Roberts said in the memo.
LeBron James, Vice President of the union, reportedly mentioned that although players can't vote for themselves, he'd vote himself MVP this year if he could. James has won four MVP Awards in the past, which were voted on by the media.