Stephen Curry creates NBA MVP voting history

STEPHEN Curry has just done something Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron James, Bill Russell, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson never did.

Stephen Curry has created NBA MVP voting history.

STEPHEN Curry is the first unanimous NBA MVP, earning the award for the second straight season Tuesday after leading the defending champion Warriors to a record-setting season.

The Golden State superstar is the 11th player in league history to be voted MVP in consecutive seasons and the first guard to do so since Steve Nash in 2004-05 and 2005-06. Curry received 1,310 points from the 130 media voters from the U.S. and Canada.

He was followed in the vote by Kawhi Leonard of San Antonio, LeBron James of Cleveland and Oklahoma City teammates Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. Curry’s teammate Draymond Green was seventh.

Stephen Curry earned all 131 first-place MVP votes, the first unanimous winner in the award's 61-season history. pic.twitter.com/Drmdr0trDZ

— WarriorsPR (@WarriorsPR) May 10, 2016

Of course, this doesn’t mean Curry is better than any or all of those players. Or that the voters from years past were correct with their admittedly subjective ballots. But what it does mean is that Curry’s second straight MVP season is one for the ages. Here’s a closer look at four things that help explain why.

4. His improvement was historic

Curry’s annual improvement is unprecedented. His points per game from last year to this year jumped from 23.8 to 30.1. His PER went from 28.0 to 31.5 (seventh highest in league history). His true shooting percentage went from 63.8 to a league-leading 66.9. And, last but not least, his usage percentage went from 28.9 to 32.6.

What does all this mean? For starters, no reigning MVP has ever done this before. Curry defied human nature. Instead of plateauing off his first breakout year, content with a championship and renown status as the best player on the planet, the guy came back and torched the league with a hotter flame than the sport had ever felt.

As his responsibilities rose, Curry somehow become more efficient. Defences had a target on his back, and he still nailed some of the most eye-popping shots ever seen. There were double- and triple-teams, team-wide strategies to run him off the three-point line and keep him away from the paint, but he still took fewer mid-range shots than last season and saw his accuracy within three feet of the rim rise (to a nonsensical 69.6 per cent) alongside his three-point percentage.

Not. Human.

3. He made 402 threes

Speaking of not human, 402 threes is a lot of threes! It’s 116 more than he made last season, which is now only the second-most in NBA history. How big of a gap is that? Well, the threes he made this year vs. the threes he made last year is the same difference between the threes he made last year and the 153rd-most threes in a season (a four-way tie between Robert Covington, Reggie Miller, Baron Davis and Paul George).

Stephen Curry #30 celebrates draining yet another 3 for the Golden State Warriors.

To make this feel more ridiculous than it already is, Curry attempted 3.0 threes per game when a defender was within 2 to 4 feet (tight coverage, according to SportVU) and made 40.2 per cent of them. For a little perspective, only 12 players in the entire league made more than 40.2 per cent of their threes, regardless of whether they were open or contested (minimum three attempts per game).

So, basically, nobody is ever making 400 threes in a season ever again. Unless it’s Curry next year.

2. He joined the 50/40/90 club the same year he won a scoring title

To help wrap all our heads around this accomplishment, let’s first consider that the only players to shoot at least 50 per cent from the floor, 40 per cent behind the three-point line and 90 per cent from the charity stripe (with a respectable number of attempts from each area) for an entire season are Kevin Durant, Larry Bird, Steve Nash, Reggie Miller, Dirk Nowitzki and Mark Price. None of them won a scoring title the same year they joined the club.

Why? Because before Curry came along it was viewed as virtually impossible! Durant came close in 2013, but averaged “only” 28.1 points per game, which was technically fewer than Carmelo Anthony’s 28.7. To score a ton of points, it typically means you’re taking a ton of bad shots. Bad shots do not exist when discussing Curry’s range and repertoire.

1. This shot

No single moment better symbolises how unbeatable Curry was this season than this shot to take down the Oklahoma City Thunder. How do you stop a player who incorporated 40-footers in his pregame warm-up? Answer: prayer.

This article originally appeared on Fox Sports US

Originally published as Stephen Curry creates NBA MVP voting history