Indiana’s Paul George will go for his second consecutive playoff triple-double tomorrow night.
Today, he gets to bask in the glory of an award.
George, who earned his first All-Star Game berth en route to leading the Pacers to the Central Division crown and the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, is the winner of the 2012-13 NBA Most Improved Player Award.
George received 311 of a possible 1,080 points, including 52 first-place votes, from a panel of 120 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.
My first-place vote, along with nine others, went to Nikola Vucevic of Orlando, who finished fourth.
Greivis Vasquez of the New Orleans (146 points, 13 first-place votes) and the Milwaukee Bucks’ Larry Sanders (141 points, 10 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.
George, who entered the 2012-13 campaign with career averages of 10.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.3 steals, established career highs in each of those statistics – a team-high 17.4 points, along with 7.6 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.8 steals.
George was the only player in the league to record at least 140 steals (143) and 50 blocks (51). He had nineteen games with at least three steals, and 29 games with at least one steal and one block. According to NBA.com/Stats, in the 81 games in which George appeared, the Pacers had a +5.9 score differential when he was on the court compared with -2.0 score differential when he was on the bench.
Below are the 2012-13 voting results. The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP.
2012-13 KIA NBA MOST IMPROVED PLAYER AWARD
1st Place (5 Pts) 2nd Place (3 Pts) 3rd Place (1 pts) Total
Paul George (Indiana) 52 14 9 311
Greivis Vasquez (New Orleans) 13 19 24 146
Larry Sanders (Milwaukee) 10 25 16 141
Nikola Vucevic (Orlando) 10 14 17 109
Jrue Holiday (Philadelphia) 10 13 13 102
Omer Asik (Houston) 9 9 14 86
James Harden (Houston) 8 3 4 53
Stephen Curry (Golden State) 1 4 1 18
Serge Ibaka (Oklahoma City) 1 3 1 15
Chandler Parsons (Houston) 0 4 2 14
Kemba Walker (Charlotte) 0 2 3 9
J.R. Smith (New York) 1 1 0 8
Klay Thompson (Golden State) 1 1 0 8
Jimmy Butler (Chicago) 0 2 1 7
Ryan Anderson (New Orleans) 1 0 0 5
Carmelo Anthony (New York) 1 0 0 5
Andray Blatche (Brooklyn) 1 0 0 5
Mike Conley (Memphis) 1 0 0 5
Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio) 0 1 2 5
Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City) 0 1 1 4
Arron Afflalo (Orlando) 0 1 0 3
Earl Clark (L.A. Lakers) 0 0 3 3
Kenneth Faried (Denver) 0 1 0 3
Greg Monroe (Detroit) 0 1 0 3
Joakim Noah (Chicago) 0 1 0 3
Tristan Thompson (Cleveland) 0 0 2 2
Tobias Harris (Orlando) 0 0 1 1
Jarrett Jack (Golden State) 0 0 1 1
Ty Lawson (Denver 0 0 1 1
Brook Lopez (Brooklyn) 0 0 1 1
Robin Lopez (New Orleans) 0 0 1 1
Lance Stephenson (Indiana) 0 0 1 1
Jeff Teague (Atlanta) 0 0 1 1
