LeBron James of the Miami Heat is the winner of the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the 2011-12 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award, the NBA announced today. James earns the honor for the third time in four seasons and becomes the first player since Michael Jordan to win at least three MVPs. James, a gamer at heart, also has skills off the hardwoods. He talks about video games in the exclusive video interview below.

The music world has lost a legend today. Adam Yauch, also known as MCA from the Beastie Boys, has died of cancer at age 47. The singer lives on through 2K Sports’ NBA 2K game franchise. The Beastie Boys music has been featured in the game franchise. And Yauch was even a playable character in the game.

New Orleans is having an amazing run as sports grand stage. Fresh off the BCS Championship game and NCAA Final Four in 2012, the city will host Super Bowl XLVII in 2012. But that's just the beginning. The Big Easy will host the 63rd NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, February 16, 2014. The 2014 All-Star Game will be played at New Orleans Arena, home of the Hornets, pending the completion of arena and hotel agreements.  This will mark the second time that NBA All-Star will be hosted in New Orleans, having previously been held in the “Crescent City” in 2008. 

ORLANDO -- The will he, won't he drama surrounding Dwight Howard has ended, at least for this year, with Howard terminating his opt-out clause in his contract and remaining with the Orlando Magic for another year. When asked what Howard would do now that everything is over at his press conference today, Dwight Howard replied "I'm going to go home and play video games. That's what I'm going to do" Howard is known as a hard-core video gamer and even boasted to us at the recent NBA All-Star Game that he can beat anybody in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as seen below in our interview with Howard.

According to Forbes, pop singing sensation Justin Bieber spent a day performing motion-capture for NBA 2K13. 2K Sports worked with Bieber and his crew in Los Angeles on February 21st to capture their hoops moves, possibly for the game’s rumored celebrity street ball mode.

The world converged in Orlando digitally. NBA Digital delivered a record-breaking performance during NBA All-Star 2012 (Feb. 24-27) with traffic to NBA.com, total votes for the Sprite Slam Dunk and video streams on NBA Mobile Web. NBA.com received a record of more than 114 million video streams and 209 million page views, an increase of more than 40 percent and nearly 30 percent respectively, from last year’s All-Star record. Connected NBA All-Stars and gamers like LeBron James (see video below) are connecting with fans in new ways.

Linsanity continues to captivate the world. And in Orlando, Jeremy Lin was a hot topic amongst the NBA All-Stars. New York Knicks NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony fielded a lot of Lin questions. But one he did address was the upgrade of Lin in 2K Sports’ NBA 2K12 game. Lin actually received two player upgrades in one week because of his Cinderella story in the NBA. Anthony talks about the in-game player ratings in this exclusive video interview below.

Miami Heat 2012 NBA All-Star LeBron James has been having a career year during the strike-shortened season. With 66 games crammed into a short schedule, James hasn’t been able to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as much as he’d like. The King talks videogames in this exclusive interview from Orlando.

After all of the negative stories surrounding the lack of big names in the Slam Dunk Contest and how horrible the NBA has been with its packed schedule post-lockout, fans tuned in to watch the festivities in Orlando. Not even the Academy Awards could keep hoops fans from seeing Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in action at the Amway Center. In an exciting conclusion to Sunday’s coverage, the West All-Stars, led by Oklahoma City Thunder forward and All-Star MVP Kevin Durant edged the East, 152-149. During one of the busiest and most-watched nights on television, TNT’s exclusive coverage of the 2012 NBA All-Star Game delivered an overall 5.4 US household rating in metered market overnights. The metered market rating is the second highest-rated overnight since 2005 (5.9 metered market rating). Houston Rockets All-Star Chase Budinger talks gaming in this exclusive video interview below.

NBA All-Star Kevin Durant will go down in history as a cover athlete without a game. The Oklahoma City Thunder star was featured in promotional photos on the cover of NBA Elite, an EA Sports game that was shelved and never hit stores. After a few years of no hoops, EA Sports is coming back with NBA Live 13 next season. And Durant is still open to being on the cover. He talks about the situation in this exclusive video interview below from Orlando.

Linsanity has swept the world just in time for NBA All-Star 2012 in Orlando. With Jeremy Lin in town, along with big NBA stars like Los Angeles Clippers Chris Paul, the 61st NBA All-Star Game at Amway Center is one for the record books. TNT  will  televise  the All-Star Game for a 10th consecutive year, marking Turner Sports' 27th season of All-Star coverage.  Fans in 215 countries and territories  and  in  44  languages  will experience a weeklong celebration  of the game through an array of TV, Internet, film and digital technologies offered by NBA Digital, TNT and ESPN.