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 the result. 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.
Only Russell had won four MVPs in five years, and only Abdul-Jabbar had gone back-to-back on the award twice.
James won the award in 2009 and 2010, only got four first-place votes in 2011 -- his first season with the Heat -- then reclaimed the award last season (see full story).
Bulls' Deng underwent spinal tap
DEERFIELD, Ill. -- Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng made it clear Friday on Twitter that the illness that kept him out of a playoff game against the Brooklyn Nets was far more serious than the flu.
He missed the Bulls' loss in Game 6 on Thursday with what coach Tom Thibodeau said were flu-like symptoms.
In one of a series of tweets from the hospital, Deng wrote: "It really upsets me that everyone thinks I would miss a game" because of the flu.
He also confirmed he had a spinal tap to rule out meningitis earlier in the week. And he indicated he will join the team for Game 7 in Brooklyn if he's medically cleared, although he might have to spend the night in the hospital.
The Bulls are in danger of losing this first-round series after taking a 3-1 lead, and they were really short-handed on Thursday, with Kirk Hinrich sidelined by a bruised left calf and Nate Robinson and Taj Gibson playing through what the team said were flu-like symptoms.
Deng insisted his illness was more serious than that (see full story).
Kobe takes on mother in court
TRENTON, N.J. -- Kobe Bryant is in a court battle to try to keep his mother from auctioning off mementoes from his high school days in Pennsylvania and his early years with the Los Angeles Lakers.
A New Jersey auction house filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Camden on Thursday for the right to sell the stuff after the NBA star's lawyers wrote the firm telling it to cancel a planned June auction.
The disagreement is a high-value, high-profile version of a question many families face: Can Mom get rid of the stuff a grown child left at home?
In this case, the 900 mementoes happen to be worth upward of $1.5 million.
Among the first 100 or so items Pamela Bryant intends to sell: the NBA star's jerseys, practice gear and sweatsuits from Lower Merion High School; varsity letters; a trophy for being the outstanding player at the 1995 Adidas ABCD basketball camp; and a signed basketball from the 2000 NBA championship game.
And then there are rings, for the 1996 Pennsylvania high school championship, a pair that the Lakers made for Bryant's parents for the 2000 NBA championship and one from the 1998 NBA All-Star game.
According to court filings, Pamela Bryant struck a deal in January with Goldin Auctions in Berlin, N.J., which earlier this year sold a rare Honus Wagner baseball card for a record $2.1 million.
She got $450,000 up front, which she intended to use for a new home in Nevada (see full story).