LEBRON JAMES NAMED SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR!

He’s an NBA MVP, an Olympic gold medalist and, finally, an NBA champion. Yes, 2012 has been a memorable year for LeBron James, and the Miami Heat superstar is capping it off with another accolade: on Monday Sports Illustrated revealed that James was the magazine’s Sportsman of the Year.

“Did I think an award like this was possible two years ago? No, I did not,” James told SI’s Lee Jenkins in discussing how far he’s come, as a person and as a player, since his ill-fated “Decision” in 2010 when he announced that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat.

“I thought I would be helping a lot of kids and raise $3 million by going on TV and saying, 'Hey, I want to play for the Miami Heat.' But it affected far more people than I imagined,” James said. “I know it wasn't on the level of an injury or an addiction, but it was something I had to recover from. I had to become a better person, a better player, a better father, a better friend, a better mentor and a better leader. I've changed, and I think people have started to understand who I really am.”

James, who earned his third league MVP award last season in leading the Heat to the championship, is off to a strong start this season as well, averaging 24.7 ppg, 8.9 rpg and 6.5 apg — the only player in the league in the top-20 in all three statistical categories. He’s the sixth NBA player to win the award, joining Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell and his Heat teammate, Dwyane Wade.

“This year there was an endless list of high-quality possibilities,” Time Inc. Sports Group Editor Paul Fichtenbaum said. "But LeBron's stirring accomplishments on and off the court were impossible to ignore.”

Over the summer James became the third player in history to be named league MVP, win an NBA championship and a gold medal in the same calendar year, joining Jordan and Russell.

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