James Harden is the new NBA Most Valuable Player

Finally, after more than a month from the end of the regular season, the NBA announced the winners of the seasonal awards, presented in a dedicated ceremony at the Barker Hangar, in Santa Monica, last night. The league's will to postpone the assignment of the awards at the end of the playoff - that this year ended early thanks to Warriors’ sweep over the Cavs in the NBA Finals - left many authorized personnel and supporters puzzled, as they had to wait weeks to know that they already knew: James Harden is the 2017/2018 NBA regular season Most Valuable Player.

And even if there has been some uncertainty on social media and dedicated forums about who would’ve deserved the MVP Award, with many people that would’ve given it to LeBron James, the judges had no doubt about who had to be this year’s MVP. In fact, according to the stats from the NBA, Harden got 738 points thanks to 86 votes for the first place and 15 for the second. On the other hand, LeBron got 738 - still a great result - but only 15 judges believed he deserved the first place. Nobody thought it belonged to Anthony Davis, that was considered the third runner almost unanimously. A mention of honor for Damian Lillard, the only player besides the first three to get at least 100 points (207 to be precise). Russell Westbrook, the former MVP of the league, was a disappointment, as he got only 76 points, one more than Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Of course, the Most Valuable Player award was just one small part (so to speak) of the ceremony, that also had other players - and one coach - awarded. The hard fight between Donovan Mitchell and Ben Simmons for the Rookie of the Year award, that we discussed a few weeks ago, ended with the latter’s victory, and he’s not the first player to be awarded at his second year in the league. In fact, Simmons, just like Blake Griffin back in 2011, missed his entire first season due to injury and has been considered a valuable selection for the Rookie of the Year award, even being at his second year in the league.

The Sixth Man of the Year award was given to Los Angeles Clippers’ Lou Williams and is its second time, after winning it back in 2015 with the Toronto Raptors. Rudy Gobert, center for the Utah Jazz, brought home the Defensive Player of the Year award, beating two big names like Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid. There was no chance for the Most Improved Player award, unanimously given to Pacers’ guard Victor Oladipo. Finally, the curious case of Dwane Casey, that won the Coach of the Year award even being fired by the Toronto Raptors a few weeks ago, after being swept by the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.