NBA MVP History and 2022 Prediction

Who wins the 2022 NBA MVP?

The National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player award is given to the player who has put together the most impressive regular season. This player is currently voted on by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters as well as a vote by fans. The winner gets the Maurice Podoloff trophy, a new Kia car, and a guaranteed induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. This last point is not technically a function of the award, but more an unbroken trend.

Just for fun, here are your top MVP vote-getters over time with how many times they’ve ended up in the top 5 of the vote:

*based on any nomination to the top 5 of votes

Quick History Lesson

• The MVP award was conceived in 1956 and from 1956–1980, voting was strictly conducted by the players themselves. Some argue this should still be the system.
• Since the 1981 season, the selection process was completely revamped to shift voting power to the media. The reasoning here was basically that Kareem was voted MVP 6 out of 10 years and the powers that be felt like players wouldn’t make objective selections and might organize to vote in certain…