With what might likely be the craziest season in recent memory coming to an end, it’s time to hand out the end of season hardware. And much like the regular season, a lot of these awards are going to be highly contested, and why not.

In the most hectic season in a while, you wouldn’t expect anything less but a competitive race in a good amount of the awards. So without further a due, it’s time to hand out the hardware.

 

Surprise of the Year: The Western Conference

At the beginning of the year, anyone would have told you that the West would be good. And why not, they’ve been the superior conference for years now and no team really lost anything during the offseason aside from the rebuilding Seattle Supersonics.

Now, if you’d have told me it’d be this good, I would have called you crazy.

I don’t recall the last time we saw eight 50 win teams in one conference, but that’s what we got this year. Aside from that, we even had a 48 win team miss the playoffs. To put this in perspective, any of the top nine seeds out West could have gotten home court advantage in the East, and the top 11 teams in the West could have all made the playoffs out East. If you want to talk about competitive, that’s it right there.

Disappointment of the Year: The Chicago Bulls

Is there really any question here? The Bulls were supposed to be a team that could compete with the Pistons and Celtics for the best record in the East. Instead, they fire head coach Scott Skiles, hire a completely inept coach in Jim Boylan, trade away their big free agent acquisition from the year before, and end up completely tanking. So, instead of competing with the Pistons and Celtics for the top team in the East, they’ll be competing with the likes of Memphis and the Knicks for the top pick in the NBA Draft.

 

Defensive Player of the Year: Marcus Camby

While some may argue for Kevin Garnett because of the turnaround his team made, how can you not give it to Camby? He led the league in blocks again and was near the top in rebounding. People will say he shouldn’t win the award because of how bad Denver is defensively, but it’s certainly not his fault. In fact, if he’s not there, they’re probably even worse. So, even though his team may be inept on defense, it’s certainly not his fault, and he should be recognized for the outstanding job he does on that end of the floor.

 

Coach of the Year:

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?