The NBA said Curry is the first unanimous winner in the history of the award and the 11th player to win back-to-back MVP honors.
It also said Curry has joined Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Steve Nash “as the only guards to earn the honor in consecutive seasons.”
“Curry swept all 131 first-place votes (1,310 points), including 130 from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters in the United States and Canada, and one from the Kia MVP fan vote. The San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard finished second with 634 points, and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James was third with 631 points. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook (486 points) and Kevin Durant (147) rounded out the top five,” the NBA said on its website.
“Players received 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for each second-place vote, five points for each third-place vote, three points for each fourth-place vote and one point for each fifth-place vote.”
The announcement came as Curry returned to action from a knee injury and delivered an epic performance in Portland, finishing 40 points in 37 minutes to push the Warriors to a 3-1 lead against the Trail Blazers in the second round of the NBA playoffs.
A front-runner for the MVP award since early in the season, the 6-3 guard led the Warriors to their first championship in 40 years last season.
This season, the reigning MVP helped push Golden State to a record 73 victories, averaging 30.1 points, 6.7 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game. He shoots 90.8 percent from the foul line, 50.4 percent from the field and 45.4 percent from 3-point range.
”I kind of felt bad today because I didn’t tell him congratulations because I felt like I knew since December,” teammate Draymond Green was quoted by the AP as saying. ”It didn’t feel like this momentous occasion. It didn’t feel that way.”
”He’s the MVP, he’s a killer, he’s everything, all the names, silent assassin, all that, to come out and perform like he did tonight and get that MVP tomorrow,” said another teammate, Marreese Speights.
Last season, Curry was only the second Warriors player ever to win the MVP award, beating the Houston Rockets’ James Harden and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James. Wilt Chamberlain was the first Warriors player to receive the honor after the 1959-1960 season.
In December, Curry was named AP 2015 Male Athlete of Year for his role in elevating basketball to new heights, edging out golfer Jordan Spieth, who won two majors last year, to join James, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird as the only basketball players to win the honor.
“The way that I play has a lot of skill but is stuff that if you go to the YMCA or rec leagues or church leagues around the country, everybody wants to shoot, everybody wants to handle the ball, make creative passes and stuff like that,” he said.
“You can work on that stuff. Not everybody has the vertical or the physical gifts to be able to go out and do a windmill dunk and stuff like that,” Curry said. “I can’t even do it.”
After sitting out the past four postseason games with injuries, Curry proved he still is a leading force, scoring 17 points in overtime to lead the Warriors to a 132-125 victory over the Trail Blazers on Monday.
The Warriors will try to close out the series on Wednesday and advance to the Western Conference finals.
