Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown has been named the NBA coach of the year after leading his team to the league’s best record.

“When you win an award like this, you can’t do it by yourself, you have to have some great people around you,” Brown said. “I feel really fortunate to be around this group of players. I look at this as a partnership.”

Coach Brown received 55 first place votes out of a possible 122 from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters.

“Mike Brown is a critical element as to why our franchise is growing into the kind of success we all envisioned and hoped to achieve,” Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert said. “There is no man more deserving and it proves to the world that, yes, nice guys can indeed finish first.”