LeBron James just won the 2012 NBA regular season MVP, his third such honor in the past four seasons--and he really deserved the 2011 award as well, so he easily could have become the first player in professional basketball history to win four straight MVPs. Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving and Larry Bird are the only players who won three consecutive MVPs. The NBA has recognized an MVP each season since 1955-56; Erving achieved his MVP three-peat from 1974-76 (sharing the 1975 honor with George McGinnis) in the ABA--which existed from 1968-76 but is wrongly ignored in most discussions of pro basketball records/accomplishments--and then he added an NBA MVP in 1981.
Pro basketball's three MVP club is an elite group that includes just nine players, each of whom--except for James--won at least one championship; in fact, the members of that club are better known for their playoff heroics than for their regular season productivity and they are instantly recognizable to all serious basketball fans by shorthand descriptions of their postseason greatness:
Bill Russell: 11 rings, 10 fingers
Wilt Chamberlain: Dominant player on two of the NBA's greatest single season teams
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Captain of the Showtime Lakers also led the expansion Milwaukee Bucks to the franchise's first (and only) title
Julius Erving: Led one of the youngest championship teams in pro basketball history (1974 Nets), authored arguably the greatest championship series performance in pro basketball history and was an All-NBA First Team performer for the 1983 Sixers team that went a then-record 12-1 in the playoffs
Moses Malone: Fo', fo', fo'
Larry Bird: Led Boston to three titles in six years during the 1980s
Magic Johnson: Five championships, three Finals MVPs, several indelible performances on the sport's biggest stage--including 42-15-7 in the series clincher as a rookie and the "junior, junior skyhook" in game four of the 1987 Finals
Michael Jordan: Teamed with Scottie Pippen to lead the Bulls to a pair of three-peats.
LeBron James has without question established himself as the best regular season NBA player of the past several seasons; he supplanted Kobe Bryant in that regard late in the 2008-09 season (Bryant held the title from 2006-08, though the media only selected him for one of the three MVPs that he should have won): James minimized the skill set weaknesses that previously kept him behind Bryant, while a succession of injuries and the accumulation of heavy mileage prevented Bryant from consistently dominating an entire regular season the way that he used to and the way that James now does. However, during that same time span Bryant consistently raised his game in the postseason, leading the Lakers to three straight NBA Finals and earning two Finals MVPs as the Lakers won back to back titles.
James has also had many fine playoff moments but he has disappeared in key situations against elite teams several times and his glaring lack of any championship hardware separates him from the other triple MVP winners. James deserves each of his regular season MVPs but when a multiple MVP winner annually plays for a championship caliber team it is reasonable to expect for him to lead his team to at least one championship. If James fails to do so then his glittering Hall of Fame resume will contain a significant, indelible smudge--or, depending on which analogy you prefer, a prominent empty space; even the greatest players don't win a championship every year and some of the greatest players of all-time only won one championship but if James does not win a title then he will fall short of the standard set by every other triple MVP who came before him.
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Further Reading:
Pro Basketball's Most Decorated Players
The Accelerated Growth Curve of LeBron James