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When I cast my Coach of the Year vote for George Karl, I had no idea so many others would do the same.
More than half the voters made the same choice.
The final individual award given out by the NBA was announced this morning, and Karl was the Coach of the Year in a runaway. with Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat second and Mike Woodson of the Knicks third.
Who cast a first-place vote for Carmelo Anthony for Most Valuable Player, denying LeBron James the honor of being the first unanimous selection in NBA history?
It was Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.
We ran a similar poll to this one a month ago, and Mike Woodson was the winner by a resounding margin.
Now we are setting the reset button and starting over, given that Coach of the Year it is the only award for which there is any suspense now that we know that Marc Gasol is the Defensive Player of the Year, Paul George is Most Improved and J.R. Smith is the Sixth Man Award winner. (Click on any of those links to see the complete vote totals)
(LeBron James will be the MVP, and Damian Lillard will be the Rookie of the Year. The only suspense if whether either will be a unanimous winner.)
Cast your vote in the poll below, and the results will show after you have cast your ballot.
(RELATED: WHO DID CHRIS SHERIDAN GIVE HIS COACH OF THE YEAR VOTE TO?)
Perhaps the greatest indicator of LeBron James’ current dominance of the NBA is that the only controversy in Most Valuable Player voting is who deserves to be second.
Memphis’ Marc Gasol, who anchored the league’s stingiest defense, is the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. Gasol becomes the first player in Grizzlies history to earn the honor.
His teammate, Tony Allen, who received my first-place vote (along with eight other first-place votes), finished fifth.
Gasol received 212 of a possible 1,089 points, including 30 first-place votes, from a panel of 121 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Miami’s LeBron James (149 points, 18 first-place votes) and Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka (122 points, 14 first-place votes) finished second and third, respectively.
Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote received.
Gasol, one of only six players to average at least 1.5 blocks (1.7 bpg) and 1.0 steals (1.0 spg), led a Grizzlies defense that allowed a league-low 88.7 ppg during the regular season. According to NBA.com/Stats, Gasol’s +5.4 score differential ranked second among NBA centers; additionally, Memphis enjoyed a +7.5 score differential when Gasol was on the court compared with -3.9 when he was on the bench.
2012-13 KIA NBA DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR RESULTS
PLAYER TEAM 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place Total Points
Marc Gasol Memphis 30 16 14 212
LeBron James Miami 18 15 14 149
Serge Ibaka Oklahoma City 14 15 7 122
Joakim Noah Chicago 13 10 12 107
Tony Allen Memphis 9 15 12 102
Tim Duncan San Antonio 11 11 6 94
Larry Sanders Milwaukee 4 18 16 90
Paul George Indiana 8 2 11 57
Andre Iguodala Denver 5 3 9 43
Roy Hibbert Indiana 3 5 6 36
Chris Paul L.A. Clippers 2 2 3 19
Avery Bradley Boston 2 1 2 15
Tyson Chandler New York 0 3 2 11
Dwight Howard L.A. Lakers 1 0 4 9
Luol Deng Chicago 1 0 1 6
Dwyane Wade Miami 0 1 1 4
Trevor Ariza Washington 0 1 0 3
Jimmy Butler Chicago 0 1 0 3
Kenneth Faried Denver 0 1 0 3
Russ Westbrook Oklahoma City 0 1 0 3
Mike Conley Memphis 0 0 1 1
