The first annual NBA Awards were held Monday night. The Warriors were up for several categories and won almost all of them, aside from Andre Iguodala losing Sixth Man of the Year to Eric Gordon (HOU) by three votes.

Winners:

Draymond Green won Defensive Player of the Year!

Bob Myers won Executive of the Year for the second time. Because when you lose in the Finals only to bounce back, get Kevin Durant and nearly sweep the playoffs the following year, of course you win Executive of the Year.

Other big winners of the night:

• Russell Westbrook (OKC) won the hotly debated MVP Award
• Malcolm Brogdon (MIL) won Rookie of the Year
• Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL) won Most Improved Player
• Mike D’Antoni (HOU) won Coach of the Year

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Fan Votes

Stephen Curry and Draymond Green won Assist of the Year:

Klay Thompson won Performance of the Year:

And Kevin Durant won Best Playoff Performance:

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Standout Moments

Bill Russell was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award and had the best line of the night:

Also honored during the ceremony was Monty Williams, who took home the first ever Sager Strong Award in memory of Craig Sager, who passed away this season after a lengthy battle with leukemia.

Williams was given this in honor of his strength and compassion during the loss of his wife that best exemplify the ideals and traits that made Craig Sager as beloved as he was.

Williams was awarded with a very Craig Sager jacket that makes anyone look better, and gave this moving speech:

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Low-Lights

Draymond Green’s shorts. Tell me I’m wrong.

Nicki Minaj performed and it was good. However, considering she was the only musical act, it didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the night’s events. The night was already somewhat scattered without it.

Maybe they should consider getting two musical acts and cutting down on the NBA on TNT Panel segments, which felt unnecessarily long, especially considering that the show ran over.

Drake as a host was small hits and huge misses. He and Will Ferrell had a couple of skits where they pretended to be coaches, but for handshakes. By the second skit the joke was flat, but it wasn’t terrible. He had a couple of jokes for Dub Nation as well, this was my personal favorite:

However, he veered way off track in a skit about Stephen and Ayesha Curry, basically comparing Ayesha to both the mom and the daughter from Get Out, brainwashing Steph to keep him from having fun. If you haven’t seen Get Out, you really should. And if you have, you know that this was doing a bit much.

The camera cut to Drake and Draymond Green immediately after the skit aired, amid tepid applause and a lot of awkward silence. Drake asks, “We good?” Green shakes his head. When asked again if he thought it was funny, Green changes the topic to Drake’s shoes.

One thing in Drake’s favor - his date to the event, Warriors sideline reporter Rosalyn Gold-Onwude.

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On the whole, it was an okay production. It was kind of nice to have all of the awards announced at one time, especially those awards that receive less attention, though it came at the expense of Westbrook not getting the full MVP treatment in front of his teammates and family. The tributes were a great touch, however, and the format shows promise - despite the lengthy delay in getting the results..