It only took him 6 Finals appearances for voters to realize, but Steph Curry finally has some individual hardware to show for it.

This season, the NBA announced they’d be selecting Most Valuable Players from both Conference Finals. The awards are named for Celtics legend Larry Bird in the East, and second greatest point guard ever Magic Johnson in the West. Naturally, the first time someone wins an MVP with Magic’s name on it, it has to be the one point guard who’s regarded by a great many as just an echelon above him.

Steph’s WCF MVP trophy comes on the back of 23.8 points per game, 6.6 rebounds per game, and 7.4 assists per game on 44% from the field, 43% from three, and 84% from the free throw line. Steph pitched in a lot of balanced efforts this series, and had one outlier of a game tonight due to the Mavericks gameplanning for him, and practically only him. With Steph seeing hard hedges and doubles at half-court whenever he had the ball late in the shotclock, it was Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole who benefitted, shooting 8-for-16 from downtown and 6-for-8 from the field respectively.

Despite numbers that wouldn’t indicate as great of a performance as he was awarded for tonight, Curry was the best player in this series, elevating his teammates by unlocking space around the floor. He got his too, putting up multiple 30-point games and dishing an assist average a whole 1.3 assists per game greater than his typical conference finals performances.

As a result of this series, it’s become clear that when healthy, the West still runs through San Francisco. Steph and company have been dominant, 18-0 in the Steve Kerr era when playing in the WCF. There hasn’t been a squad to accomplish such a feat together since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen’s Bulls, now arguably the greatest dynasty of all-time should the Warriors complete the tear they’re on.

Regardless of who Golden State faces in the next round, they can only hope to contain Curry: They’ll be squaring off with the #2 or #3 defense in the league with the Celtics and Heat finishing up their series. While both have premier perimeter defenders in Marcus Smart and Jimmy Butler, Steph has proven time and time again that it’ll take a team effort to even slow him down, which means guys like Klay and JP will have free reign to get theirs whenever Steph gets sold out on.

Congratulations to Steph Curry for his 2022 Western Conference Finals MVP, an award that could easily be named after him one day, and here’s to another run back to the NBA Finals!

(Photo credit: Tom Pennington / Getty Images)