Sources: Warriors' Curry to repeat as MVP
PORTLAND, Ore. — Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry will be named NBA Most Valuable Player for a second straight season, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN.com that the widely anticipated honor for Curry is scheduled to be announced in the next few days, with the Warriors poised to return to Oakland, California, on Tuesday after Monday night’s Game 4 in Portland.
Curry has been an overwhelming favorite to repeat as league MVP since the Warriors’ record-setting start to the season, when they went 24-0 — surpassing the previous record for best start to a season by nine wins — en route to a 73-9 mark that eclipsed the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls‘ 72-10 record as the winningest single season in NBA history.
Curry is bidding to become the first unanimously chosen MVP in NBA history; Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James fell one vote shy of unanimous selection in 2000 and 2013, respectively.
Curry has given himself a chance at sweeping the balloting thanks to a season as statistically dominant as any guard has ever assembled.
He’s the first player in league history at any position to average 30 points per game in less than 35 minutes per game over the course of a full season.
Curry also shattered his single-season NBA record for made 3-pointers with 402 — his previous record was 286 last season — while joining Steve Nash and his coach, Steve Kerr, as the only players in league history to shoot at least 50 percent from the floor, 45 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the line in a single season.
The 28-year-old will be the 11th player to win back-to-back MVP awards in the NBA’s 70-season existence. James was the last to achieve that feat with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013.
