Stephen Curry – NBA’s first unanimous MVP
OAKLAND — Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry is the unanimous winner of the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the 2015-16 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, the league announced today.
Curry is the 11th player in NBA history to win the award in consecutive seasons (the first guard to do so since Steve Nash in 2004-05 and 2005-06) and the 39th player in the history of the four major professional sports to be named MVP in back-to-back campaigns.
In franchise history, only Curry and Wilt Chamberlain (1959-60) have earned the honor, with Curry becoming the club’s first two-time winner of the award.
Curry, 28, led the Warriors to an NBA-record 73 wins in 2015-16 (73-9, .890) while establishing an NBA record with 402 three-point field goals, topping his own previous league record (286 set in 2014-15) by 116 threes.
Golden State became the first team in NBA history to hit 1,000 threes in a single campaign, finishing with 1,077 three-pointers.
In 79 games (all starts), the seventh-year guard led the league in scoring with 30.1 points per game, becoming the first Warrior to lead the league in scoring since Rick Barry in 1966-67.
Also, the first guard to average at least 30 points while shooting 50 percent or better from the floor since Michael Jordan in 1991-92.
The point guard also led the league in steals (2.14), becoming the first player to lead the league in both scoring and steals since Allen Iverson in 2001-02, to go with 6.7 assists and 5.4 rebounds in 34.2 minutes.
Curry saw an increase of 6.3 points per game over his 2014-15 scoring average (23.8 points), the highest year-over-year scoring average increase by a reigning MVP in NBA history, and played in the fewest minutes per game (34.2) of any 30-point scorer in NBA history.
The Davidson product hit 50.4 percent from the field and 45.4 percent from three-point range (third in the NBA) while leading the league in free throw percentage (.908), becoming just the seventh player in NBA history to hit at least 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from three and 90 percent from the line while qualifying for the league minimums in all three categories, joining Steve Nash as the only players to hit 50/45/90 over the course of an entire campaign.
From a panel of 130 voters that consisted of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada, as well as an NBA.com MVP fan vote, Curry totaled 1,310 points to become the first unanimous winner of the award in league history.
As part of its support of the Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award, Kia Motors America will donate on behalf of Curry a brand new Sorento CUV to Covenant House California, a non-profit agency whose mission is to reach out to at-risk homeless youth living on the streets and offer them hope and opportunities to turn their lives around.
An extremely active member of the Bay Area community, Curry was the recipient of the 2013-14 NBA Season long Community Assist Award, which recognizes the NBA player who best reflects the passion that the league and its players have for giving back to their communities.
Curry hit a three-pointer in each of the 79 games he played in 2015-16, setting an NBA record by hitting at least one three-pointer in 152-straight regular-season games.
The 6’3” guard hit at least 10 threes four times during the season, a feat no other player has accomplished more than three times in their careers. Curry also led the league in Player Efficiency Rating (31.56), true shooting percentage (.669) and offensive rating (116.7) and posted more games with at least 30 points (40), 40 points (13) and 50 points (3) than any player in the league.
Curry was named Western Conference Player of the Month for games played in both October/November and February, becoming the first player in club annals to win the award twice in a single season.
He earned his third-straight All-Star appearance, becoming the first Warrior to start in three-straight All-Star Games since Rick Barry (1974-76).
In addition to setting the single-season wins record, the Warriors established a new NBA-mark for single-season road wins with 34 and won their first 36 home games to give them an NBA-record 54-game regular-season home winning streak dating back to the 2014-15 season.
Golden State began the season with a 24-0 record, the best start to a campaign in professional sports history, and extended its regular-season win streak to 28-straight games dating back to the previous season, the second-longest win streak in league annals.
The Warriors became the first team in NBA history to go an entire regular season without losing consecutive games and the first to go an entire campaign without losing to the same team twice.
For the seventh consecutive season, the NBA and Kia Motors America gave fans the opportunity to submit votes by ranking their top five choices through a dedicated Web page on NBA.com. The fan vote counted as one vote toward determining the winner.
Players were awarded 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 NBA MVP trophy is named in honor of the late Maurice Podoloff, the first commissioner of the NBA who served from 1946 until his retirement in 1963.
Read more at: Golden State Warriors Media Services / More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA
JEstevez@EMIsportsCentral.com
For more on the Golden State Warriors, see the blog at www.EMIsportsCentral.com
EMI Sports Central – EMI Sports Bay Area: Join the conversation on sports news for SF Bay Area teams: Follow @EMIsports on Twitter, “Like” us on Facebook and sign up for our FREE email newsletters.