Best Players to Never Receive an MVP Vote

While working on the recent few articles regarding MVP hypotheticals, the power rankings for the NBA at 100 list, and the best players to never finish top five in MVP voting, I regularly came across a tidbit of info about Pau Gasol and Kyrie Irving. Surprisingly, neither of them ever received an MVP vote at any point in their career¹. I had to double-check this info the first time I read it, as I felt like each of them had to have received at least one measly fifth-place vote at some point during their storied careers. And yet, it’s true, both players are MVP vote-less.

That sent me down a rabbit hole exploring other notable players who never received an MVP vote and whether Gasol or Kyrie could lay a claim to the title of best player to never receive an MVP vote. The resulting list below is more of an info dump than an analytical article or hypothetical as is usually the case on this blog, but I found the info so interesting that I wanted to share it as a quick post nonetheless. I’ll follow up with a quick review at the end, but here’s a list of the fifty players with the most win shares in NBA history to have never received an MVP vote as of this publication date².

1. Pau Gasol — 144.07 win shares
2. Horace Grant — 118.23
3. Jeff Hornacek — 108.87
4. Otis Thorpe — 106.39
5. Sam Perkins — 105.39
6. Maurice Cheeks — 103.48
7. Tyson Chandler — 102.09
8. Jason Terry — 101.99
9. Andre Miller — 100.79
10. Eddie Jones — 100.56
11. Al Horford — 100.32
12. Andre Iguodala — 100.26
13. A.C. Green — 99.46
14. Vlade Divac — 96.42
15. Paul Millsap — 95.43
16. DeAndre Jordan — 94.05
17. Rashard Lewis — 90.85
18. Hersey Hawkins — 90.62
19. Clifford Robinson — 89.73
20. Charles Oakley — 89.68
21. Dale Davis — 86.86
22. Derek Harper — 86.80
23. David West — 85.85
24. Dale Ellis — 84.69
25. Calvin Murphy — 84.12
26. Richard Jefferson — 83.03
27. Zach Randolph — 81.12
28. Cedric Maxwell — 78.51
29. Dan Majerle — 78.51
30. Stephon Marbury — 77.48
31. Lamar Odom — 76.98
32. Brad Miller — 76.51
33. Shane Battier — 75.67
34. Dick Van Arsdale — 75.22
35. Byron Scott — 75.16
36. Don Nelson — 74.57
37. Michael Cage — 74.38
38. Luol Deng — 74.04
39. Alvan Adams — 73.47
40. Kyle Korver — 73.40
41. Nene — 73.31
42. Bill Cartwright — 72.82
43. Serge Ibaka — 72.76
44. Ricky Pierce — 72.17
45. Kyrie Irving — 72.00
46. Danny Ainge — 71.51
47. Brook Lopez — 71.48
48. Shareef Abdur-Rahim — 71.19
49. Brent Barry — 70.51
50. Hot Rod Williams — 70.51

Just about every player on this list was either an all-time great role player on successful teams or an All-Star level statistical leader on bad teams. A few players like Dale Ellis, Calvin Murphy, Zach Randolph, and Stephon Marbury buck the trend as the best players on teams that experienced some success, albeit minor success, but they’re exceptions. For the most part, Pau and Kyrie stand out as the real stars among this collection of players.

And yet, it was astonishing to see Kyrie all the way down at 45 on this list. Of course, he’s still active and has time to climb, but he is also 30-years old with a long history of injury issues, as well as other impediments to his general availability, that may prevent him from making a significant climb. Regardless, win shares aren’t the penultimate gauge of a player’s success and, given that he’s one of only three players on this list to have made at least one First or Second Team All-NBA³, Kyrie certainly outshines the rest of the group in terms of star power and peak performance.

All that being said, the dearth of win shares, as well as the comparative deficit in terms of championships, All-NBA appearances, and overall statistical output in relation to Pau Gasol, is difficult to ignore even if Kyrie’s star power far exceeds that of Pau’s. Ultimately, the chasm between Gasol and Horace Grant in second place makes for a strong argument that Pau Gasol is the best player of all time to have never received an MVP vote.

¹ Obviously, Kyrie could still get one, but the odds are getting worse by the year given his age and availability concerns.

² This list excludes players whose careers took place prior to the establishment of the NBA MVP award in 1956. This pertains to players like George Mikan who technically never received an MVP vote due to the award not being available.

³ Kyrie was Second Team All-NBA once, Pau Gasol was Second Team All-NBA twice, and DeAndre Jordan was First Team All-NBA once.