National Basketball Association awards

The National Basketball Association (NBA) presents 12 annual awards to recognize its teams and players for their accomplishments. The NBA championship trophy is called the Larry O'Brien Trophy. First introduced in the 1978 NBA Finals, it is awarded annually to the winner of the NBA Finals.

The NBA's championship trophy was first awarded after the inaugural NBA Finals in 1947. In 1964, it was named after Walter A. Brown, in honor of the original owner of the Boston Celtics who was instrumental in merging the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League into the NBA in 1949.cite web|url=http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/bhof-walter-brown.html|title=Walter A. Brown|publisher=Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame|accessdate=2008-07-27] [cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/404512/National-Basketball-Association|title=NBA|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|accessdate=2008-07-27] The Brown Trophy remained in use until 1978, when a new trophy design was introduced and first presented, though it retained the Walter A. Brown title.cite web|url=http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/trophy_020712.html|title=Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy|publisher=NBA.com|accessdate=2008-07-26] In 1984, the new trophy was renamed to honor former NBA commissioner Larry O'Brien, who served from 1975 to 1984.cite web|url=http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/10/Lightning/The_trophies.shtml|title=The trophies|publisher="St. Petersburg Times"|date=2003-04-10|accessdate=2008-07-26] cite web|url=http://www.nba.com/news/legendstour_050420.html|title=NBA Legends Launch 2005 NBA Legends Tour: Destination Finals|publisher=NBA.com|accessdate=2008-07-26]

The NBA's first individual awards were the All-Star Game Most Valuable Player and the Rookie of the Year awards, both of which made their first appearance in 1953. First awarded in 1956, the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is presented to the best performing player of the regular NBA season. The only individual award awarded in the NBA Finals is the Finals Most Valuable Player award, which was first presented in 1969. The Executive of the Year award is the only award not presented by the NBA. Though it is presented annually by Sporting News, it is officially recognized by the NBA. [cite web |url=http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2443842 |title=Reports: Baylor wins NBA executive of the year |accessdate=2008-07-24 |coauthors= |date=2006-05-14 |work= |publisher=ESPN.com]

__FORCETOC__

Team trophies

Individual awards

Notes

*note label|Note1|a|a Though the award winner is usually determined by nine votes, fans balloting on NBA.com accounted for the tenth vote in at least one NBA Finals. [cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/la-sp-lakersfyi19-2008jun19,0,5202810.story|title=Numbers from final game tell bad tale for Lakers|publisher="Los Angeles Times"|accessdate=2008-07-15|author=Mike Bresnahan|date=2008-06-19] [cite web|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SAEC&p_theme=saec&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10B05696DC904A04&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|title=MVP voting as close as the series|publisher="San Antonio Express-News"|accessdate=2008-07-15|author=Johnny Ludden|date=2005-06-25]

References

;General
*cite web|url=http://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/|title=Awards and Honors Index|publisher=Basketball-Reference.com|accessdate=2008-08-11;Specific