After Best Dunk came the announcement of Rookie of the Month.
As the only rookie to average over 20 points per game, Mitchell won Rookie of the Month without any suspense.
After Rookie of the Month came Best Block and Best Play.
The pattern of this year's award ceremony was easy enough to spot: one prestigious award followed by two fun ones.
It kept things serious without sacrificing entertainment value.
For Tatum's first showing since regaining control of the League, both fans and the media were quite satisfied.
With the earlier awards handed out one after another, only the heavyweight ones remained.
Up next was General Manager of the Year.
All three candidates had strong cases for winning it.
Little Nelson had been extremely eye-catching in the Offseason, shipping out the unstable Butler and trading for Holiday and Jokic.
A trade that had not seemed all that great at first ultimately proved to be highly successful.
The Mavericks had ultimately finished second in the Western Conference during the Regular Season, ahead of both the Warriors and Rockets.
That final record alone was enough to make Little Nelson a candidate.
Jon Horst's performance had been even more eye-catching.
In the Offseason, he brought the Big Three to the Bucks, then acquired Horford at the Trade Deadline to form a four-star lineup.
Although the Bucks had ultimately finished only third in the East, they had taken the Cavaliers to a Game 7 in the Playoffs.
For a newly assembled roster, that was already an extremely eye-catching result.
This was perhaps one of the benefits of holding the award ceremony after the season ended—the voters had more comprehensive data to consider.
Of course, the most eye-catching and most controversial of the three was Dempsey.
He assembled the Four Brothers of Hard Work and