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Everything you need to know from 2018 NBA awards

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Barkley thanks legends, Russell jokingly rebuffs (0:39)

Bill Russell has quite the reaction as Charles Barkley shows respect before presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award. (0:39)

The 2017-18 season has been an eventful one, and Monday's awards show finally put a cap on the year.

Six of the awards given out were voted on by the media: MVP, Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man Award and Most Improved Player. Other awards include Executive of the Year (voted on by the league's executives), Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year (voted on by the players), NBA Sportsmanship Award (voted on by the players) and the NBA Cares Community Assist Award (voted on by fans and a panel of judges).

The fan-voted award for Play of the Year was also handed out, with the finalists coming from the winners of the fan-voted categories for Dunk of the Year, Clutch Shot of the Year, Assist of the Year, Block of the Year and Handle of the Year.

Let's take a closer look at how it all went down:

Rookie of the Year | Coach of the Year | Sixth Man Award
Most Improved Player | Defensive Player of the Year | MVP


Most Valuable Player

Winner: James Harden, Houston Rockets
Other finalists: Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans; LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers

The league's premier award went to James Harden, the top scorer in the NBA for the league's top regular-season team.

Coach of the Year

Winner: Dwane Casey, Toronto Raptors
Other finalists: Quin Snyder, Utah Jazz; Brad Stevens, Boston Celtics

Unfortunately for Dwane Casey, his great regular season in Toronto wasn't enough to save his job, though he landed on his feet in Detroit. Casey led the Raptors to the top seed in the East, won a team-record 59 games and coached the All-Star team.

Sixth Man Award

Winner: Lou Williams, LA Clippers
Other finalists: Eric Gordon, Houston Rockets; Fred VanVleet, Toronto Raptors

Lou Williams, who averaged a career-high 22.6 points per game while leading the LA Clippers off the bench, takes home his second Sixth Man of the Year award. Williams also won in 2014-15 as a member of the Raptors.

Defensive Player of the Year

Winner: Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz
Other finalists: Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans; Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers

Rudy Gobert missed 26 games due to injury, but he was a major key to the NBA's second-best defense and was arguably Utah's most important player (the Jazz won 66.1 percent of games Gobert played in and only 42.3 percent of games Gobert missed).

Most Improved Player

Winner: Victor Oladipo, Indiana Pacers
Other finalists: Clint Capela, Houston Rockets; Spencer Dinwiddie, Brooklyn Nets

Victor Oladipo represented the improvement of changing teams and roles. In Oladipo's case, he went from being a decent starter in Oklahoma City to an All-Star while improving his numbers across the board.

Rookie of the Year

Winner: Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 76ers
Other finalists: Donovan Mitchell, Utah Jazz; Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics

Simmons, the No. 1 overall pick in 2016, averaged 15.8 points, 8.2 assists and 8.1 rebounds per game for a 52-win 76ers team this season. This is the third time in the past four seasons that Rookie of the Year has gone to a former No. 1 overall pick, as Simmons joins 2014 top pick Andrew Wiggins and 2015's Karl-Anthony Towns as members of the ROY club. Simmons is the first player to win the award after missing the entire season following being drafted since Blake Griffin, the top overall pick in 2009, won Rookie of the Year honors in 2010-11.

Other Awards

Executive of the Year

Winner: Daryl Morey, Houston Rockets

Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year

Winner: Jamal Crawford, Minnesota Timberwolves

Sportsmanship Award

Winner: Kemba Walker, Charlotte Hornets

Seasonlong NBA Cares Community Assist Award

Winner: Kevin Durant, Golden State Warriors

Lifetime Achievement Award

Winner: Oscar Robertson

Sager Strong Award

Winner: Dikembe Mutombo

Hustle Award

Winner: Amir Johnson, Philadelphia 76ers

Fan-Voted Awards

Play of the Year

Winner: LeBron James (Clutch Shot)

Other Finalists: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Dunk), LeBron James (Assist), Anthony Davis (Block), Kyrie Irving (Handle)

Dunk of the Year

Winner: Giannis Antetokounmpo -- Feb. 6 vs. Knicks

Other nominees: LeBron James, DeMar DeRozan, Larry Nance Jr., Donovan Mitchell

Clutch Shot of the Year

Winner: LeBron James -- Feb. 7 vs. Timberwolves

Other nominees: Andrew Wiggins, Damian Lillard, Terry Rozier, Devin Booker

Assist of the Year

Winner: LeBron James -- March 11 vs. Lakers

Other nominees: Kyle Anderson, Milos Teodosic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ben Simmons

Block of the Year

Winner: Anthony Davis -- March 11 vs. Jazz

Other nominees: Kristaps Porzingis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bam Adebayo, Marquese Chriss

Handle of the Year

Winner: Kyrie Irving -- Oct. 26 vs. Bucks

Other nominees: James Harden, Kemba Walker, Josh Jackson, Chris Paul