The Golden State Warriors closed out the 2017 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games on Monday night that saw Kevin Durant earn the NBA Finals MVP award.
Durant was the unanimous choice for the award as the team's top scorer in the series. According to ESPN, this decision also puts Stephen Curry in some exclusive company alongside Hall of Famer Karl Malone.
Stephen Curry joins Karl Malone as the only players with multiple MVP awards, three trips to the Finals and no Finals MVPs to their names
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 13, 2017
To put that in better context, Malone was in the prime of his career for his two appearances against the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls squad where the Utah Jazz came up short twice. His last trip occurred in his final season in the league with the Los Angeles Lakers at 40 years old while playing on a bum knee that saw the Detroit Pistons pull the upset.
Curry has come up short for the prestigious honor in three straight years with LeBron James taking last year's award and Andre Iguodala grabbing the year before that. However, unlike Malone, he was able to win a pair of NBA titles with his team in the three appearances.
On top of that, it wasn't like Curry's play wasn't deserving of some consideration for the award. In this year's finals, he averaged 26.8 points, 9.4 assists, and 8.0 rebounds per game. He also recorded a double-double in each of the five games while notching his first career triple-double in the playoffs.
It just happened that Durant was more deserving of the award being the head of the snake offensively averaging a team-high 35.2 points per game on a 55.6 percent shooting from the field and 47.4 percent from beyond the arc. His high level of play justly earned him the nod for the award.
That said, Curry may have a few more chance to finally grab the award if the Warriors keep their core players intact for the next several seasons.
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