Stephen Curry and the Warriors came away with four awards from the National Basketball Player’s Association.
The National Basketball Player’s Association (NBPA) hosted it’s second annual awards ceremony.
Unlike the traditional awards that are handed out every year, these are voted on by the players. Last year’s iteration was televised on BET while this year’s was just a social media event.
The Golden State Warriors have much scrutiny in the weeks following their historic collapse in the NBA Finals. No one has been criticized more than Curry, the reigning two-time MVP. He was the first to receive the award unanimously and then, for a variety of reasons, struggled in the Finals as his team blew a 3-1 lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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In today’s social media hyperbole-driven culture, if you’re not first, your’e worse than last. You’re trash if you don’t win. Casual fans have forgotten just how special this team is and mainstream media has quickly turned on the once-darlings of the NBA.
Fortunately, their peers haven’t forgotten how dominant they were.
The Warriors won “Best Home Court Advantage” for their great Oracle Arena crowd. While it isn’t as raucous as it once was, it’s still one of the best in the league and the sea of gold in the playoffs is surely intimidating. Oddly enough, it wasn’t enough to lift them over the Cavs in Game 5 or 7.
Curry came away with three awards in this year’s award ceremony after being disrespected last year.
He won “Toughest to Guard,” but the Internet was quick to remind everyone that Kevin Love didn’t have trouble doing so in the final seconds of Game 7.
Of course, despite that, Curry set offensive records all over the place and has defenses scrambling like no other player in the NBA can. His ability to finish inside with either hand and stretch defenses out to half court truly does make him the toughest player in the NBA to guard.
He won “Clutch Performer” as well. Curry joked that “I’m pretty sure you guys voted for the regular season.” This comes after he failed to lift the Warriors in the last couple of seconds over the Cavs following Kyrie Irving‘s incredible three-pointer over him.
The clutchest of the clutch. The Clutch Performer goes to @StephenCurry30 #PlayersVoicehttps://t.co/45FNCKFcB5
— NBPA (@TheNBPA) August 4, 2016
Despite this, Curry was actually one of the more clutch players in the league. Per NBA.com’s stats, Curry was one of the best performers in the clutch (5 minutes or less in a 5 points game). He had a 126 offensive rating and a 63.7 percent true shooting percentage. Comparatively, LeBron James‘ marks were 109.2 and 51.9 percent respectively.
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Lastly, Curry came away with this year’s player’s MVP award. Last year, he famously lost it by one point to James Harden, the runner-up for the actual MVP award. Considering how poorly the superstar point guard played in the Finals, it may come as a surprise to everyone. But Curry really was the best player for most of the year, having an incredible regular season with some spectacular moments in the playoffs.
They’d rather have hoisted the Larry O’Brien, but it’s always nice to know that your peers respect you.