NBA Players Association Awards

[Forza Juventus]

Here are the winners of each award:

http://nbpa.com/bet-airs-first-ever-nbpa-players-awards/

I watched this the other night and loved everything about it. Hopefully this happens every year from now on.

[D.o.s.]

I was pretty shocked that DeAndre won Best Defender, to be honest.

But yes, I think this is a great thing to have, particularly since it offers a nice switch from the 'normal' awards.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I don't like it. There are so many awards now that they've become devalued. What's the point of having an NBA Finals MVP for example, just for the ESPYs to award the losing player later on for the Best Championship Performance Award?

Same crap will happen here. If they're disatisfied with the current awards system, keep lobbying for changes within it. Having a separate award it's... dumb.

Yay let's Award Harden with the MVP since he couldn't manage it in the real award, lets give him this consolation prize... dumb.

[D.o.s.]

You don't think there's merit to having a players-only vote for yearly league awards?

I would agree with you about the ESPYs, but I don't think anyone takes the ESPYs seriously.

[BudweiserCeltic]

You don't think there's merit to having a players-only vote for yearly league awards?

I would agree with you about the ESPYs, but I don't think anyone takes the ESPYs seriously.

No, there's no merit other than the boys club to keep stroking their ego because they couldn't get their way in the current system. It's a kid throwing a tantrum.

It has a bit of merit just to see how players view things, but going through a channel of creating some sort of official awards seems incredibly misguided. You don't need these award shows to simply poll who you think deserved to win cerain awards.

All they're doing is devaluing what other players earned through the official organization awards (whether they agree with them or not). ESPYs are a joke, this one might be even more so.

I mean, I don't mind if the players want to do some recognition ceremonies, etc. But trying to re-award certain categories seems dumb and shortsighted.

[saltlover]

You don't think there's merit to having a players-only vote for yearly league awards?

I would agree with you about the ESPYs, but I don't think anyone takes the ESPYs seriously.

No, there's no merit other than the boys club to keep stroking their ego because they couldn't get their way in the current system. It's a kid throwing a tantrum.

It has a bit of merit just to see how players view things, but going through a channel of creating some sort of official awards seems incredibly misguided. You don't need these award shows to simply poll who you think deserved to win cerain awards.

All they're doing is devaluing what other players earned through the official organization awards (whether they agree with them or not). ESPYs are a joke, this one might be even more so.

I mean, I don't mind if the players want to do some recognition ceremonies, etc. But trying to re-award certain categories seems dumb and shortsighted.

You're missing the whole point of this.  It's to have a time for players to celebrate themselves, thus promoting unity entering the next CBA negotiation period.  Getting it broadcast on cable TV was just a bonus.  I didn't watch it, but if they did a good job on producing it, good for them.

It is not a tantrum.  It's a calculated move by Michelle Roberts to make sure that her membership is all on the same page in the next 12-24 months.

[D.o.s.]

^ good point. In the wake of the Billy Hunter disaster, this is an important thing for the NBPA to do.

[bdm860]

I'm not really sure what makes one award more official than another.  Sportswriters are the only people who can give an award?  Any organization that wants to can give their own awards out.

It's like in the NCAA, where you have the Wooden award, Naismith award, AP Player of the Year award, NABC award,etc., all to recognize the national player of the year.  Then you got the USA Today coaches poll, the AP poll, etc.  Just saying you can have more than one award for things.

There used to be multiple NBA MVP awards given out by different organizations too.  Pop quiz: who won the MVP in '62?  Well if you say Russell you're right, he won two, one by the basketball writers and one by the players, but then you have Wilt winning MVP that year too.

So multiple awards used to be given out, why can't they do that again now?

The recognized MVP award that we have today, the Maurice Podoloff Trophy, was voted on by the players until 1980.  It was okay for players to vote back then, but if they want to start voting again now, that's not okay?

Though some of those NBPA awards seem way too superficial for my liking.  Would be surprised if this thing is still alive 5 years down the road.

[saltlover]

Though some of those NBPA awards seem way too superficial for my liking.  Would be surprised if this thing is still alive 5 years down the road.

It got 1.4 million viewers on a Tursday night in July on BET. That's a really solid performance.  Time will tell of course, but that's 10x more than the NHL-produced awards show got on Fox Sports 1 in June.

[spikelovetheCelts]

Though some of those NBPA awards seem way too superficial for my liking.  Would be surprised if this thing is still alive 5 years down the road.

It got 1.4 million viewers on a Tursday night in July on BET. That's a really solid performance.  Time will tell of course, but that's 10x more than the NHL-produced awards show got on Fox Sports 1 in June.

It was a hit and Players think different than writers. Each has there own agenda.
Fans would have gave MVP to Lebron. It is what it is.

[BudweiserCeltic]

You don't think there's merit to having a players-only vote for yearly league awards?

I would agree with you about the ESPYs, but I don't think anyone takes the ESPYs seriously.

No, there's no merit other than the boys club to keep stroking their ego because they couldn't get their way in the current system. It's a kid throwing a tantrum.

It has a bit of merit just to see how players view things, but going through a channel of creating some sort of official awards seems incredibly misguided. You don't need these award shows to simply poll who you think deserved to win cerain awards.

All they're doing is devaluing what other players earned through the official organization awards (whether they agree with them or not). ESPYs are a joke, this one might be even more so.

I mean, I don't mind if the players want to do some recognition ceremonies, etc. But trying to re-award certain categories seems dumb and shortsighted.

You're missing the whole point of this.  It's to have a time for players to celebrate themselves, thus promoting unity entering the next CBA negotiation period.  Getting it broadcast on cable TV was just a bonus.  I didn't watch it, but if they did a good job on producing it, good for them.

It is not a tantrum.  It's a calculated move by Michelle Roberts to make sure that her membership is all on the same page in the next 12-24 months.

Whatever the goal is, for me it simply cheapens the award process. Not that it held much value to me in the first place, in part because I viewed it as very flawed.

I guess my stance in this is, if you want to create an meaningful award, make it an inclusive one. Don't just go make another award, with exclusivity at that.

That's the only angle I'm interested in, the worth of winning an award and what it may actually mean for us fans (me in particular).

The other political, preparing for a CBA negotiation is in the end of no importance to me, other than to once again illustrate how cheap this award is... because it's from an awards perspective, it's simply an attempt to tell us "we can do this better than you guys can", and if it's simply a negotiations maneuver, then even worse.

@bdm860 I've never been a fan of multiple awards, so I'd criticized them the same if I cared enough about college... I don't.

I don't know. Simply not a fan of multiple awards. I don't know what makes one more official over the other, but it's the one we've long accepted as the primordial one. If a better one can come along and substitute it, key word there "substitute", I'm all for it. But having multiple ones is simply silly and it further cheapens what has already been a bit of a joke as it is.

[D.o.s.]

I'm not really sure what makes one award more official than another.  Sportswriters are the only people who can give an award?  Any organization that wants to can give their own awards out.

It's like in the NCAA, where you have the Wooden award, Naismith award, AP Player of the Year award, NABC award,etc., all to recognize the national player of the year.  Then you got the USA Today coaches poll, the AP poll, etc.  Just saying you can have more than one award for things.

There used to be multiple NBA MVP awards given out by different organizations too.  Pop quiz: who won the MVP in '62?  Well if you say Russell you're right, he won two, one by the basketball writers and one by the players, but then you have Wilt winning MVP that year too.

So multiple awards used to be given out, why can't they do that again now?

The recognized MVP award that we have today, the Maurice Podoloff Trophy, was voted on by the players until 1980.  It was okay for players to vote back then, but if they want to start voting again now, that's not okay?

Though some of those NBPA awards seem way too superficial for my liking.  Would be surprised if this thing is still alive 5 years down the road.

I don't think the players would have created their own voting system if they had any reasonable expectation of casting votes in the current/NBA Approved award categories.

[PhoSita]

It's an interesting glimpse into how little the players understand about the sport they're playing that they think Deandre Jordan is the best defender.

[Csfan1984]

If the media wasn't so bad at these awards the players would not have bothered to do it. But regardless I think it's great that players have their say. I would love to see a top 25 show like NFL has the 100.

[D.o.s.]

It's an interesting glimpse into how little the players understand about the sport they're playing that they think Deandre Jordan is the best defender.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn..