The year of 2020 was just crazy, starting with the untimely death of NBA star Kobe Bryant and his daughter, then it got insane with the rise of COVID-19 and the lies from Trump about it which led to the death of thousands, and with the murder of George Floyd by a racist white cop and the subsequent global protests and actions, the defeat of the racist white US president known as drumpf. 

Through all the chaos of the misery year, Lebron James made his loud voice heard. Giving his aggressive opinion and monetary support to families and organizations that stood for Afrocentric rights. For those reasons it is quite reasonable that Time selected Lebron as the athlete of the year 2020.