Kevin Durant Wins NBA MVP, Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge Finishes 10th In Voting
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
The NBA announced on Tuesday morning that Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant won the 2013-14 Most Valuable Player award.
Durant had a spectacular season, leading the Thunder to the second-best record in the NBA and leading the NBA in scoring.
Portland’s MVP candidate, power forward LaMarcus Aldridge, finished 10th in the voting.
Here are the results from the league release:
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City 119 6 – – – 1,232
LeBron James, Miami 6 118 1 – – 891
Blake Griffin, L.A. Clippers – 1 66 30 7 434
Joakim Noah, Chicago – – 32 50 12 322
James Harden, Houston – – 7 10 20 85
Stephen Curry, Golden State – – 4 9 19 66
Chris Paul, L.A. Clippers – – 5 6 2 45
Al Jefferson, Charlotte – – 2 4 12 34
Paul George, Indiana – – 1 4 16 33
LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland – – 2 2 10 26
Kevin Love, Minnesota – – 2 3 6 25
Tim Duncan, San Antonio – – 1 3 7 21
Tony Parker, San Antonio – – 2 2 5 21
Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas – – – 1 4 7
Carmelo Anthony, New York – – – 1 1 4
Goran Dragic, Phoenix – – – – 3 3
Mike Conley, Memphis – – – – 1 1
Aldridge got two third place votes from Blazers broadcaster Mike Rice and Eric Hasseltine, the radio voice of the Memphis Grizzlies. Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News, and winner of the 2014 Phil Jasner award, gave Aldridge a fourth place vote as did Jason Lloyd of the Akron-Beacon Journal.
He received 10 fifth place votes. With the power of hindsight and the first round of the playoffs, you can make the case for Aldridge to get some more votes for third or fourth.
However, his injury troubles in the second half of the season didn’t help his MVP case as the buzz surrounding him and the Blazers cooled off considerably before eventually rising again.
Too high or too low?
Erik Gundersen
Erik Gundersen is the Trail Blazers beat reporter for The Columbian. He's a graduate of the Allen School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in addition earning a degree in Spanish. He's covered the NBA for four seasons. You can also occasionally find his work on ESPN.com's NBA section for their TrueCities series. He also fist-bumped with Kanye West once. Follow @BlazerBanter on twitter for more Blazers and NBA news.