Michael Shapiro recently put together 2019-2020 Obscure Awards.
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00:00 The NBA season is on pause, so we have nothing better to do than hand out alternative NBA
00:06 awards.
00:07 And to help me do so, I'm joined by Michael Shapiro, who has a list of his.
00:10 Now, Michael, I want to know how you differentiated Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard for the
00:15 awards they received.
00:17 Yeah.
00:18 Now, Dwight Howard received the Reclamation Project of the Year, while Carmelo Anthony
00:23 received the Persistent Old Man Award in our alternative awards.
00:26 Now, a key difference here, why Anthony received the latter award, well, he wasn't on an NBA
00:32 roster on opening night.
00:33 Anthony came into Portland in November amid a rash of injuries.
00:37 And his story is really one of sticking with it.
00:39 You know, he's talked numerous times in the past about how he thought about hanging it
00:43 up, but he stayed in shape, waited for an opportunity, and frankly, he's been a pretty
00:47 productive player in Portland this season.
00:49 Now, I know you cover the Houston Rockets.
00:52 You gave Russell Westbrook the Beat the Skeptic Award.
00:56 You know, the Skeptics may have been celebrating early in the season, but Russ really turned
00:59 it on.
01:00 Yeah, that's exactly right.
01:02 You know, it was kind of a rough November and December for Westbrook, acclimating to
01:06 Houston.
01:07 He kind of failed to take advantage of the double teams thrown at James Harden.
01:11 But ever since Quint Capella left the lineup over the past two months, Westbrook has been
01:16 absolutely superb.
01:17 He's averaging 32 points per game, nearly seven assists, and he's shooting 52.7 percent
01:22 from the field since January 1st.
01:24 He's playing near his MVP peak with some efficiency we frankly have not seen before from Westbrook.
01:32 And we'll see if that translates to any postseason we maybe hopefully can get.
01:37 Michael, appreciate your time as always.
01:40 Thanks.
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