Bulls guard Coby White has been named the Player of the Week for the Eastern Conference, while Suns forward Kevin Durant has won the award in the West, the NBA announced today in a press release.
It’s the second straight week that White has claimed the honor in the East. According to the Bulls (Twitter link), White joins Michael Jordan as the only players in team history to win the award in back-to-back weeks (Jordan accomplished it twice).
White, 25, helped guide Chicago to a 3-1 record last week, averaging 30.3 points, 4.0 assists and 3.3 rebounds on .556/.394/.848 shooting in four appearances (35.5 minutes). All four games came on the road.
Durant, meanwhile, averaged 27.3 points, 6.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game on .588/.471/.933 shooting in victories over Toronto, Chicago and Cleveland last week. It’s the 33rd time he has won the weekly award in his career, per the Suns (Twitter link via Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic), tying Kobe Bryant for second-most all-time (LeBron James has by far the most with 69).
According to the NBA (Twitter link), White beat out Giannis Antetokounmpo, Paolo Banchero, Cade Cunningham, his teammate Josh Giddey, Quentin Grimes, Pacers teammates Bennedict Mathurin and Myles Turner, Celtics teammates Kristaps Porzingis and Jayson Tatum, and Trae Young in the East.
The other nominees in the West were Deni Avdija, Durant’s teammate Devin Booker, Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Kawhi Leonard.
Coby is on a tear!
Would be nice to see Kawhi win this…also great to see Coby doing well
Great to see Coby playing this well. I watched the Kings game last week and he started slow, but in the second half he was so dominate.
Surprising that only Jordan is the other person to do it back to back for Chicago.
Fellow bulls fans, thoughts on Coby’s future w team?
At the start of this year, I thought they should try to move him this summer given he’ll be on an expiring 7 million. Golden trade chip.
But does this stretch change that calculus at all? Couldn’t they retain him and always trade him later – prolly for less, but potentially justifiably so in order to see if he can be a legit all star kinda guy?