Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant won his first Most Valuable Player award for the NBA’s 2013-14 season.
The NBA made the announcement Tuesday, revealing that Durant received 119 out of 125 first-place votes, crushing second-place finisher Lebron James who only received six first-place votes. James has won the MVP award four times in the previous five years. Blake Griffin came in third place, followed by Joakim Noah and James Harden.
“Much respect to him and he deserves it,” James said Monday. “He had a big-time MVP season.”
This past season, Durant earned his fourth scoring title with his career-best average of 32 points per game. He now joins Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, George Gervin, and Allen Iverson as the only players to have won at least four scoring titles. Durant also scored at least 25 points in 41 consecutive games during the season, the longest streak in the league in almost 30 years. It is the third-longest streak in NBA history.
It was an all-around great year for the basketball star, as he averaged 7.4 rebounds and a career-high 5.5 assists per game and helped lead his team to a 59-23 record, second-best in the league. Durant is also the first player to win both the MVP award and the scoring title in the same season since Allen Iverson accomplished the same feat in 2000-01.
