The Final 2021 NBA Playoff MVP Ladder
Giannis Antetokounmpo won Finals MVP, but was he also the deserving Playoff MVP? And where do the Suns stack up?
THE 2021 NBA FINALS HAVE WRAPPED, and the Milwaukee Bucks are NBA champions. Punctuated by 50 points from Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks are champs for the first time in exactly 50 years: a perfect 50 for 50. Antetokounmpo was magnificent in the finale, with one of the greatest NBA-title-clinching performances of all time, rightfully earning the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player award — or, as we often call it, Finals MVP.
But the NBA Finals comprise just two weeks of an eternal two-month playoffs, and Finals MVP almost always goes to a guy on the championship team, usually based mostly on those final four wins. Why are we basing our only individual playoff award on four games when we play over 80 games most years? What if the best guy in the playoffs didn’t actually win the NBA Finals? What if he never even made it there?
We should have a Playoff MVP, not just a Finals MVP. Let’s treat the playoffs like what they are — their own separate mini-season. Jrue Holiday just played 912 playoff minutes; he played 1907 in the regular season, meaning the playoffs were almost half of a full regular season for Holiday, with minutes at the…
