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At the inaugural NBA Players Awards James Harden's masterful 2014-2015 NBA season was vindicated with the Most Valuable Player award. Voted on by peers, the award recognizes James Harden's individual contributions to a Houston Rockets team that withstood injuries to reach the Western Conference Finals.
The award recognizes both Harden's on-court contributions and an evaluation-schism between NBA players and the media.
Harden was gracious in his acceptance:
"I want to thank God, thank my mom, my family and friends for all the support, the continuous support," Harden said. "I want to thank BET for this beautiful event. To the NBA Players Association, (executive director) Michele Roberts for giving players a voice to speak their minds, and then just the players, the peers, I appreciate this vote. It means a lot and I'm really thankful for it."
Perhaps the best news of the night... Daryl Morey can rescind his Temecula challenge as James Harden now has an MVP award:
Anyone who doesn't think @JHarden13 was MVP - let's go now! pic.twitter.com/AFVbVeoR91
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) July 21, 2015