NBPA releases categories for 'Basketball Players Awards'
The National Basketball Players Association unveiled categories for its newly-created awards. The "Basketball Players Awards" will be voted on by players.
The new awards including "Hardest to Guard" and "Coach You Would Want to Play For." From Bleacher Report's Howard Beck:
Most Valuable Player
Best Rookie
Man of the Year
Best Defender
Global Impact Player
Hardest to Guard
Clutch Performer
Coach You Would Want to Play For
Best Home Court Advantage
Player You Secretly Wish Was on Your Team
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The media will continue to vote for honors including Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Coach of the Year and the All-NBA teams.
The creation of the player-voted awards comes after players, including Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant, took exception with the voting process for the awards.
“I think media gets too much power to vote on stuff, quite frankly, that you don’t know a lot about, as much as we [players] know about it,” Durant said in February. “We play against these guys every single night, we battle against these guys, we know what they say on the court, we know how they handle their teammates, we know how they approach the game.
"Our vote should count. Our opinions should count. I don’t think you guys know as much as we do and I don’t know why you have more power than we do.”
