Warriors superstar guard Stephen Curry won the 2023/24 NBA Player of the Year award, according to Shams Charania, a reporter for The Athletic. Player of the Year is defined as the ball that "performs best for teammates in key moments" during the regular season.
Curry earned the honor after defeating Shay Gilgeoz-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder and DeMar DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls. In his 35-year-old season, Curry averaged 26.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 74 games per game while shooting 45.0 percent from the field and 40.8 percent from three-point range.
According to publicly available data from the Warriors, Curry ranks first in scoring (189 points), shooting (59 points) and three-pointers (32 points) in key moments this season. Key moments are defined by the league as the final five minutes of a game. He's shooting 45.7 percent from three-point range in crunch time this year, and the Warriors have a 24-24 record in crunch time this season.
The NBA's Public Relations Department has released the full list of votes. Curry scored 298 points and DeRozan was second with 272. Kyrgyzstan Alexander scored 160 points. Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets, Jalen Brunson of New York, and Luka Doncic of Dallas were also on the ballot.
Of the top three votes, only Kyrgyz-Alexander is still fighting in the playoffs, leading the Thunder to a 23-11 record in key moments this year, and the Thunder are currently leading the Pelicans 2-0 in the first round of the playoffs, DeRozan's Bulls stopped in the second round of the play-offs, and Curry's Warriors were eliminated after losing to the Kings in the first round of the play-offs.