The media votes on most of the NBA awards, but the players will have their say with their own set of honors this year. The National Basketball Players Association announced today that it will hand out 10 awards in Las Vegas this July, as voted on by players. They’ll select their own MVP, the best rookie, and the best defender, and they’ll also hand out trophies for “Man of the Year,” “Global Impact Player,” “Hardest to Guard,” “Clutch Performer,” “Coach You Would Want To Play For,” “Best Home Court Advantage” and “Player You Secretly Wish Was on Your Team.” While we wait to see if those honors will have the resonance that the traditional ones have, here’s more from around the NBA:
- Combo forward Beka Burjanadze submitted his name for the draft, reports Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link). That evidently means the 21-year-old from the nation of Georgia declared before Sunday’s deadline to do so. He’s only the 29th-best prospect from overseas among those born in 1994, according to Givony, who notes in his tweet that Burjanadze is a cousin of Zaza Pachulia.
- Former LSU power forward Jordan Mickey has signed with agents Matt Babcock and Adie von Gontard of the APAA Sports Group, Givony reports (Twitter link). Mickey, who entered the draft this year after his sophomore season, is the 49th-best prospect overall as Givony ranks them and No. 50 in Chad Ford’s ESPN.com listings.
- Rakeem Christmas is going with Stephen Pina of ASM Sports for his representation, according to Cameron Chung of the Sports Agent Blog. Fresh off his senior year at Syracuse, Christmas comes in 52nd in Givony‘s rankings and is 55th with Ford.