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Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder poses for a portrait with the Maurice Podoloff Trophy after being named the 2013-14 KIA Player of the Year on May 6, 2014 at the Thunder Events Center in Edmond, Oklahoma.
The NBA on Tuesday announced that Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant has been named the KIA NBA Most Valuable Player for the 2013-14 season after receiving 1,232 points, pocketing 119 first place votes out of a possible 125 among a panel of sports writers and broadcasters. Durant averaged 32 points, 7.4 rebounds and 5.5 assists for the season with his figures for points and assists being career highs.
Durant has almost forever been second since the beginning of his career; he was drafted second overall behind Greg Oden in the 2007 NBA Draft, finished second behind LeBron James in the MVP voting for last season, finished runner-up after losing to James and the Miami Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals. At the start of this season he had vowed to be the best and he has certainly deserved the award.
He was named Player of the Month four times out of a possible six and was named Player of the Week six times this season. He scored 40 or more points on 14 occasions and twice more than 50 this season. Durant shot 50.3% from the field, 39.1 from long distance and 87.3% from the free throw line.
He joined some elite company in Michael Jordan (10), Wilt Chamberlain (7), George Gervin (4) and Allen Iverson (4) as the only men to have won the scoring title at least four times. This season’s scoring title was Durant’s fourth in five seasons. Despite All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook missing 46 games this season, Durant led the Thunder to the league’s second best record of 59-23.
However, the highlight of Durant’s season was his streak of 41 consecutive games where he scored 25 or more points, the longest since Michael Jordan did it for 40 games in the 1986-87 season. He became the first player since Allen Iverson in 2001 to win the scoring title and MVP award in the same season.
Four-time MVP LeBron James finished second in the voting with 891 points receiving six first place votes, Blake Griffin totalled 434 finishing third while Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah with 322 and the Houston Rockets’ James Harden (85) rounded off the top 5.
Durant would receive the Maurice Podoloff Trophy in front of his home crowd prior to Game 2 of the Thunder’s ongoing Conference Semifinal series with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Kevin Durant accepted the award with all his teammates and Thunder coaching staff in attendance along with his friends and family at a small function during which he stepped up to give one of the most memorable and emotional acceptance speeches ever seen.
Durant’s emotional acceptance speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvKDw-EkfYg
Durant’s top 10 plays for the season 2013-2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmgpdTjOZ_Y
