Posted on 05/06/2014 10:21:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Thunder forward Kevin Durant has been named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for the first time during his seven-year career.
Durant, 25, finished second to Heat forward LeBron James in the 2012 and 2013 MVP votes. The five-time All-Star emerged as the MVP favorite this season by averaging a career-high 32 points, 7.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 50.3 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from deep. Durant led the NBA in Player Efficiency Rating, Win Shares, minutes played, points, field goals, field goal attempts, free throws, free throw attempts and usage rate.
The Thunder star totaled 1,232 points for the MVP award, including 119 first-place votes from a panel of 125. LeBron James finished second (891 points, six first-place votes), followed by the Clippers’ Blake Griffin (434), the Bulls’ Joakim Noah (322) and the Rockets’ James Harden (85).
Additionally, Durant led the Thunder to a 59-23 record, good for the second-best in the Western Conference, even though All-Star guard Russell Westbrook was in and out of the lineup all season due to knee injuries. Durant likely solidified his MVP chances when he scored at least 25 points in 41 consecutive games, eclipsing Bulls legend Michael Jordan for the longest such streak during the three-point era. Along the way, Durant tallied a career-high 54 points against the Warriors and 51 points, including a game-winner, against the Raptors. All told, Durant scored at least 40 points in 14 different games this season.
(Excerpt) Read more at nba.si.com ...
Well deserved.
He’s also a good kid, a Christian, who has the habit of going to chapel before every game.
See here:
http://beyondtheultimate.com/athlete/Kevin-Durant
Good for him!
Wow. I didn’t know that.
And then OKC goes and losses to the Clips.
Oh well. Good for Kevin. And good that LBJ didn’t win again.
Why is Blake Griffin even being considered? From what I have seen of him in the playoffs is that all that he can do is ‘dunk’.
Go Clippers!!!!!
K.D. is a classy man. He didn’t grow up the way i did. He lived in the big eastern seaboard. But i respect him for living a real full color testimony with all the warts. I would walk in his shoes but they are size 16!
"I don't think you know what you did. You had my brother when you were 18 years old," Durant says (around the 23:00 mark). "Three years later, I came out. The odds were stacked against us. Single parent with two boys by the time you were 21 years old."
He continued, "Everybody told us we weren't supposed to be here. We moved from apartment to apartment by ourselves. One of the best memories I have is when we moved into our first apartment. No bed, no furniture, and we just all sat in the living room and hugged each other because we thought we made it.
"When something good happens to you, I don't know about you guys, but I tend to look back to what brought me here. You woke me up in the middle of the night in the summertimes. Making me run up a hill. Making me do push-ups. Screaming at me from the sidelines at my games at 8 or 9 years old.
"We weren't supposed to be here. You made us believe. You kept us off the street, put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn't eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You're the real MVP."
Forget it, everybody knows the Heat are going to win another title....I don’t like it a bit, but it’s inevitable.
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