It has been an interesting battle for awards this season in the NBA. The main award that everyone is paying attention to is the Most Valuable Player Award. It has been a battle for the award between Miami Heat forward LeBron James and Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant.

LeBron has had a career season averages 27.1 points, 6.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game which were all in the top ten, not to mention his 8 rebounds a game. He has also had a career year shooting 53% from the field which was fourth in the NBA this season also shooting 36% from 3 point range. He was announced the league’s Most Valuable Player, for the third time in four years. LeBron accepted his reward saying “this isn’t only my award it’s my teammate’s award I couldn’t be here accepting this award without them.

Another coveted award in the NBA is the 6^th man of the year. The sixth man of the year is the player who makes the biggest impact for his team coming of the bench. The winner of this award is Oklahoma City Thunder guard James Harden. He averages 17 points a game, 3.7 assist 4.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game. He also had the most minutes coming of the bench in the league. This is his first time winning the award.

Another award up for grabs is most improved player. The favorite for the award was New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin. The Knicks were struggling at the beginning of the season when key injuries to the Knicks point guards gave Lin the opportunity to make an impact on this team he seized it. Lin lead the Knicks to a season high seven game winning streak putting them on the path to the playoffs. Lin averaged career highs in area’s he had 15 points a game, 6 assist a game, 1.6 steals a game, and he shot an impressive 32% from 3 point range.

One area of concern for Lin was his turnovers in which he led the NBA in. The other player going for the award is Orlando Magic forward Ryan Anderson who has made the most 3 point field goals in the NBA this season. He has been an excellent rebounder an area in which many were concerned. He averaged 16 points a game, and 8 rebounds a game. Ryan Anderson accepted the award as he stepped up when star Center Dwight Howard had his season cut short by a herniated back disk.

The Coach of the Year is another award in which it is hard to make a choice. Head coach of the San Antonio Spurs Greg Popovich has led his team to the second best record in the NBA and the best record in the western conference. Popovich has done this with the oldest roster in the NBA with 7 players over the age of 30 such as Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobli.

The other candidate was head coach of the Chicago Bulls Tom Thibodeau who has for the second consecutive year led his Chicago Bulls to the best record in the NBA. Thibodeau who has had to coach this Bulls team with numerous injuries. The most important of the injuries is to All-Star guard Derrick Rose who missed 27 games this morning due to a groin injury. Another injury is to veteran guard Richard Hamilton who missed 38 games with numerous finger injuries. Coach Popovich pulled through winning his second Coach of The Year award, and led the Spurs to a first round sweep of the Utah Jazz.

Another award taken home this year was defensive player for the year. It was a close competition between New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler and Oklahoma City Thunder Forward Serge Ibaka. Last year the Knicks defense was last in the league in all categories, in the offseason they signed Tyson Chandler he quickly impacted their defense. They are 9^th in points allowed per game, 3^rd in blocked shots per game and 6^th in rebounding. Tyson Chandler has impacted this Thunder team deeply. Serge Ibaka lead the league in blocks this game at 4.5 a game. This a franchise record for the season. He also helped the Thunder get the top spot in blocked shots, the 4^th team in rebounding and 2^nd in points allowed per game. In the end Tyson Chandler won the award in a dramatic fashion winning the award for the first time in his career.  

These awards were very difficult to decide as the voting totals were very close.