There was never a doubt in the weeks following the regular season's conclusion, but on Tuesday it was made official - Kevin Durant is the NBA's 2013-14 Most Valuable Player.
Durant received 119 out of 125 first place votes - LeBron James got the other six - to take home the first MVP of his career in his age-25 season. And what a season it was.
Durant averaged 32.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.3 steals in 38.5 minutes per game over 81 games for a Thunder team that went 59-23 despite missing Russell Westbrook for 36 games. Durant led the league in scoring, minutes played, field goals made, free throws made and attempted, Player Efficiency Rating, offensive win shares, total win shares and win shares per 48 minutes.
He flirted with a second consecutive 50/40/90 shooting season, finishing with splits of 50.3/39.1/87.3 from the field, three-point territory and free throw line, respectively. He came excruciatingly close to becoming just the fifth player ever to post a season of 30-plus points per game and a 30-plus PER, finishing with a mere 29.9 PER instead. He became the first player since Shaquille O'Neal 14 years ago to lead the league in scoring, win shares and PER. He became just the second player ever - and first in 30 years - to post a season of at least 30 points per game on a True Shooting Percentage of at least .630
He scored at least 25 points in 41 consecutive games, the third-longest such streak in NBA history and one game longer than Michael Jordan ever did. He averaged 35 a game over an incredible 26-game stretch without Westbrook from late-December to mid-February that seemed to defy the laws of sporting fairness.
He scored at least 40 points on 14 different occasions. He scored 50 twice - 54 at home against the Warriors in January and 51 in a double-overtime thriller in Toronto in March that saw him end the game like this after engineering an eight-point rally in the final minute:
He added 38 points in the All-Star game for good measure. His defense, while hardly a strength, took an important step forward this season. Any single way you slice it, Kevin Durant had an absolute season for the ages, making 2013-14 not just the year of KD, but the coronation of The Slim Reaper.
Durant has been a phenomenal NBA talent for a half-decade already despite his almost unbelievable youth, but for as good as he always was, no sane Association observer was ready to put him in a much ballyhooed 'best player alive' conversation with prime LeBron James, a guy who could go down as the greatest ever when it's all said and done, still patrolling the land.
James' complete, two-way package still makes him the popular choice for that prestigious title among NBA diehards, and there remain advanced stats available that paint his as the most impressive season again. But LeBron slipped a bit on the defensive end himself this season, and it would be foolish to not at least consider the possibility that with four extra years of youth on Durant's side and James approaching 30, the balance of power is shifting KD's way.
At the end of the day, perhaps more than any statistical achievement we can cite, that's the real measure of how historically awesome Kevin Durant's 2013-14 season was. That even in a time where a dynamic force the likes of which pro basketball has arguably never seen before - King James - remains active and historically excellent himself, Durant has made his own reputable claim to the throne.
