Superheroes of the game: Who will be crowned the 2017 NBA Season MVP?
Be it the emotional and adorable exchange between Steph Curry and his daughter, Riley Curry, or the talcum dust cloud that LeBron James throws up before a game, it’s only further proof that the best of us have a way of standing out.
And in the NBA, they’ve found one of the most authentic stages to do so. Currently one of the top viewed sports – and leagues in particular – across the globe, they know they’re sending a message loud and clear with every step they take.
On NBA Hangouts, we look at some of the best chest-pumping, adrenaline-breeding action these superstars conjure week in and week out and they’re doing it for the greatest personal prize to be won – the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP).
Despite crashing out of the Playoffs this year, the Oklahoma City Thunder can be proud of what they achieved and especially one man: Russell Westbrook.
With an NBA record 42-triple-doubles, Westbrook left the world, his opposition and your perception every time he went in for a dunk. And boy did he go in for those high-flyers this season.
With an average of 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists per game, he’s slowly helping the fans of his city forget about a certain someone named Kevin Durant. But he isn’t the only one who has shone this season. The Beard, for all the stories and pot-cooking he brings, led his side to 3rd in the season – a feat only someone as ridiculously nuclear as him could manage.
James Harden is second in the running for this season’s MVP and he’s proving to his critics time and again what an uncontrollable force he can be when motivated.
Up in third is The King. Diehard NBA fans will tell you that he’s one of the most complete players the sport has ever seen – maybe even the best. He helped Cleveland usurp the Golden State Warriors of their crown last season and he’s on the same mission again, only this time, he knows them much better.
Kawhi Leonard, Isaiah Thomas, Steph Curry, John Wall, DeMar DeRozan, Damian Lillard and Gordon Hayward are the rest of the competition. But when you have guards and beasts in the first three aforementioned names competing for a prize, why would the spotlight focus on anyone else?
But that’s not all we see in NBA Hangouts. In every full game the players take part – something LeBron James can vouch for – the amount of running they do is insane.
Let’s compare the running these basketball athletes do to what a cricketer does in a game: the distance covered in a full 48 minute NBA game is roughly the distance covered by a cricketer if he took 248 singles!
The fitness required by these talented beasts to ensure they leave their competition behind eating their dust is immense. It’s no wonder they’re revered like gods – only those celestial beings are capable of bringing tens of thousands to their feet when they jump as high as four feet off the ground game in and game out.
And the energy doesn’t stop there. Every time Steph Curry – easily NBA’s greatest ever shooter – swooshes a three pointer, it’s a couple of chest bumps and a single finger to the sky. There ain’t anyone like him and there ain’t anyone who celebrates like him: fearless and immortal.
For someone who can dominate a match all on his own and for someone who can instigate change all by himself, even Curry can’t do to a team and their fans what someone like Westbrook has done this season. Every. Single. Week.
The MVP is no small award, the MVP is no Passover, it’s the greatest personal honour to millions of dreams the world over. Whoever gets chosen as this season’s MVP will always be remembered, for records have tumbled far and wide.
Watch NBA Hangouts and brush up on your favourite ballers’ pre-match routines, their preferred celebrations and some stats that will make you wonder why you still follow cricket.
Have a look at some sensational plays by the MVP contenders here.
What rituals do these stars follow? Watch here.
How do stars celebrate? Watch their signature celebrations here.