There are many formal validations, recognitions, and trophies within the NBA world. You have certainly heard of many of them: the MVP award, the Coach of the Year honors, the Larry O’Brien trophy… you have definitely heard of these! What you may not have heard of is the Players’ Choice Awards, brought to you by the NBA Players’ Association.
These awards are voted on exclusively by other NBA players, who feel the need to create an in-house reward economy; a way of dapping each other that doesn’t rely on the opinions of pesky fans and media. While the awards largely mirror the decisions made in the more known sectors, there are some notable deviations in the awards’ history, which is all of two years long. In their inaugural year, 2015 Player of the Year honors went to James Harden, not MVP recipient Stephen Curry.
The 2016 awards began to roll out Thursday afternoon:
Teammate wish list is a thing. The Player You Secretly Wish Was On Your Team goes to @KingJames. #PlayersVoicehttps://t.co/tdCJXuvL3l
— NBPA (@TheNBPA) August 4, 2016
Buckets from everywhere/anywhere. Toughest to Guard goes to @StephenCurry30. #PlayersVoicehttps://t.co/ImUyd7PYZD
— NBPA (@TheNBPA) August 4, 2016
Nothing easy. Best Defender goes to @KawhiLeonard. #PlayersVoicehttps://t.co/2arIdS9e9y
— NBPA (@TheNBPA) August 4, 2016
Bench to 💯. The Best Off the Bench goes to @JCrossover. #PlayersVoicehttps://t.co/busb8X5ks1
— NBPA (@TheNBPA) August 4, 2016
Hard work and heart. Comeback Player of the Year goes to @YG_Trece. #PlayersVoicehttps://t.co/wPkgLvtuI5
— NBPA (@TheNBPA) August 4, 2016
Little time in the league. Huge impact. The #PlayersVoice Award Best Rookie goes to @KarlTowns.https://t.co/pRvhBcICrf
— NBPA (@TheNBPA) August 4, 2016
Fashion WAY forward 👔. Best Dressed goes to @russwest44. #PlayersVoicehttps://t.co/IQsOqXSrIj
— NBPA (@TheNBPA) August 4, 2016
The most fun difference between these and the more established awards is the conversational, familiar tone some of the categories take. Secretly wish he was on your team honors? Hardest to guard? That’s pretty tickling stuff to hear about, and it’s definitely interesting to think about these guys casting secret ballots that might go against the philosophies of their teams. In other words, this is a pretty cool new tradition, and those types of awards are a lot more fun voted on by the players than typical awards like Sixth Man of the Year.
P.S. Russell Westbrook’s clothing choices cannot possibly be given a high enough honor.
