Banning Multi-Time MVPs (Part One)

Hoops Hypotheticals
10 min readMay 15, 2022

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Editor’s Note — This article was originally published prior to the announcement of the 2022 MVP winner.

There are 14 players in NBA history who have won multiple MVP awards. Between them, they account for 45 of the 66 MVP awards bestowed by the league to date. The total number of MVPs a player wins over their career is a critical component of any debate regarding legacy and where said player stands in the hierarchy of historical greats. Today’s hypothetical flips that approach. What if the league was more egalitarian?

Let’s take those 45 wins, reduce them to 14, and spread the remainder out amongst other players to get 31 new winners.

  • Hypothetical — What if the NBA only permitted one MVP win per player?

The approach to this exercise is simple. Once a player wins an MVP, any votes they receive in subsequent years will be disregarded. Of the remaining players, the one who received the most votes each year will be crowned as hypothetical MVP for that year. Obviously, this approach is inexact since voting results over the years would change drastically if previous winners were removed from the pool of eligible candidates, but it remains an intriguing thought experiment, nonetheless.

For the years in which a player who did not win the actual trophy achieves a hypothetical win, I’ll list in parentheses where they finished in the actual MVP standings, how many first-place votes they received, and what their actual MVP award share was for that year. Throughout the results, I’m going to highlight players that haven’t previously gotten a ton of attention in earlier articles instead of revisiting players who’ve gotten recent attention elsewhere on the blog. I’ll divide these results into two separate articles with this serving as part 1 and, as usual, we’ll get started in 1956…

1950s and 60s

  • 1956 — Bob Pettit
  • 1957 — Bob Cousy
  • 1958 — Bill Russell
  • 1959 — Elgin Baylor (3rd place in actuality, 2 first-place votes, .215 award share)
  • 1960 — Wilt Chamberlain
  • 1961 — Oscar Robertson (5th place, 7 first-place votes, .184 share)
  • 1962 — Jerry West (5th place, 6 first-place votes, .141 share)
  • 1963 — Red Kerr (6th place, 1 first-place vote, .026 share)
  • 1964 — Tie-Hal Greer and Gus Johnson (6th place, 0 first place-votes, .006 share)
  • 1965 — Sam Jones (4th place, 4 first-place votes, .040 share)
  • 1966 — Jerry Lucas (5th place, 2 first-place votes, .025 share)
  • 1967 — Nate Thurmond (2nd place, 15 first-place votes, .315 share)
  • 1968 — Lenny Wilkens (2nd place, 26 first-place votes, .311 share)
  • 1969 — Wes Unseld

Given that Russell and Chamberlain monopolized MVPs in the 50s and 60s, there were a lot of trophies up for grabs in this era and we have nine players win a hypothetical award here who did not win in actuality. The name that pops out most to me is Red Kerr. Kerr narrowly finished ahead of Chamberlain in voting in 1963, yet Chamberlain still beat out Kerr to the All-NBA Second Team center spot. Kerr was 30 years-old and had been a dependable player for the Nationals for years, including their 1955 title run, though he had typically played second fiddle to his backcourt teammate and franchise icon Dolph Schayes. Schayes was clearly beginning to decline in 1963 though, even missing his first ever All-Star game¹ with the Nationals instead being represented by Kerr, Hal Greer, and Lee Shaffer. This was Kerr’s third All-Star appearance, though his numbers weren’t notably better than previous years, but still very good with15/13/2 per game splits. He was sixth in the league in rebounding, nineteenth in scoring, and thirteenth in win shares. It was the typically strong yeoman’s work that Kerr could be counted upon throughout his career, but it didn’t scream MVP. Perhaps this was the league rewarding a career’s body of work or recognizing Kerr’s role in propping up the Nationals as contenders while Schayes declined, but Hal Greer had an equally strong case in both of those areas. Regardless, Kerr was a very good player and it would’ve been a noteworthy historical quirk to see a player like him get an MVP.

Despite missing out in 1963, Hal Greer still ends up getting a hypothetical win in 1964. An MVP win for Greer would’ve been momentous for his legacy given that his play was often overshadowed by prodigious teammates, with the first half of his career overshadowed by Schayes and the second half overshadowed by Chamberlain. In the interim years between Schayes’ decline and Wilt’s arrival, Greer shined as top dog. 1963–64 was Greer’s best statistical season to that point, but he wasn’t in the top five of any major stats and the 76ers had a losing record, so it isn’t surprising to see him receive zero first-place votes this year.

A win for Gus Johnson in 1964 would’ve supplanted Wes Unseld’s 1969 win as the first ever MVP win by a rookie. Johnson’s stats were good but don’t reach the heights of Russell, Wilt, and Pettit, and his advanced numbers were never top notch. However, if you watch highlight reels of Johnson from the 60s, you will easily come to understand why he received occasional MVP buzz. His athleticism must have been revolutionary. It looked like he could outjump anyone. Given how impressive that must have been at the time, it’s little wonder to think that players and writers may have wanted to formally recognize Johnson with MVP votes and All-NBA appearances. Johnson’s role in the game’s development is under-remembered at this point.

The Celtics were dominant in the 1964–65 season, winning 62 games, yet Bill Russell (deservedly) got much of the attention and praise. In the midst of Russell’s adulation, Sam Jones quietly supplanted Bob Cousy as the second-best Celtic. Much like Greer, an MVP win for Sam Jones would’ve been mightily deserved.

Lastly, Jerry Lucas’ 1966 performance deserves some praise, as Lucas posted the best RPG season ever to this point by a player not named Russell or Chamberlain, averaging an absurd 21.1. The rest of Lucas’ box score is well-rounded but not among the best in the league, though the Royals did post a solid 45–35 record. Between Lucas, Kerr, Greer, and Jones, an obvious trend has developed of players who were second fiddle to superstars winning hypothetical MVPs when their more renowned teammates were no longer allowed to scoop up all the accolades. Will that trend continue in the 1970s?

1970s

  • 1970 — Willis Reed
  • 1971 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  • 1972 — John Havlicek (4th place, 1 first-place vote, .072 share)
  • 1973 — Dave Cowens
  • 1974 — Bob McAdoo (2nd place, 60 first-place votes, .498 share)
  • 1975 — Elvin Hayes (3rd place, 37 first-place votes, .299 share)
  • 1976 — Rick Barry (4th place, 20 first-place votes, .217 share)
  • 1977 — Bill Walton (2nd place, 29 first-place votes, .117 share)
  • 1978 — George Gervin (2nd place, 80.5 first-place votes, .338 share)
  • 1979 — Moses Malone

I love this group, as all of Havlicek, Hayes, Barry, and Gervin are probably among the top ten to fifteen players ever to not win an MVP. Additionally, a win for these players in these years would not have been a fluke, as each put together a terrific season. In fact, I think this is the least controversial of any of the reshuffled decades that we’ll see, as every other decade has at least one surprising winner resulting from the reshuffle. Not only are these players all-time greats, but they each had vintage seasons: Havlicek averaged 27/8/7 and was First Team All-Defense for a 56-win Celtics team in 1972, Hayes averaged 23/12/2 with two blocks and two steals and was Second Team All-Defense for a 60-win Bullets team in 1975, Barry averaged 21/6/6 for a 59-win Warriors team in 1976, and Gervin led the league in scoring on great efficiency for a 52-win Spurs team in 1978. It’s tough to poke holes in any of their resumes. In fact, I doubt many NBA fans would bat an eye if this was the actual list of winners from the 70s. Interestingly, this already bucks the trend from the previous decade of the hypothetical award going to players who were overshadowed by teammates in real life, as an easy case could be made for all of Havlicek, Hayes, Barry, and Gervin being the best players on their respective teams².

1980s

  • 1980 — Julius Erving (2nd place, 31.5 first-place votes, .143 share)
  • 1981 — Larry Bird (2nd place, 20 first-place votes, .613 share)
  • 1982 — Robert Parish (4th place, 4 first-place votes, .190 share)
  • 1983 — Magic Johnson (3rd place, 2 first-place votes, .406 share)
  • 1984 — Bernard King (2nd place, 11 first-place votes, .491 share)
  • 1985 — Terry Cummings (5th place, 2 first-place votes, .177 share)
  • 1986 — Dominique Wilkins (2nd place, 5 first-place votes, .522 share)
  • 1987 — Michael Jordan (2nd place, 10 first-place votes, .576 share)
  • 1988 — Charles Barkley (4th place, 1 first-place vote, .136 share)
  • 1989 — Karl Malone (3rd place, 5 first-place votes, .426 share)

The 1980s are the first decade in which there is a completely new alignment of winners. The familiar faces of Dr. J, Bird, Magic, and Jordan are present, but Barkley and Karl Malone pop up a decade earlier than real life. This results in an interesting amalgamation of the trends from the previous two decades, as Parish aligns with the trend from the 50s and 60s of hypothetical winners who were overshadowed by all-time great teammates in real life, while King, Cummings, and Nique align with the trend from the 70s of players who were unquestionably the best on their team. Interestingly, all four of the new entries in Parish, King, Cummings, and Nique shared the same obstacle to MVP glory — Larry Bird. Bird occupied the spotlight on the bulldozing Boston teams of the 80s and prevented Parish from garnering much attention as one of the league’s best players³. Similarly, Bird’s run of back-to-back-to-back MVPs from 1984 to 1986 prevented his star counterparts at forward from grabbing an MVP.

Robert Parish put together a gem of a season in 1981–82, likely the best of his career. Parish and Kevin McHale are often reductively viewed as sidekicks to Bird during the Celtics’ run of success in the 1980s, but this season is evidence that Parish was a top tier player in the early part of the decade and nearly as integral to the Celtics’ early success as Bird was. Parish was further overshadowed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Moses Malone, both of whom dominated the center position. In fact, 1982 was the only instance of the seven seasons from 1979 through 1985 in which an All-NBA center spot did not go to that duo. Parish averaged 20/11/2 with 2 blocks in 1982 while maintaining strong efficiency and posting great advanced numbers for a 63-win team. I wasn’t surprised to find that his +13 net rating included a 99 defensive rating, reflecting his defensive prowess, but I was shocked to see that he had a higher usage rate than Bird this season. In fact, Parish also had a higher usage rate in 1981, indicating that he carried a much larger load for those early 80s Celtics teams than I realized. I’m glad that Parish is still highly regarded in the modern era despite having to compete with Bird, Kareem, and Moses for attention, but this hypothetical MVP win is evidence that he likely deserved even more praise.

I briefly noted Bernard King’s 1984 season in the NBA at 100 power rankings, though it deserves some closer attention. King was already an All-Star prior to 1984, but this season was the launching pad that may have propelled him into the tier among the all-time greats had he not been subsequently injured in 1985. King averaged 26.3 points per game, good enough for fifth in the league. He also finished in the top six in the major advanced categories. The Knicks had a solid 47-win season, but King went supernova in the playoffs. He averaged 42.6 points per game in the Knicks’ opening series against the Pistons⁴. He then went punch-for-punch with Larry Bird in the Conference Semis to drive the Celtics a full seven games, cementing himself as a true rival to Bird⁵. Had he not gotten hurt in 1985, he may have had an MVP to his name.

I’ve previously discussed Cummings’ status as a forgotten man of the 1980s, which is a shame given his output over the course of his first decade in the league. 1985 was arguably his best performance and his fifth-place MVP finish was warranted. He was a new arrival on the Bucks and helped lead them to 59 wins. He was among the top ten in most advanced categories and had strong per game splits of 23/9/3. It likely wasn’t an MVP caliber season, but it was still an impressive run and deserving of recognition.

Wilkins led the league in scoring in 1986⁶ and led the Hawks to a 16-win turnaround, resulting in a 50–32 record. It wasn’t a terribly efficient 30.3 points per game, though it was talismanic, as 1986 marked the emergence of Nique as a dunking virtuoso and fan favorite. Taking into consideration Nique’s status as the undisputed star of the team and one of the faces of the league, it’s little wonder that he grabbed an MVP runner-up spot this year.

I’ll wrap things up here for now and we’ll follow this up with a second part covering the 90s, 00s, and 10s. Thanks for reading!

¹ Schayes technically was not an All-Star in his rookie season in 50, but there was no All-Star game at all that year.

² A case could be made that Havlicek and Hayes were actually co-best or second best on their teams, as Dave Cowens and Wes Unseld were both also among the best in the league at the time.

³ The same can be said for Kevin McHale, who was unfortunate to miss out on a hypothetical win in this exercise. Parish was the undisputed number two to Bird in 1982 with a young McHale settling into his role, but the roles flipped in 1987 with McHale becoming the clear number two. McHale finished fourth in voting that year behind Bird in third.

⁴ Seriously, this series is crazy. King went for 36 points on 15 of 26 shooting in a one-point win in game one, 46 on 18 of 35 shooting in a game two loss, 46 on 19 of 27 shooting in a game three win, 41 on 15 of 25 shooting in a game four loss, and 44 on 17 on 26 shooting in a decisive game five win. Altogether, that’s 42.6 ppg on 60% shooting from the field. He also averaged 8 rebounds per game and 2 assists per game, had a +18 net rating, and an average game score of 31.7, amazing stuff!

⁵ Although King didn’t match the stratospheric totals of the opening round, he still averaged a terrific 29.1 ppg while maintaining solid efficiency.

⁶ Although he was second to Adrian Dantley in per possession scoring.

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