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The Latest on the NBA Awards Adam Butler Jersey , where the league’s individual honors are being presented (all times local):

8 p.m.

James Harden of the Houston Rockets is the NBA’s Most Valuable Player.

He joined Michael Jordan as the only players to average at least 20 points, eight assists, five rebounds and 1.7 steals in a season.

Harden led the league in scoring, 3-pointers and 50-point games with four. He helped the Rockets to an NBA-leading 65 wins.

Harden beat out Cleveland’s LeBron James and Anthony Davis of the Pelicans.

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7:25 p.m.

Oscar Robertson commends the activism of today’s NBA players, although he wonders why more white athletes aren’t speaking out.

”Where are the white athletes when this is happening?” he said backstage at the NBA Awards. ”It’s not just black athletes when you see injustice in the world.”

Robertson went on to say he hopes ”the whites and the blacks can get together, even with the football,” a reference to NFL players who have taken a knee or sat in silence during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality.

The Hall of Fame guard was presented with the NBA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

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7:15 p.m.

The NBA gave Oscar Robertson a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bill Russell gave Charles Barkley something else.

Barkley and fellow Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were the presenters when Robertson received his honor. After Barkley mentioned Russell, Boston’s Hall of Fame center flipped his middle finger in Barkley’s direction.

Robertson is the career leader in triple-doubles and was the first player to average one for a season. His antitrust case against the NBA also ushered in free agency for players. Robertson says that was his most important assist.

Russell received the inaugural award last year.

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6:55 p.m.

The name on everyone’s lips around the NBA isn’t at the league’s awards show.

LeBron James isn’t attending the show, where he’s vying for a fifth career Most Valuable Player award.

James has until Friday to tell the Cavaliers if he will pick up his $35.6 million option for next season or opt for free agency. Rumors about his future have spawned a cottage industry in the sports world.

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6:45 p.m.

Dwane Casey has won the NBA’s Coach of the Year award for his work with his former team, the Toronto Raptors. He was fired last month and has since become coach of the Detroit Pistons.

Casey led the Raptors to the No. 1 seed in the East for the first time in franchise history. Toronto won a team-record 59 games. Casey coached the East in the All-Star Game for the first time.

Casey won over Quin Snyder of Utah and Brad Stevens of Boston.

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6:35 p.m.

Lou Williams of the Los Angeles Clippers is the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year.

The guard became the first player to average at least 20 points for the first time in his 13th season or later. He led the league in fourth-quarter points and scoring average.

He beat out Houston’s Eric Gordon Donovan Smith Jersey , last year’s winner, and Fred VanVleet of Toronto.

Williams kissed his two young daughters on his way to the stage after becoming the Clippers’ third winner in the last five years.

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6:30 p.m.

Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz is the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year.

The center was the leading vote-getter for the league’s All-Defensive first team.

Gobert anchored a Jazz defense that ranked second in the NBA in defensive rating.

He beat out Anthony Davis of New Orleans and Joel Embiid of Philadelphia.

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6:20 p.m.

Victor Oladipo of the Indiana Pacers has won the Most Improved Player at the NBA Awards.

The guard averaged 23.1 points in his first season with the Pacers. He earned his first All-Star berth, too.

Oladipo also led the league in steals for the first time.

He beat out Clint Capela of Houston and Spencer Dinwiddie of the Brooklyn Nets.

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6:15 p.m.

Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers has won Rookie of the Year honors at the NBA Awards.

The guard averaged 15 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, joining Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson as the only rookies to post those numbers in a season.

Simmons helped Philadelphia to a 52-30 record, including ending the season with a 16-game winning streak.

He beat out finalists Donovan Mitchell of Utah and Jayson Tatum of Boston.

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6 p.m.

The NBA Awards aren’t just about the hardware. Everyone gets fed, too.

Players and their guests are sitting down to dinner at the second annual show. On the menu is salad with avocados, grapefruit and green goddess dressing, and a main course of wild seabass with rice and steak.

Dessert is a vanilla cream puff, chocolate peanut butter cupcakes and pavlova with lemon curd and blueberry.

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5:55 p.m.

Jeanie Buss says she has complete faith in the Los Angeles Lakers‘ front office no matter how Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka want to build the team Alex Okafor Jersey , whether it’s through trades, free agency or the draft.

Buss says she asked them a year ago to identify a style of play for the team and make decisions that reflect that style. She describes the Lakers’ style as fast and says it’s about passing and sharing the ball while committing to each other as a team.

Buss is the team’s controlling owner and president. Johnson is the team’s president of basketbal Although the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks both have been regular Stanley Cup playoff participants for the past 15 years, the California rivals somehow met in the postseason only once before this week.

That first-round series in 2009 provided valuable lessons to the veterans remaining in both dressing rooms. The eighth-seeded Ducks eliminated the top-seeded Sharks in six tempestuous games culminating in the Ducks’ clinching home victory, which began with Ryan Getzlaf and Joe Thornton dropping the gloves on the opening faceoff.

Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Francois Beauchemin are still around in Anaheim, while Thornton, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Joe Pavelski are still in teal. When they drop the puck on another first-round meeting Thursday night at Honda Center, the veterans from both clubs will keep in mind what they’ve learned from many years of the playoff grind.

”We would have liked to probably handle that series a little better,” recalled Pavelski, now the Sharks’ captain. ”We were great in the regular season. Just never really got it going. This group understands we want to get off to a good start. If you get that first goal under your belt and play with the lead Marshawn Lynch Jersey , more often than not it puts that other team under a little bit of pressure.”

Much has changed for both teams in the ensuing nine years, but this rivalry hasn’t cooled much. Getzlaf and Perry are still seeking their first Stanley Cup since 2007, while the Sharks are still waiting to raise it for the first time.

The 38-year-old Thornton is still in teal, but his right knee injury seems likely to keep him out for the first round. Anaheim has its own injury woes headlined by the shoulder problem of top defenseman Cam Fowler, who is expected to miss the series.

Here are more things to watch in the eighth playoff series between California teams in NHL history:

OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS?: The series opens in Orange County because of a tremendous late-season surge by the Ducks, who won their final five games to slide in front of San Jose for second place in the Pacific Division. Anaheim overcame its early-season injury problems and the late-season absence of goalie John Gibson to finish with 101 points to San Jose’s 100. The Sharks lost five of their final six regular-season games and gave away home-ice advantage on the final day of the regular season. Home ice typically doesn’t mean much in the postseason, but the Ducks have lost in regulation at Honda Center just once in 17 games since Jan. 23.

KANE’S CHANCE: Evander Kane provided a big spark for San Jose after being acquired from Buffalo at the trade deadline with nine goals and five assists in 17 games. Kane’s reward for his strong play is his first trip to the playoffs nine seasons into his career. Kane never got a shot at the postseason with Atlanta, Winnipeg or Buffalo, but believes his style of play is conducive to this time of year.

”I’ve said it in the past: I think I’m a playoff player,” he said. ”I’ve watched the playoffs and when I look at the style of play and it’s something I was jealous because I wasn’t involved in it. Now I get that opportunity and I have to back those words up.”

SCORING D: Sharks coach Peter DeBoer has put a priority on getting offense from their defense and it paid off this season with San Jose ranking third in the NHL with 199 points from the blue line. The offense didn’t just come from last year’s Norris Trophy winner Brent Burns Kareem Hunt Jersey , with a team record five defensemen in all scoring at least 20 points, including a career-high 33 points from Justin Braun and a career-best 11 goals from Vlasic.

”I don’t know what it is. He’s been preaching it for a few years but this year I think we really took hold of it a little bit more,” Braun said.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The Sharks power-play has been a bit of a roller coaster this season. San Jose converted just 14.5 percent of its chances with the man advantage over the first 18 games before things started to click. The Sharks scored on 28.9 percent of their chances over the next 29 games before falling back into a rut after Thornton injured his knee. The power play slumped late in the year, converting at a rate of 16.5 percent over the last 35 games. The penalty kill was much more consistent, ranking second in the league at 84.8 percent for the season.

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AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow in San Jose contributed to this report.

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