Trophy Case
Jalen RoseWhen Manu Ginobili hoists the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award over his head at the end of this season, he should remember to list Kia Motors during his acceptance speech. That’s because Kia has teamed with the NBA to sponsor each of the League’s four major individual honors: the MVP Award, the Sixth Man of the Year Award, the Defensive Player of the Year Award and the Most Improved Player Award.
The partnership is a big deal – for today’s announcement at the NBA Store in Midtown Manhattan, the League marched out Commissioner David Stern, Willis Reed, Bill Walton, Mark Eaton and Jalen Rose to represent each piece of hardwood. And nothing was better than listening to Walton draw the oh-so-obvious parallels between the essence of each award and the philosophy of the Kia company.
Each of the legends picked a player to etch their name into the respective plaques. Willis Reed chose Tim Duncan and KG as his two MVP candidates.
Bill Walton listed half of the league as probable MVP’s: Duncan, Garnett, Yao, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, LeBron, Kobe and Luke Walton. Just kidding about that last one.
Mark Eaton chose Garnett as the player to succeed him for his ability to anchor the C’s defense.
Jalen Rose went with the clear choice for MIP: Brandon Roy.
And when the microphone passed back to Walton for the Sixth Man of the Year, he went with Manu.
January 10th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
BlazeMcHerbs says:
Bill Walton is a joke. Garnett is MVP, I dont know if Willis Reed has been watching any games this season but Duncan aint all that, he will be in the playoffs he aint saying much during the “pre-playoffs”. And David Stern should be fired, this lame a$$ is letting Casino’s advertise in the players locker room, real classy there , commish … Oh, and please Fire Isaah, at this point i think the Knicks would be better off if Tim Donaghy was coaching them
January 10th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
cp3fan says:
blazemcherbs
garnett will probly win MVP, however i strongly disagree than Duncan hasnt done much this year. If you look at their stats, the are almost identical. also amen to the bill walton and isiah coments
January 10th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Captain America says:
KG doesn’t fare well in head-to-head match ups with Duncan.
January 11th, 2008 at 1:14 am
nick says:
but the thing between kg and td is that more often then not they don’t guard each other.
January 11th, 2008 at 3:02 am
Mcw says:
captain america, u must really have a beef with KG. As a KG fan, I am curious to why u hate him so much. His matchups with Duncan past seasons usually end in them neutralizin each other.
btw I agree with each of the “legends” picks except for MIP I would definitely give it to Chris Kaman, runner ups Andrew Bynum and B-Roy
January 11th, 2008 at 9:36 am
KKN says:
Did my boy Rose forget Roy just was the ROY? He’s expected to be good, he hasnt improved that much even though he is having a great year.MIP= Bynum for sure
January 11th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Myrie says:
Many candidates for all of these. Consider:
Defensive Player of the Year: Kevin Garnett, Bruce Bowen (at some point he has to win it, right?), Marcus Camby, Pistons Starting Five
Sixth Man of the Year: David Lee (NYK), Leandro Barbosa (PHO), Jason Terry (DAL), Lakers bench, Pistons bench
Most Improved Player: Dwight Howard (ORL), David West (NO), Richard Jefferson (NJ), Brandon Roy (POR), Kevin Martin (SAC), Andris Biedrins (GS), Andrew Bynum (LAL), Al Jefferson (MIN), Travis Outlaw (POR), Gerald Wallace (CHAR), Josh Smith (ATL)
MVP: damn….take your pick
January 11th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
rean oh so handsome says:
MVP Award – it has to be steve nash. where will the suns be if they don’t have captain canada? look what happened versus utah..
Sixth Man – it’s gotta be The JET…
Defensive Player – the cambyman who else…
Most Improved Player – travis outlaw. he sucked from previous seasons and definitely made/is making a big improvement this season. don’t let me be a jinx now..