how many does carlisle have? one? btw, brad stevens and spoelstra were also deserving of consideration.
The NBA got that one right. Westbrook deserved MVP for carrying his crappy team over the player with inflated stats of the 'Antoni system. Familiar to another guy we know a little bit that didn't get the MVP he deserved because popularity contest.
Westbrook had a season for the ages. Giving it to the "best player on the best team" (or close to best team) didn't work this year, IMO, because Durant was hurt and missed the final 20 and Harden doesn't play half the game (defensive end). They got it right.
Best moments were Monty Williams and Bill Russell. Third was Westbrook and his emotional thank you. Drake and Minaj were atrocious. I didn't find him funny at all tonight. I didn't know any of the music and it was an uninspiring performance anyway. Horrible. Get a real host next year and an actual artist.
Westbrook winning MVP just makes me salty about '05-'06, but it's about time they go away with the default "Best player on good team" setting for MVP
Happy for Westbrook. He's my favorite player in the league. He's incredible. His season this year was very reminiscent of Kobe in 2006 and 2007. Leading a terrible team to the playoffs in a loaded and brutal conference. Putting up ridiculous numbers, but also making a huge impact every night. Love that guy and his speech was the best moment of the night along with Monty recieving Sager's jacket.
I will be very surprised if there are more than 3 editions of this awards show . It was trash to say the least
I actually thought some of the jokes that Drake told on the stage to begin the show were pretty funny. Especially the ones where Kenny Smith and Drake were going back and forth, haha. As for the awards I thought the league got them all correct except for the Dunk of the Year and that might have just been a fan vote, but can't believe Nance didn't win. Heck I thought Lavine's dunk was better than Victor's Larry's Response:
There was no hype to it, I believe the NBA s*** the bed with this one. They couldn even get their best players to come out to this. It comes down to timing. They could have capitalized on the end of season back and forth MVP battle between Harden and Westbrook. 75 days inbetween the end of regular season and the show. Should have done it the week before playoffs started to the winners could be applauded and cheered for at their home games. There were some bright spots though. Bill Russell and Monty Williams parts were great and the new awards are kind of cool too.
Just to give you context. After Drake's opening jokes they moved to the Inside the NBA crew and Kenny said those jokes by Drake were really good but are we sure he actually wrote them, haha Then when Drake came back out he said this: Then later when Coach of the Year award was going to be the next award: Also During the Bill Russell Lifetime Achievement Award Bill pointed to Shaq and said:
Nance's response was fantastic and yes he was completely robbed. Dunked over the top of a legit 7 footer. You can just look at the reactions from the crowd and the players. Barclays was chaos after that dunk. Mozgov's mind was blown. The Nets bench was shook.
Can't believe some actually think Harden or Leonard were robbed. Don't get me wrong great players who had great seasons and I wouldn't have whined and b****ed if they won it. However we're talking about a player who averaged a triple double in a season. For all the talk over the years about how LeBron would be that guy he NEVER did it. Hadn't been done in damn near 50 years. What's even more ridiculous is people act like Westbrook just played for stats. Couldn't be further from the truth. Westbrook carried that team after Durant signed with the Warriors and somehow led them to a sixth seed in the Western Conference. I mean to me that was the most impressive thing I've seen since our own Kobe Bryant led a really bad Lakers team to the playoffs twice in a row after Shaquille O'Neal was traded to Miami. People said the same things about Kobe back then too. Oh he shoots too much. He's selfish. Doesn't make teammates better. b*******. Take Kobe off the Lakers then. Take Russell off the Thunder now. They'd struggle to win 20 games and that's being kind. The fact both got to their teams to the playoffs in such a competitive and tough conference shows how great they're and they aren't selfish. OKC doesn't have any other shot creators. They sure as hell don't have any shooters. Realistically the only player on that team that should even be a starter is Steven Adams. Just like with the Lakers when Lamar was the only starting caliber player. Look no further at that stat of how awful OKC is without Westbrook on the court. I've seen tremendous growth from Westbrook as a player because much like Kobe when he was younger he was a guy who shot too much at times, didn't always read the defense, out of control, etc. Over the years he really matured as a player. Shot selection improved. He'd set up his teammates more. Made sure to get them involved early. Penetrating and kicking. Excellent passes out of the screen and roll. More in control especially in transition. Passing out of double teams and hitting the open man. Spoon feeding guys like Adams. As I've said before Westbrook is my favorite player and as a result probably watched more OKC games then any other team not named the Lakers and I've seen that growth and improvement in his game. The biggest issue I see in OKC is the lack of shooting on that team. I can't tell you how many times I've seen Westbrook drive and make an excellent read only to see Robertson and others clank it.