Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year were both awarded to Magic guard Armstrong.
This situation was quite rare in the league.
He Xi Meng looked at Armstrong’s stats: 50 games played, 35 starts, averaging 13.8 points, 6.7 assists, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.2 steals. The numbers weren't particularly outstanding.
It could only be said that in this tumultuous, lockout-shortened season, most players struggled, allowing someone like Armstrong to stand out.
This year's Rookie of the Year went to Carter of the Raptors!
Carter's rookie season stats were an average of 18.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.5 blocks!
Carter was also one of the representatives of "peak from debut"!
This year's Coach of the Year went to Trail Blazers head coach Mike Dunleavy!
He Xi Meng was quite puzzled by this. The Blazers' regular season record was just okay, fourth in the West. Last season, they were sixth in the West. The room for improvement wasn't that large, and their win rate wasn't particularly outstanding. Why him, and not someone else? This kind of win rate and improvement were common in the league. He Xi Meng even felt it would have been better to give it to Harris, who had led the Lakers to the league's best record for the past two seasons!
However, the league had its considerations. He Xi Meng could only grumble and vent privately; it wouldn't change the final outcome.
This year's league scoring champion was Iverson of the 76ers, averaging 26.8 points.
This year's league rebounding champion was Webber of the Kings, averaging 13 rebounds.
This year's league assists leader was Kidd of the Suns, averaging 10.8 assists!
This year's league steals leader was Kendall Gill of the Nets, averaging 2.7 steals!
This year's league blocks leader was Mourning of the Heat, averaging 3.9 blocks!
He Xi Meng's closest individual award was the assists title! This season, He Xi Meng averaged 10.2 assists, a significant improvement from last season. Unfortunately, Kidd was too monstrous, directly reaching 10.8 assists, and He Xi Meng could only come in second in the league, missing out on the assists title.
After individual awards came the All-NBA Teams.
This year's All-NBA First Team consisted of Malone of the Jazz, Duncan of the Spurs, Iverson of the 76ers, Mourning of the Heat, and Kidd of the Suns!
Yes, this season Kidd made the All-NBA First Team with averages of 16.9 points, 10.8 assists, and 6.8 rebounds. Judging by his 16.9 points per game, calling Kidd "Kidd the Passer" seemed a bit unfair now; at least he was scoring. He was even scoring more than He Xi Meng!
This season, He Xi Meng, adopting a policy of low-key development and consistent coasting, had his scoring average drop compared to last season. But fortunately, his assists average increased, making it a wash overall. Averaging 14.5 points and 10.2 assists, a double-double point guard was nothing to be ashamed of.
The All-NBA Second Team included O'Neal of the Lakers, Hill of the Pistons, Webber of the Kings, Tim Hardaway of the Heat, and Payton of the Supersonics!
The All-NBA Third Team included Olajuwon of the Rockets, Garnett of the Timberwolves, McDyess of the Nuggets, Kobe of the Lakers, and He Xi Meng of the Lakers!
He Xi Meng had mentally prepared himself for not making the All-NBA Team this season. After all, coasting came at a price.
Kobe's scoring average had increased from 15 points last season to 20 points this season, while He Xi Meng's had decreased. Even if he were kicked out of the All-NBA Team, it would be his own fault.
He heard that the preliminary voting results showed He Xi Meng's votes were neck and neck with Stockton of the Jazz.
Stockton's stats this season weren't outstanding either, averaging 11 points and 7.5 assists, not as good as He Xi Meng's. However, Stockton was a league veteran and was nearing retirement. The league management intended to give the last Third Team spot to Stockton.
As a result, He Xi Meng exploded in the first round of the playoffs, stunning the entire league. He could easily be considered the MVP of the first round!
League Commissioner Stern convened an emergency meeting to re-discuss the All-NBA Team list. The league's top brass even considered moving Tim Hardaway to the Third Team and pushing He Xi Meng to the Second Team. But in the end, they felt it would create too much of a stir. After all, the All-NBA Teams were based on regular season performance, not playoff performance.
Poor old Stockton, however, had the Third Team honor within his grasp, only to have it snatched back by He Xi Meng. Such is fate.
With a total of three players making the All-NBA Teams, the Lakers stood out among all the teams in the league.
The following Defensive Teams saw ties in voting, resulting in six players on the First Team.
They were Duncan of the Spurs, Kidd of the Suns, Mourning of the Heat, Payton of the Supersonics, Malone of the Jazz, and Pippen of the Rockets.
The All-Defensive Second Team consisted of Mutombo of the Hawks, P.J. Brown of the Heat, Ratliff of the 76ers, Blaylock of the Hawks, and Eddie Jones of the Hornets!
No players from the Lakers made the All-Defensive Team.
With this, the regular season had officially concluded, and the second round of the playoffs was about to reignite.
The Lakers' opponent was the young but exceptionally talented Trail Blazers!
With the painful lesson of the Timberwolves' defeat behind them, the Trail Blazers naturally wouldn't dare to underestimate He Xi Meng's explosive potential!
In this series, the Trail Blazers dared not pack the paint too much, doing their best to have Sabonis guard O'Neal one-on-one.
Sabonis had no problem with strength, but due to an old injury, his footwork couldn't keep up with O'Neal's. Therefore, compared to the pack-wolf strategy against the Timberwolves, O'Neal's pressure in the paint was not as intense as in the previous round.
This meant that He Xi Meng's decision to go all out in the previous round had played a role!
Of course, such an outburst, disregarding his teammates' feelings, was bound to have consequences. The biggest consequence was that Kobe noticeably increased his individual offensive efforts in this series. He Xi Meng couldn't be the only one hogging the spotlight for the Lakers, could he?
He Xi Meng had anticipated Kobe's reaction. For a scoring-obsessed player like Kobe, letting He Xi Meng explode for an entire series was probably the limit.
Even Glen Rice, since arriving in Los Angeles, had never seen He Xi Meng in such a ferocious state. Besides being dumbfounded, it had also ignited a spark of competitiveness in him, making him want to showcase his scoring ability in front of the Los Angeles fans. After all, Glen Rice was once the straightforward boy who dared to snatch the All-Star MVP from "His Airness"...