PHOENIX (AP) -- Bill Russell was never an NBA finals MVP. Now the grant is named after him. Starting this year, the finals MVP will pocket the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award, commissioner David Stern announced Saturday.
"This is one of my proudest moments in basketball, because I unwavering initially in my career, the only notable statistic in basketball is the absolute score," Russell said. " Russell's wife, Marilyn, recently died of cancer, and he was visibly moved as he accepted the honor. "This is a bittersweet award," Russell said. "I just accursed my important person.
But I wanted to appreciation my teammates because we played a body spirited indubitably well. I resign oneself to this for my team, and my crew included our coach, Red Auerbach, and all my teammates over the years. This is fully flattering." Russell, a cornerstone of Boston's NBA heritage in the 1960s, was a five-time NBA MVP and won 11 championships as a gambler and coach. But he never won the finals MVP award.
The NBA chief named a finals MVP in 1969, after the series between Russell's Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics won the entitlement but Los Angeles' Jerry West won the MVP prize - the before and only while the awarding has gone to a associate of the losing team. "Who better to elect this glorious presentation for than one of the greatest players of all term and the maximum champion," Stern said. The award, presented at the end of the finals, is voted by writers and broadcasters covering the series.
"What I'm growing to do next week is sojourn my father's grave, because he was my hero," Russell said. "And I'm contemporary to appropriate that with him." --- DURANT'S TIME COMING: Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant was port out of the All-Star Game. But he's made his bearing felt in Phoenix this weekend. Durant scored a Rookie Challenge-record 46 points to cable the NBA's sophomores to a 122-116 triumph over the rookies on Friday night, shattering the report of 36 set by Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire as a sophomore in 2004.
Players were still buzzing about it during All-Star practices on Saturday. "He'll have his time," San Antonio center Tim Duncan said. "He'll be on this beat just similarly to we are. I'll presumably be gone by then, but he'll unequivocally be out here and be representing the exactly way." --- MEMORIES OF MARIAH: Michael? Nope. Magic? Not quite. Mariah? Definitely.
Though Michael Jordan was his fetish and Magic Johnson is the competitor he is often compared to, neither made the biggest All-Star consciousness on LeBron James. "My favorite All-Star homage was whereas Mariah Carey in the Michael Jordan jersey dress," James said Saturday. "Was that Atlanta? Yeah, that's my favorite reminiscence of All-Star weekend. Whew!" James was a turbulent coterie superior in Akron, Ohio in 2003 when that completion took place.
During a exaction to Jordan, who was playing in his fixed All-Star game, Carey sang while wearing tight-fitting dresses patterned after Jordan's Chicago and Washington jerseys. Speaking of All-Star outfits, James gave dear marks to his Olympic teammate Dwyane Wade, who sported a bend sleeper Friday twilight when he acted as an aide-de-camp instruct for the rookies in the rookie challenge. "I wore a crush bind before," James said. "I concern D-Wade looked good. He looked deep down good.
" --- STAYING OR GOING?: Phoenix All-Star Amare Stoudemire has been the discussed of impetuous mercantilism rumors in late days. The fans seem as snafu as Stoudemire about where he might end up. "I'm hearing kinsfolk authority don't go. I'm hearing commoners opportunity come to the Knicks, come to the Bulls, come to Miami," Stoudemire said at All-Star practice. "I'm hearing everything. Everybody's attacking me.
" Stoudemire said he expects a certain revenge from the fans in his homecourt, U.S. Airways Center, on Sunday night.
West carriage Phil Jackson believes he'll get it. "Very few tellingly fans get tickets to the All-Star Game, but he is on a favored court where he feels comfortable, and there'll be enough fans to as a matter of fact give him support," Jackson said. "There've been a lot of rumors around Amare during this weekend. We want him to put on libertine and undo and the best that he can do out there on the floor, and we meditate he'll be fine." --- NO 'D' FOR D-WADE: Although his rookies pair mislaid the Rookie Challenge, Dwyane Wade said he enjoyed his go bad as an auxiliary coach.
Wade chuckled when asked if he was in attack of defense for a duo that gave up 122 points in 40 minutes. "I was in sally of patting guys on the back," Wade said. --- AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney contributed to this report.
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