After winning the NBA Rookie of the Year award two seasons ago, New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul has emerged as a leading candidate to capture the 2007-08 Most Valuable Player trophy. Meanwhile, Hornets head coach Byron Scott is one of a handful of prominent contenders in this season’s NBA Coach of the Year race.

Chris Paul and Byron Scott are both front runners for two of the major NBA awards this season.

If you’ve followed the Hornets during what may be remembered as the most successful season in team history, you probably already knew those facts. What you may not know is, how does the process for voting on the NBA’s annual awards actually work? A brief explanation:

* For each major NBA award – including Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year – 129 voters are invited by the league to cast a ballot. All 30 NBA teams receive three ballots, which can be distributed among media members (including beat writers and broadcasters), for a total of 90 ballots. The other 39 ballots are mailed to national media members. A portion of that list includes 10 ESPN members, four from ABC Sports and four from TNT’s NBA broadcast coverage.

* In general, NBA teams with candidates in legitimate contention for an NBA award create promotional packages that encourage voters to cast their ballots for a specific player or coach. Early in the 2007-08 season, when it became apparent that Paul had a realistic chance to win the MVP award, the Hornets organization began developing plans for its “CP3 for MVP” campaign. At the same time, due to New Orleans quickly exceeding all outside expectations and compiling a franchise-best start, the organization discussed its approach to boosting Scott’s chances to win this season’s Coach of the Year award.

* The “CP3 for MVP” campaign consists of three major aspects. The first is a brand-new website, www.cp3mvp.com. The site enables fans to post their own videos, explaining why the Hornets’ All-Star point guard should be named league MVP. The second element of the campaign consists of over 300 unique scrapbooks delivered to MVP voters that were made by New Orleans elementary school students. The scrapbooks are each eight to 10 pages in length and contain kids’ personal explanations of why they believe Paul is a “Most Valuable Person,” as well as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player. All of the children who participated in creating scrapbooks attend schools Paul has visited since the Hornets made their full-time return to the city of New Orleans in the summer of 2007. Thirdly, the organization developed a one-page informational sheet has been distributed to over 300 media members that lists Paul’s numerous statistical and team-related accomplishments during the 2007-08 season.

* Based on his straightforward, “old school” personality and approach, the Hornets’ promotional package for Scott’s Coach of the Year campaign can best be described as no-frills. Unlike many of the flashy campaigns produced in the past by NBA teams, Scott’s is about as basic as it gets: the 100-plus media members who will vote on Coach of the Year are receiving a plain cardboard box. Inside the box is a package that is labeled with a “Fleur de Bee” logo. After you open the package, there is a plain white piece of paper with basic black type. On one side of the paper it reads: “Byron Scott is the 2007-08 Coach of the Year.” On the opposite side, it contains information on Scott’s success this season and concludes with this line: “No Nonsense. No Gimmicks. Straight to the Point. Just Like Coach Scott.”

* Although voters are expected to be objective in casting their ballots for awards, team loyalty occasionally plays a role in the results. During the 2005-06 Rookie of the Year vote, Paul received 124 out of 125 first-place votes. Utah TV analyst Ron Boone was the only media member to cast a first-place ballot for Utah point guard Deron Williams, even though Paul averaged more points (16.1 to 10.8), assists (7.8 to 4.5) and steals (2.24 to 0.80) that season. During last season’s Rookie of the Year voting, Toronto TV play-by-play broadcaster Chuck Swirsky cast a solitary first-place vote for Toronto forward Andrea Bargnani, preventing Portland guard Brandon Roy from becoming a unanimous choice.