Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James was named the 2008-09 NBA Most Valuable Player, the NBA announced Monday. In addition to the biggest honor the NBA can bestow upon a single player, James was also named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team on Wednesday.

James became the first Cavalier in franchise history to win the MVP award and the second Cavalier to earn first team honors.

James won the MVP trophy, known as the Maurice Podoloff Trophy, by quite a margin too, receiving a total of 1,172 points, including 109 first-place votes out of a possible 121 from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.

To earn a spot on the All-Defensive First Team, James received 47 votes, the third-most overall, including 22 first-place votes. The voting panel consisted of the NBA’s 30 head coaches. James was joined on the first team by 2009 Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets and Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics.

This week’s all yours LeBron. Congratulations from the “family!”

LeBron James and the Cavs face the Atlanta Hawks tonight at Quicken Loans Arena in the second round of the playoffs. They currently lead the series 1-0.

LeBron James’ Season Highlights

• Led the Cavaliers to an NBA and franchise-best 66-16 (.805) record and became just the 12th team in NBA history to win 66 or more games in a season. Also, helped Cleveland post a 39-2 (.951) record at The Q, which tied for the second-best home record in league history, and a 27-14 (.659) road record, which tied for the second-best road record in the league this season.

• Helped Cleveland improve its win total by 21 games from 2007-08 (45-37), tying the 1971-72 L.A. Lakers in NBA history for the second-largest improvement in wins of all teams that won at least 45 games in the previous season.

• Led Cleveland to 16 victories during March, tying the NBA all-time record for most victories in any month. Finished March with 479 points, 152 rebounds and 143 assists. The only other player in NBA history to reach each of those totals in one month is Oscar Robertson, who did it in eight separate months, most recently in January 1965.

• Became just the second player in NBA history to post five consecutive seasons of at least 27.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists (Oscar Robertson)

• Is the only player to average at least 27.0 points in each of the past five seasons

• Became the youngest player in NBA history to score 11,000 points (23 years, 324 days) and 12,000 points (24 years, 35 days) during the season

• Became the youngest (23 years, 308 days) and fastest (395 games) player to reach the following totals: 10,000 points, 2,500 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 700 steals and 300 blocks

• Scored 41 points in three of the Cavs first eight games (41 vs. Chi on Nov. 5th and 8th and 41 vs. Milwaukee on Nov. 11th), becoming the first player since Michael Jordan in 1991 to score 40-or-more in at least three of a team’s first eight games of a season

• With 38 points, seven rebounds, six assists, three blocks and four steals versus Boston on Jan. 9, James became the first person to reach those numbers in a game since David Robinson on March 19, 1994

• Totaled 23 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists and three blocks versus Sacramento on Jan. 27th, posting at least those numbers in a game since Larry Bird in 1987

• Tallied 33 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists on Jan. 24th at Utah, becoming the first player to record at least those numbers in a non-overtime game since Kevin Garnett in 2004

• Made a career-high eight three-pointers on 11 attempts on his way to a season-best 55 points at Milwaukee on Feb. 20

• Became only the 12th player in NBA history to have three consecutive triple-doubles (March 7th, 10th and 12th).

• Posted 43 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists, four steals and a block versus Orlando on March 17th, joining Larry Bird in 1992 as the only players to record at least those numbers in a game.

• Is the only active player in the NBA to have five consecutive seasons with at least 2,000 points and became just the ninth in NBA history, joining legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, George Gervin, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlin, Dominique Wilkins, Oscar Robertson, Alex English and Karl Malone all-time.

• With his fourth season of at least 2,000 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists, James became the 2nd player in NBA history (Oscar Robertson) to post at least those numbers in four seasons or more.

LeBron James Wins NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award
LeBron James Named to NBA All-Defensive First Team
Video: LBJ’s Top 10 Plays

I was thinking about how life and the financial markets mimic each other.  You see, those who know my family, know we have a dog. (I think it’s a Pug or a Fug or maybe it’s a German Shepherd… I forgot.) Our five offspring love the aging pooch.

Recently, a sequence of events occurred involving our dog (I forgot its name… we’ve only had it for 5-6 years) that, strangely, caused me to ponder the similarity of these events and the events in the financial markets and our economy over the past 18 months.

This dog is OK as far as wrinkled, small dogs go.  “It’s” (frankly, don’t know if ‘its’ a male or female… I never really looked) nice enough, very lazy and besides the random “bark” for no reason whatsoever, out of nowhere, knows its place on top of the ledge of the couch in our family room, where it curls up as it alternates in and out of sleep, except for the 3-4 times it fully awakes daily to run its set routine…

First, it takes a 12-second walk and stretch, then a quick sprint outside to water a tree and squat followed by a fast check around the kitchen table floor (usually, after the humans have eaten a meal) for a hopeful discovery of scraps on the ground,  finally, finishing with a fast stop for one bite and one lick out of its own designated dog food and water bowls.

The entire cycle runs about 90 seconds and then it’s back up on the ledge for its journey in and out of the ether. At the end of the day, it becomes very tired and climbs into one of our kid’s beds for a nice deep 12-hour sleep only to awake the next morning and begin its relaxing day once again.

Not such a bad life… If you are a hound.

Now our ‘Fido’, although lazy and unmotivated, very much loved its routine, sort of like your typical unregulated and unstimulated economy. But change came blowing in the form of very cold weather over the last few weeks and after several years of unimpressive growth both emotionally and mentally from our family canine, the dog ‘randomly’ and without thought or even any instinctual yearnings, decided not to invest in taking that “quick trip” outdoors I mentioned above.

It happened about as fast as the housing crisis smacked us when the first Bear Stearns hedge funds collapsed in June of 2007.  Unfortunately, like most dogs, it’s not trained to go the bathroom anywhere except outside.  You may be seeing the problem unfolding here, hopefully, better than most of us saw the housing crisis, unfolding a couple of years back.

Luckily, Jenny and I have two bathrooms in our master bedroom.  It’s a virtual panacea of marital space that keeps everyone (that being me) happy.  Unfortunately, and this is where the story really comes together, this unregulated dog has taken to defecating on the floor near my toilet.

Not my wife’s toilet.  Mine.

And it got me thinking about the mortgage mess and how 10% of borrowers defaulting on their loans can literally turn nearly an entire market and even economy into a toxic mess, much the way a 12-pound dog can do the same thing to the air quality of an entire bedroom suite. Because my wife is clearly the President, COO, CEO, Chairman and VP of everything in our home (and my life), she introduced her own stimulus package to light the economy… or a candle in the case here. And she placed the lit candle on top of my toilet to counteract the negative forces affecting our quality of life.

Unfortunately, as any stimulus plan goes, without proper oversight, bad things happen.  Upon forgetting the stimulus was lit, the candle melted, dripped heavily down the toilet and started a fire of burning plastic.  Not exactly a better smell by the way, but I digress.

Luckily, the heat literally split the toilet top in half making such a loud crack that we jumped up from bed to investigate the consequences of my household president’s stimulus package.

“Shock and awe” only begin to describe it.  The stimulus was LITERALLY, burning the very last “pot I had to piss in” (keep in mind I am “a mortgage guy from Detroit“).

The blackened, molten plastic was dripping onto the tiled floor and a gaping crack in the ceramic now existed under the epicenter of the stimulus.  But, hey, luckily, a potential economic disaster was averted and the toxicity left by the dog could no longer be detected.  With a little bit of elbow grease and some more money to fix what the stimulus caused, I’ll be in good shape.

Thank you Jenny… ah hem… Obama!

Although – we do still have the dog and the country still has the housing crisis.

And now you know why I feel that everything is connected to everything else, and like my life at rare times, the economy, would be better off if it was just “flushed down the toilet” and allowed to begin anew… in a more, should I say, “natural” kind of way… an “economic enema,” if you will.

Dan G.