The NBA confirmed Tuesday what anyone with a pulse had known for months: Stephen Curry is the 2015-16 Most Valuable Player.
Curry, 28, becomes the first unanimous winner of the award in the history of the League.
The FIRST UNANIMOUS LEAGUE MVP in @NBAHistory! #KiaMVP pic.twitter.com/2XCOx0Whv0
— NBA (@NBA) May 10, 2016
Kawhi Leonard, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, finished second in MVP voting.
Stephen Curry earned all 131 first-place MVP votes, the first unanimous winner in the award's 61-season history. pic.twitter.com/Drmdr0trDZ
— WarriorsPR (@WarriorsPR) May 10, 2016
From the press release:
The Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry, who led the team to the best regular-season record in NBA history, has won the Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award for the second year in a row, the NBA announced today. He is the first unanimous winner in the award’s 61-season history. Curry, the 11th player to win back-to-back MVP awards, joins Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Steve Nash as the only guards to earn the honor in consecutive seasons.
Curry swept all 131 first-place votes (1,310 points), including 130 from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters in the United States and Canada, and one from the Kia MVP fan vote. The San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard finished second with 634 points, and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James was third with 631 points. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook (486 points) and Kevin Durant (147) rounded out the top five. Players received 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for each second-place vote, five points for each third-place vote, three points for each fourth-place vote and one point for each fifth-place vote.
The 28-year-old Curry helped the Warriors finish a historic 73-9 by leading the NBA in scoring (30.1 ppg), three-pointers made (an NBA-record 402), free throw percentage (90.8) and steals (2.14 spg), along with averaging 6.7 assists and a career-high 5.4 rebounds in 79 games. He shot a career-high 50.4 percent from the field, the NBA’s highest mark among guards, and made 45.4 percent from three-point range, good for second in the league. Curry became the seventh qualifying player in NBA history to shoot at least 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from beyond the arc and 90 percent from the foul line.
