National Basketball Association

Clippers commentator confuses MVP with MIP, votes Durant Most Improved Player

Published Apr. 24, 2014 6:08 p.m. ET

foxsports

The Most Valuable Player race is pretty much done. No matter how much you might love LeBron James, you know Kevin Durant played out of his mind this season. Even when the race was tight, Durant found ways to separate himself from the four-time MVP in James.

Durant captured the scoring title with his 32 points per game and has led the Thunder to a No. 2 seed, giving them one of the two top seeds in the West for the third year in a row.

So Durant may practically be a lock for MVP, but does he deserve the NBA's Most Improved Player award as well? Well, he's got Michael Smith's vote. The Clippers commentator accidentally switched his Most Valuable Player ballot with his Most Improved Player ballot and had Durant first in line for MIP, followed by James and Blake Griffin.

While KD did improve tremendously in areas of his play, it's clear he's not a fit for MIP candidate this year. Goran Dragic, the actual winner announced on Wednesday, is way more fitting of that honor.

You knew there would be trolls waiting on Twitter to point out Smith's mistake.

@Ben_Baskin must've been a mistake. Those were my MVP votes. Most improved, I voted for Davis First Dragic second
— Michael Smith (@clippstvsmith) April 23, 2014

Ah well, no harm done. Luckily the race for MIP wasn't super tight and that one vote didn't really matter. And now it appears Smith's actual first choice for MIP, New Orleans Pelican Anthony Davis — a player for a team that didn't even make the playoffs — just scored himself a first-place vote for MVP.

H/T FTW.