Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks was named the winner of the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for the 2006-07 season, the NBA announced today.

Full voting results for the award are below.

The nine-year NBA veteran totaled 1,138 points, including 83 first place votes, from a panel of 129 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Players were awarded 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for each second-place vote, five for third, three for fourth and one for each fifth-place vote received.

Rounding out the top five in voting for MVP were Phoenix’s Steve Nash (1,013 points/44 first-place votes), the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (521 points/two first-place votes), San Antonio’s Tim Duncan (286 points) and Cleveland’s LeBron James (183 points).

Nowitzki is the first European-born player to win the NBA MVP Award and joins Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets (1993-94), Duncan (2001-02 and 2002-03) and Nash (2004-05 and 2005-06) on the list of international players that have captured the Podoloff Trophy.

The seven-foot forward led the Mavericks to the best-record (67-15, .817) in the NBA, tying for the sixth-best single-season winning percentage in NBA history. Nowitzki averaged team highs of 24.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and a career-best 3.4 assists while setting career-highs in field goal percentage (.502), three-point field goal percentage (.416) and free throw percentage (.904). The Mavericks were an impressive 18-1 when he scored 30 or more points.

This season marked his sixth straight NBA All-Star Game appearance and his first start in the Game, a first for a Maverick. Nowitzki was named to the All-NBA First Team for the third consecutive year.

Nowitzki was the team leader as the Mavericks became the first team in NBA history to record three streaks of 12 or more wins (12, 13 and 17) and just the fourth team ever to have three double-digit winning streaks in the same season. He was the only player in the league this season to shoot at least 50 percent from the field (.502), 40 percent from three-point range (.416) and 90 percent from the freethrow line (.904).

The NBA MVP trophy is named in honor of the late Maurice Podoloff, the first commissioner of the NBA who served from 1946 until his retirement in 1963.

The voting results are as follows:

Player, Team			1st	2nd 	3rd	4th 	5th 	Total Points
Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas		83	39	7	--	--	1138
Steve Nash, Phoenix		44	74	11	--	--	1013
Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers	2	11	65	30	9	521
Tim Duncan, San Antonio		-	3	25	39	23	286
LeBron James, Cleveland		--	--	11	31	35	183
Tracy McGrady, Houston		--	2	6	16	18	110
Chris Bosh, Toronto		--	--	3	4	16	43
Gilbert Arenas, Washington	--	--	1	4	14	31
Kevin Garnett, Minnesota	--	--	--	2	1	7
Carlos Boozer, Utah		--	--	--	1	4	7
Chauncey Billups, Detroit	--	--	--	1	1	4
Dwyane Wade, Miami		--	--	--	--	3	3
Shaquille O’Neal, Miami		--	--	--	1	--	3
Amaré Stoudemire, Phoenix	--	--	--	--	2	2
Carmelo Anthony, Denver		--	--	--	--	1	1
Baron Davis, Golden State	--	--	--	--	1	1
Tony Parker, San Antonio	--	--	--	--	1	1