Lakers: Why The MVP Award Wasn't Named After Its Most Frequent Recipient, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Earlier today, the NBA announced it had rebranded several of its end-of-year awards (in addition to adding a new one) to pay tribute to several Hall of Famers of yesteryear.
The league's Most Valuable Player trophy has been rechristened to the Michael Jordan Most Valuable Player award, named after the legendary Chicago Bulls shooting guard. But MJ is not the man who has won that hardware the most frequently -- he and Bill Russell are currently tied as the second-most all-time honorees with five wins apiece.
Los Angeles Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar still holds the current record of six MVP awards. So why didn't he nab this particular honor?
Yours truly has two operative theories.
First of all, Abdul-Jabbar, does already have an annual year-end award, the Social Justice Champion award that was first implemented last season. For the man who ranks first or second all-time in scoring and has won six titles and the aforementioned six league MVP awards, it is a bit strange that the sole NBA honor named after him only highlights his (very important) contributions to social justice. Cap is worthy of other hardware too.
Second, Abdul-Jabbar was one of the best to ever lace up a pair of sneakers, yes, but he did not have the same air of invincibility about him on the league's biggest stages as Air Jordan did. MJ went a perfect six-for-six when it came to championships, while Abdul-Jabbar went "only" six-for-ten, and was named Finals MVP in "just" half of those appearances, whereas Jordan was, indisputably, the best player on the floor every darn time.
Does that really mean that Jordan deserved the MVP naming rights over Abdul-Jabbar or Russell? Given that Russell already has a pretty valuable trophy, the Finals MVP award, named in his honor, and that Cap does have his own annual honor, it does behoove the league to get Jordan into the mix. Does this writer think Jordan was ultimately the better player than Abdul-Jabbar, and one who probably was robbed of MVP honors twice (in 1993 and 1997)? Yes, but that duo comprises the two best players in the history of the game, so really you're picking at nits.
