LAGO BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The NBA MVP career is over. This is the battle for any other regular season individual trophy.
The league told teams on Friday that none of the qualifying games will be considered for any postseason awards, and that voting for those honors, such as All-NBA, Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, will be completed earlier. from the season restart on July 30 at Walt Disney World.
Those votes are generally cast closer to the end of the regular season. Therefore, postseason races still continue in many cases, but the individual prize chases are now complete.
“The decision to exclude seed games from the award vote guarantees a fair process in which players and coaches from all 30 teams will have an equal opportunity to be honored as the best players in the regular season,” the NBA wrote in a memo sent to teams on Friday. . The Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo.
Only 22 of the 30 teams in the league participate in the NBA restart.
The league’s decision, not unexpected, means that Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo’s campaign for consecutive MVP awards technically ended more than four months ago when the season was suspended amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Antetokounmpo won his first MVP award after averaging 27.7 points and 12.5 rebounds per game last season. This season, he is expected to return to being the MVP leader with averages of 29.6 points and 13.7 rebounds for the Bucks, who have the best record in the league.
The NBA decision also means New Orleans’ Zion Williamson, who has appeared in just 19 games this season, won’t be able to make a belated effort to try to catch suspected rookie striker Ja Morant from the Memphis Grizzlies.
It is unclear whether Williamson will even be with the Pelicans for the reopening on the night of July 30 when they face the Utah Jazz in the first game on the Disney campus.
Williamson left the NBA bubble on Thursday morning to attend to an urgent family medical matter, and the Pelicans said he intends to return on an unspecified date.
Statistical championships, such as scoring titles, rebounds, assists, and steals, are technically available until the end of qualifying games in mid-August. The league announced that part of the plan when the schedules for the eight qualifying games were released last month.
Most of those statistical trophy races are decided mathematically. Houston’s James Harden has a dominating scoring career lead as he approaches his third consecutive title in that category, and becomes the eighth player in NBA history to win the scoring crown in at least three seasons. consecutive.
The others who won the scoring title in at least three consecutive seasons: Michael Jordan (who did it on two separate streaks), Wilt Chamberlain, Kevin Durant, George Gervin, Bob McAdoo, Neil Johnston and George Mikan.
Cleveland’s Andre Drummond has a considerable advantage in the rebounding title race. Los Angeles Lakers ‘LeBron James would remain ahead of second place, Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young in the assists per game race, even if James plays in all eight qualifying games and does not record a single assist.
If James, 35, wins the assist title, and it would take a mathematical oddity to prevent that from happening, he will be the second oldest player to claim that award. Steve Nash was 37 when he won his last crown of assists.
And James is also online to be by far the oldest player in NBA history to finish a season with an average of at least 25 points and 10 assists. That happened just nine other times in the NBA, the most recent being Russell Westbrook when he was 29 in 2017-18.
The robbery career is still uncertain; Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons leads with 2.13 per game, while Chicago’s Kris Dunn, currently in second place, finished her season with 1.98 per game.
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