The decision by the fine folks at Sports Illustrated to name LeBron James the Sportsman of the Year for 2012 is hardly shocking. If anything, the only surprise to come from this latest award for the self-proclaimed “King” is that he’s just the 6th NBA player to ever receive the honor, joining Dwayne Wade (’06), Tim Duncan and David Robinson (’03), Michael Jordan (1991), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1985) and Bill Russell (1968). As for the actual merits and what this award actually represents, though, does James actually deserve it?

Sure. Why not?

To be very honest, I spent most of the morning trying to think of anyone who deserved this honor over James, and I came up with very few results. At first, I wanted to write a Skip Bayless-esque Jason Whitlock-ian essay about why it should have been Dwight Howard, but that really wouldn’t have been any fun for you. Then, I wanted to come up with the “GRRRRRRRR, I HATE LEBRON JAMES!” list of reasons why he doesn’t deserve the award, but that attitude has sort of run its course.

And let’s face it, once the Miami Heat won the NBA championship and took away our nuclear arsenal against the easiest man in sports to hate, this Sportsman of the Year recognition was locked up. He would have had to eaten, digested and pooped out a trash can full of puppies on a Fox News special, hosted by Glenn Beck and Chris Matthews, while Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly wrestled orphans in a pool of pudding to lose this thing.

But I’ll let SI’s brass explain why James deserves this.

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On Tuesday night, a few hundred people gathered in New York City for the annual Sports Illustrated Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year ceremony, which is like the Golden Globes to With Leather’s Top Sports Moments of the Year. University of Tennessee Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt was honored as the Sportswoman of the Year, while Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski was presented as the Sportsman of the Year. Smart ass college basketball fans everywhere suggested that the titles should be swapped.

Also honored was Noah Flegel, SI’s Sports Kid of the Year, and he was the biggest winner of the night. Why? Because he got to hug swimsuit model Chrissy Teigen, who was at the event as part of her mandatory deal with SI to always be awesome. Between her Twitter and, well, her, Teigen is our favorite girl on the planet not named Kate Upton. And now I’m sad that Upton wasn’t there, too.

And there were some other people at the event, but I only care about Teigen. She’s that special.

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Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and assumed “trunking” expert Michael Vick took home a BET Award for Sportsman of the Year on Sunday night, and because of this (and stay with me here, because this doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense) an animal rights group will be boycotting Subway restaurants.

You see, Subway was the sponsor for the Sportsman of the Year Award, and despite the fact that they didn’t name the nominees or the winner (and despite the fact the only connection to sports it has is giving Blake Griffin somewhere to eat breakfast) they have to pay for Vick’s dog-fighting past. I guess the animal rights group was okay eating at Subway despite decades of systematic slaughter of animals for food processing, but can’t handle this one football player who killed fewer dogs in his lifetime than the staff on a routine weekend at the city pound. And then there’s the more important point of “don’t you have something better to do with your life than eating Subway and watching the BET Awards?”

As someone who has a bloody, continuously-beating heart for animals and a sustained dislike of Michael Vick, even I think this is dumb. Sure, Vick winning a sportsman of the year award is sort of like giving Ron Swanson “Woman of the Year”, but who cares? Better reasons to boycott Subway would be “why haven’t I been able to get avocados here before 2011″ or “why isn’t there something better to eat in my town than f**king Subway”.

In a related story, Miley Cyrus is up for best comedic performance for “Hannah Montana Forever” at this year’s Teen Choice Awards, so let’s show them how pissed we are by never eating Dorito’s.

[h/t Shutdown Corner]