Monday night in Los Angeles, the NBA held their second annual NBA Awards at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, and as the name suggest, the event was devoted to handing out hardware for the league's most prestigious honors. Philadelphia's Ben Simmons beat out Utah's Donovan Mitchel in a referendum on what actually constitutes a rookie, L.A.'s Lou Williams got the credit he deserved by winning Sixth Man, Victor Oladipo proved that he was never the problem in Oklahoma City by winning Most Improved, Rudy Gobert's wingspan took home Defensive Player of the Year and Dwane Casey won Coach of the Year for his work this season with his former employer, the Toronto Raptors.
Then there's Most Valuable Player, an award that usually provokes months of arguments among fans about which player truly provides the the most value to his team. But this year there was little disagreement, aside from the most determined partisans, that Houston's James Harden, who led the Rockets to the best record in the NBA while pushing the Warriors to seven games in the Western Conference Finals, would win MVP and take home the Maurice Podoloff Trophy for his efforts during the 2017-18 season. The hirsute Houston guard received 86 of a possible 101 first-place votes and 15 second-place votes for 965 points, easily enough to beat out Cleveland's LeBron James, who received 738 votes, for Most Valuable Player honors.
New Orleans power forward/center Anthony Davis ended up third in MVP voting with seven second-place votes, 70 third-place votes, 14 fourth-place votes and four fifth-place votes for 445 points. And in fourth is our own Damian Lillard, who received 12 third-place votes, 40 fourth-place votes and 27 fifth-place votes for 207 points, finishing higher in MVP voting than any Trail Blazer since Clyde Drexler took second to Michael Jordan in 1992. For a player considered a borderline All-Star in the minds of some this season, that's quite an impressive finish.
While Lillard finished well behind Davis for third (and considering how the playoffs went, that seems fair), he also finished well ahead of last season's MVP, Russell Westbrook, who finished fifth with 76 points. Giannis Antetokounmpo finished sixth with 75 points, Kevin Durant was seventh with 66 points and DeMar DeRozan finished eighth with 32 points.
Between finishing fourth in MVP voting and being named First-Team All-NBA, Lillard is starting to get the level of respect commensurate with his production on the court. One would hope Lillard wouldn't have to carry so much of the load going forward, but it's nice to know he's up to the task should he be called on to essentially will the Trail Blazers to victory, as he did on many occasions during the 2017-18 season.
And Lillard wasn't in Los Angeles for Monday's award show. Instead, he drove a box truck to Irving Park in NE Portland to give away free sneakers and sign autographs.