Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo was named the league’s Most Valuable Player on Monday. NBA commissioner Adam Silver made the announcement at the league’s annual awards show.
Last year’s winner, Rockets guard James Harden, and Thunder forward Paul George were the other finalists.
Antetokounmpo’s overall excellence while leading the Bucks to a 60-22 record was enough to beat out Harden’s big scoring numbers. The Greek Freak averaged 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.5 blocks. Harden averaged 36.1 points, the highest total since Michael Jordan averaged 37.1 during the 1986/87 season.
The voting wasn’t as close as expected. Antetokounmpo received 78 of the 101 first-place votes and was second on the other 23 ballots. Harden had the reverse, with 23 first-place votes and 78 second-place selections.
The Bucks dominated the awards ceremony, as Mike Budenholzer won Coach of the Year and GM Jon Horst was named Executive of the Year.
Harden was Hoops Rumors’ consensus choice.
Links to the other major awards handed out on Monday can be found below:
No argument from me!
Not even close. Paul George getting nominated is a bad joke.
I don’t know about that. While Giannis was the no doubt MVP George was the next best player this year after Giannis and Harden. If George wasn’t hurt towards the end of the year he would have been a much more serious candidate for MVP
PG13 was the best defensively of the 3 finalists.
Defense is important, but they have a Defensive Player of the Year for a reason. MVP is all about offense.
Seriously? Giannas nearly doubled PG13’s in voting for DPOY…….
“If George wasn’t hurt” is a pretty common factor most years
Harden has the second best scoring season in the history of the modern era, with the highest efficiency rating of anyone to average 35 ppg. Second most steals in the league and averaged 4th most per game.
Giannis averaged slightly less points, 2 more assists and one less rebound than Embiid.
Ya, wonder who was the actual MVP…
George was killin it thru midseason, hitting 3s vs any coverage including “close” (routinely fouled).
Lol… Only about offense!
Hell ya
My man!!!
Well deserved. The league needs more likeable superstars like this guy
link to dailymemphian.com
Mike Conley was named both top teammate (Twyman-Stokes award) and the NBA sportsmanship award, the first time a player has won both. One thing he has never picked up though: a technical foul.
link to slcdunk.com
Also both Conley and Donovan Mitchell are nominees for the 2018-19 Seasonlong NBA Cares Community Assist Award.
Did Harden win the I walked the most miles award?
Garden’s stats were impressive, but his usage rate was so outlandish (40.5) compared to Giannis (32). Add that Giannis very easily could have won DPOY as well and the MVP wasn’t even really a discussion.
How about a write-up on the Community Assist award and Bradley Beal? That was really awesome to see with his encouragement for other guys to do the same. Those poor kids up there were so star-struck lol.
Forgive typos – I’m on my phone haha
Pretty good run for the Bucks. They’ve had a ROY, Most Improved, EOY, COY and MVP the past few years. Could become a FA destination