NBA awards: LeBron James wins MVP, as expected

The NBA’s system of selecting award winners isn’t perfect. It’s not expected to be. Not all sportswriters on beats know the ins and outs of the other 29 teams. Neither do coaches, believe it or not. Opinion is of course involved, as is the subjective nature of what each award means. For example, is the MVP the best player in the league or the most valuable one helping his team win?

That vote, along with a few others, make up our list of the weirdest single votes

Davis, the No. 1 pick, was the only big man selected to the first team, which isn’t all that surprising given the greater learning curve for young big men in the NBA.

• Ziller: Don’t blame Kevin Durant

The voting for this season’s award speaks to the respect Ujiri has garnered in front offices around the league, as 17 different GMs received votes, but none finished anywhere near him:

• Joakim Noah: flicked off, flirting with death

The Nuggets finished with the fourth-best record in the NBA this season despite having the league’s third-youngest roster. Denver was the league’s highest scoring team, and they also went a league-best 38-3 at home. That mark at the Pepsi Center was the best in franchise history and 14th-best in NBA history.

• Flannery: NBA playoffs are the stuff of dreams

More than anything, I credit him for announcing himself, especially knowing the ridicule he faces. Because yes, he is going to draw some ridicule from bloggers, sports talk radio jockeys, fans, his brothers and sisters in the reporting world, probably LeBron himself.

Think about it: vote anonymity protects sportswriters and analysts from being judged by the public for their ... sports opinions. It’s inane. Voters should, like Washburn, be willing to stick their names on their votes. They are in the business of having thoughts on sports. It’s not a huge stretch. Meanwhile, unanimity in award voting is seriously overvalued. If five or six voters didn’t pick LeBron No. 1, I hardly think anyone would have flinched. There would have been no witch hunt. Washburn is only in the news because he was the only one who went against the grain.

Here is the full vote:

• Ziller: Kevin Durant’s greatest test

James will win his second-straight MVP award, as well as winning the award for the fourth time in five seasons. The Heat ended the season with a league-best 66-16 record. In the process they strung together 27-straight wins, good for the second-longest winning streak in NBA history.

James averaged 26.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 7.3 assists. He also shot career-best percentages from the field (56 percent) and beyond the arc (40 percent). The league’s MVP from last season improved this season, and the announcement due on Sunday has felt like a foregone conclusion.

Not only was Lillard excellent all year long, but he was a model of durability. He participated in all 82 games and played 38.6 minutes per game, leading the league in minutes at year’s end.

• The meaning of Jason Collins’ coming out

He also said that “it sucks” about 20 times.

In conclusion: LeBron has a point, but he’s also about to have a fourth MVP, so I’m not too concerned that he is underfeted.

I don’t imagine many people want to read a rambling discussion of the defensive player of the year award today, but here goes nothing!

We start with the news. Last night in the Spurs locker room, when he was asked about Tim Duncan’s sixth place finish in defensive player of the year voting, Manu Ginobili said he wasn’t happy. He offered a solution (via Mike Monroe):

Here are the full results:

• Flannery: End of an era in Boston?

This is the problem with the NBA awards process: it actually matters a lot, yet so often the voters, whether they be the media, coaches or team executives, pay it short shrift. NBA award placement actually affects contracts -- the Rose Rule allows fatter second contracts for players with MVPs or multiple All-NBA nods, incentive clauses are becoming increasing popular and awards are often the basis of price points agents set. Awards matter because history matters and because independent judgment matters.

So basically, the award season has become a long-running joke, and the only easy cure -- other than voters who unanimously like basketball and care about this stuff, which I know is such a huge ask -- is transparency. If you vote, everyone gets to know for whom and you get to defend yourself or feel the shame you properly deserve.

And how can we forget the best hoops anthem since Kurtis Blow’s Basketball?

I crossed over, from journeyman

Although a whopping 33 players received votes, those were clustered around the top: only 11 players were featured on more than five ballots, and only six received multiple first-place votes.

George entered the season with career averages of 10.0 points and 4.7 rebounds, but with Granger - who won the award in 2009, his first of four seasons where he averaged over 20 points per game - out for all but five games, his role ballooned. He responded, scoring 17.4 points, grabbing 7.6 boards, and dishing out 4.1 assists, all career-highs. And he was a key factor on the league’s best defensive teams.

• The real problem with the Lakers

• Phil Jackson still haunts the Lakers