NBA News: History Not On Warriors Superstar's Side In Quest For Third MVP

Steph Curry's incredible scoring tear in the month of April has rocked the NBA's Most Valuable Player race.

The Golden State Warriors superstar went on an entirely different level in his past 12 games, averaging 38.2 points per game on 52.9% field goal shooting and 47% from beyond-the-arc. This included scoring outbursts of 53, 49, 47, and 42 which he all accomplished throughout an 11-game, 30-plus point streak.

As it stands, the former two-time regular season MVP winner is now the league's scoring leader at 31.2 ppg, eclipsing Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal's 31.1.

When it comes to the MVP discussion, Curry has turned heads in just a quick span. In fact, most U.S. states have him as the MVP, at least in a recent report of Geotagged Twitter data.

However, despite the remarkable exploits of the 2015-16 unanimous MVP, history may still not be on Curry's side in his quest for a third Maurice Podoloff trophy.

As the Elias Sports Bureau notes, no player has won the MVP while playing for a team that finished seventh or lower in their conference.

Only two MVPs played for sub-.500 teams in the past: Bob Petitt in the 1955-56 season for a 33-39 St. Louis Hawks team, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the 1975-76 season playing for a 40-42 Los Angeles Lakers squad.

It is worth noting that both occurrences happened back when the league still had fewer teams. For further comparison, when Russell Westbrook won the plum in 2017, he did so for the Oklahoma City Thunder which finished 11 games above .500 and placed sixth in the Western Conference.

While it is difficult to underscore what Curry has done for the Warriors this season, it is also a general perception that winning plays a big factor when it comes to MVP voting--realistically speaking.

As of writing, the Warriors is 30-30 in the season with 12 games to spare, good for just 10th in the West.

Even if they somehow miraculously sweep their remaining games and finish 42-30, (12 games above .500), names like Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic and James Harden cannot be counted out at this point.

If anything, a second scoring title would be a good consolation for Curry, while his Warriors figure out the steps to become more competitive next year.