By: Kyle MacLelland, Larry King Now
Steph Curry's record-breaking season continued Wednesday night as the Golden State Warriors clinched a spot in the Western Conference Finals with a 125-121 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. They will face the winner of the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. San Antonio Spurs — a series the Thunder lead 3-2.
Prior to the game, which featured another spectacular 29 point effort by Curry, he was awarded with the NBA's first-ever unanimous MVP award. This means that all of 2016's 131 MVP voters — made up of a selection of sports writers and broadcasters throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as the "Kia MVP fan vote" — gave Curry a first place nod. As a result, the 28-year-old guard also becomes only the 11th player in NBA history to receive the award two years in a row.
The MVP win comes as no surprise given Curry's dominance during the 2016 regular season, in which he shattered his own single-season 3-point shooting record, nailing 402 threes, and became only the second player in league history to shoot more than 50% from the floor. Curry was also the first player in history to average more than 30 points per game in less than 35 minutes per game. His presence on the court helped the Golden State Warriors win 73 regular season games — the most since the league's inception.
Given his remarkable stats, Curry is undoubtedly the NBA's most dominant player on the court. Off the court, however, many sport analysts and fans alike are now deeming him the most recognizable basketball player in the world, ahead of the one and only LeBron James.
Although there are no real metrics to validate the latter title, insiders like recent Larry King Now guest Colin Cowherd say Steph Curry "has a global impact even greater than LeBron" because "little boys don't buy Shaq shoes, they don't buy Yao Ming shoes...Steph Curry's youthful appearance and game — a 7-year-old boy can take a ball and say, 'I can do that!"'
Check out Colin dishing on Steph's global appeal as well as his place in basketball history in the clip above and make sure to watch the rest of the NBA playoffs unfold! It's sure to be an exciting finish!
Source: WikiCommons
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