For those of you who have been following the series so far, the brand new content is the 60s, which begins at 1:38. Also new is 2020-2022, which begins at 1:13:38. Which ones do you disagree with?
Congratulation for the video Jonny, but for me you should've mention more details about Jokic's 2022 season like you did for other players. Jokic had that season the greatest per in NBA history beating Wilt Chamberlain(32,8), he also had the greatest +/- in NBA history beating both Michael Jordan and Lebron James (13,8), he had most triple doubles in the league, led the league in winshares and had higher true shooting than every other player who averaged at least 25 points that season (66,1%, 2nd highest after Curry's unanimous MVP season). He was also the only player in NBA history to ein MVP averaging at least 25 points and 58% from the field. Kareem never did it, Shaq never did it, Wilt never did it, but Jokic did. Also he became the only player with 2000 points, 1000 rebojndsand 500 assists and maybe none other player would be able to acomplish that. Truly one of the greatest regular seasons of all time. I honestly thought you would spent more time explaining that Jokic's season, but still congratulations for this video.
Kareem being a 9 time MVP and Jordan an 8 time MVP sounds about right. But I’d let Jordan keep the ‘98 MVP given the amount of adversity his team faced that year with the impending break up of the dynasty, Pippen missing 38 games, Rodman’s decline and the fact that the Bulls were going for their third straight chip as the oldest team in the league and they all must have been fatigued.
You think the jazz actually made it or the refs cheated? Be honest! They know it’s Jordan’s lady year, they couldn’t beat the Lakers if they made it there! Lakers should have had a 4 peat! And as far as Jordan, everyone forgets that he pushed off Russell to get that last shot! 💯😂😂😂😂😂
@@atron4535OL Jordan would’ve shit all over Shaq like he did before and Kobe was not actual Kobe then. They were not a deep team and didn’t have Phil Jackson. Bulls in 4
I wish it was possible to give official retroactive DPOYs for Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Walt Frazier, Bobby Jones, and other greats from the pre-DPOY NBA.
I'll be honest... I didn't realize how phenomenal Jerry West was. I'm not fortunate enough to have seen him play, but man, he sounds like an absolute baller. Didn't know he was an all time great defender as well. I'll definitely have to read up more on him. Great video!
As I have started to look more into players of the 60's and 70's including footage, Jerry West really stands out as someone that with small adjustments could be a top 5 player of say the past 20 years. You have to keep in mind the league didn't allow much in the dribbling department -- they had to dribble more stiffly due to the rules. He had a very quick shot which would allow him to get his shot off. he was also one of the best 15-20ft jump shooters ever -- that was his game and yet he shot a great fg% for a jump shooter. he likely would be a great 3pt shooter. He was a very good passer. He was also a very good defender and had quick hands allowing him to steal. The didn't keep track of steals until his final year at age 35 and he averaged 2.6stl, just 0.1stl fewer than the league leader. And more evidence to his great skill...When Kareem was in his early part of his peak early 70's, old man Jerry age 33 was nearly 26pts 10ast (lead the league) 55%TS (1.08 relative true shootin) and won the championship on the 69 win team.
You definitely should check him out! West put up Curry numbers offensively without a 3 point line while being damn near Gary Payton level defensively. The only reason he did not win more championships was the absolutely loaded 60s Celtics...
I like the video. But the MVP shouldn't be given to the best player. Because the best player isn't always the most valuable, that being said the way they do it now doesn't make much sense either
@@gamexsimmonds3581 There's a pretty big campaign to always automatically give the regular season Most Valuable Player award to the highest scorer on the team with the best record. Which usually means that the most selfish player on the team with the most all-star level players automatically gets the award. Defense doesn't matter at all, assists don't matter, and no other stat but points means nothing. Shooting percentage doesn't matter at all.
Oscar Robertson had some phenomenal seasons thru his career (Chamberlain numbers was just bananas even when he wasn't leading league in scoring 24 points, 24 rebounds 7 assist and league MVP along with championship, doesn't get any better than that)
@@shuutsukiyama1553 lets add the fact that Lebron produced half of his points with offensive faults, with his buldozer and pushoffs with his offhand style of play close to the basket
I've said it before, I'll say it again, this is the best NBA RUclipsr in the game. It's always about sports, always informative, and always well researched. Great job and thank you for your service. 👍🏾
@@rajathnayak5624 jimmy has pretty editing and a nice video style but is actually so unbelievably garbage at actual bball analysis. He was telling people that Jokic was a dpoy level player, tried to compare lbj and mj by literally just adding up points rbs and ast, makes 15 minute videos about how basically giannis, joel and jokic have a high per (a very bad and misleading stat which heavily favours bigs btw) and doesn't even have Wilt top 10 all time. I can name so many other things he does which are stupid but what i hate the most is how he acts like a bball intellectual and and condescendingly calls people casuals when he is far below them in bball knowledge.
@@rajathnayak5624 nah he stretches graphics to make them look insane, uses stats that don't reflect the whole picture but fit the agende and stuff like that
@Mustafa Tufan look at the defensive stats. They're trash, not one person even avg over 2 steals a game. Jordan would have won at least 5 dpoy awards, shaq would have had 40 ppg as nobody can defend the paint at all, and he would just dunk on every possession
Obviously I have some disagreements but this was phenomenal! I love how you actually include both sides of the ball and not just offense. Too many people only focus on the offensive side it’s crazy
@@Trvllclinton I don’t remember who he said for each year from 9 months ago. I disagreed with like 3 or 5 of them. Out of 60+ that’s still a lot to agree on lol
I think my one problem with this is that you're over-valuing guard defense. It has its values, I'd always take a good defender over a bad one, but for a lot of the Kobe years, especially the one where you pick him over Duncan, you're valuing both of their defensive contributions similarly when Duncan being the best paint defender is way more valuable. Duncan could effect almost any shot taken at the rim, Kobe could help occasionally on those shots but was mostly only valuable when ball-hawking for steals or when the action came to him. I think using defense as a separator when both players play the same position is alright, I just think that rim protection is the most valuable part of defense. Especially in the early 2000s and before, when three-point shooting was still uncommon.
@@nickpeitchev7763 I'm not saying that Kobe was a bad defender, defense at the rim is just much more valuable than clamping one guy, you can affect a lot more shots.
even post defense... its an important part of the game, but you cant go its 50/50 in terms of value and importance. im sure nobodys gonna say that rudy gobert is as important as jokic cause hes good defender or that tyson chandler was as valuable as dirk for those 2011 mavs that won the title.
How about a video on if the MVP was given for the whole entire season, postseason included. Like for example in 2007 Dirk got MVP, but was eliminated early, so I'd say Lebron was MVP for entire 2007 season, but in 2009 when he got MVP, then Kobe should've been it for all 2009.
That would be awesome lol, imagine if the nba actaully did that. If it's a clear cut mvp, Give it at the start of the playoffs, but if it's a really tight race, then do your idea 🔥
@@nataliapaembonan785 I think 2011 is the hardest choice. You really can't choose who was the best player that year. If you combine both regular season and play off, Lebron had better stats than Rose in regular season and he made the finals while Rose lost in first round, but on the other hand Lebron had the best team in the league and they could win easily title that year, but Lebron was terrible in those finals and Miami lost because of him. Soo you can say that Dirk won finals MVP, but when you look Wade's stats in those finals Wade was by far superior player. He averaged mor points, more assists, more steals, more blocks and was waay more efficient than Dirk. Soo I think 2011 was the year where NBA hadn't clearly the best player in the league that entire season. All of them had some great moments and some bad moments, nobody was on top.
He does not d ride LeBron. Kobe is his favorite player and he's a Jordan is the GOAT guy. Like he himself says. If your objective about Jordan people call you a Jordan stan. You're fair with LeBron and people say you're riding his d.
Wilt - what a tremendous player, athlete, and dominant force. He was the reason that all the teams he played on won like they did! Hard to vote against Wilt for the G.O.A.T.!!!
It's actually not do you see the way they dribbled? How slow they are with the ball? Playing loosely on passing lanes. They honestly look like middle schoolers. Two different leagues then and now, so no i don't think wilt a goat
@@dr_ogm4dness680 You're discounting the advantage that players now have. Give Wilt that same advantage and he would easily dominate any era. The man was a master athlete well past his retirement as well. He could do anything. There's lots of documentaries about that. Think Shaq power, Giannis/Lebron athleticism, guard level passing later on, and the stamina of Karl Malone/Kobe. The dude scored 100 points in a game, for crying out loud. That's hard to do even with nobody guarding you. 😂
@@dr_ogm4dness680 the plays that they ran are still the same for many players from high school to college to the nba. They just played extremely fast paced
@@dr_ogm4dness680 are you dumb? The rules forced them to dribble that way. If you dribble like today, it would be a travel. It is two different leagues because it is two different rules. Wilt had the Dirk fadeaway with the strength of Shaq. Casual. But hey, you said middle schoolers instead of plumbers. At least we making progress on that front.
Haven't watched the full video yet but Wilt's season with 50.4ppg-25.7rpg and the historic 100pts game being snubbed for MVP is probably one of , if not the biggest and wildest MVP snub in League history.
60s NBA don't get enough love coz of few teams but West, Baylor, Oscar and Wilt would dominate ANY era and I am sure of that. Phenomenal efficiency and durability in a time when it was hard to do so.
They definitely wouldn't lmao they'd be trash today and would not even be playing in the nba honestly college and highschool players today are more skilled
Some of the work you guys put in on RUclips would earn you a Masters degree. PROPS! LIKED AND ALREADY SUBBED! What a video! History is such a goldmine for youtubers imo.
Yeah. Luckily, though, one person found 447 box scores from Wilt’s career, where he averaged about 11.3 Blocks per game. In a more official study with 112 games Wilt averaged 8.8 Blocks, and Russell averaged 8.1. Hopes this helps!
I mean... Nash is possibly one of the best leaders and passers in NBA history. Should he have gotten those MVPs compared to the other talent? No, probably not. But I think without them his impact would've been mostly forgotten about, and those Phoenix teams ain't the same without him. Kobe and Shaq both combined for two, and they're still discussed as goats. So, as a Nash sympathizer, I'm glad he got them... Even tho he shouldn't have them for at least one of those seasons
nash deserved 1 mvp, shaq deserved 2, kobe deserved 0... and im not hating on kobe, hes a great player and in my top 10 of all time, but there really wasnt a season where he met all criteria to be the mvp.. in 06, he was the best player in the league in my opinion, however his team was a 7 seed, and he wasnt far enough ahead of everyone else to break a 35 year trend... in 08, his real mvp season, sure he had a great year, but chris paul had one of the best point guard seasons of all time and had more wins, and in my opinion deserved that mvp, kobe won it because the media realized he had 0 up till then and didnt want him to retire with no mvps as for shaq and nash, nash deserved at least 1 of his mvps, and shaq deserved both the 00 and 01 mvps, yes i love ai, but being real, shaq was a much better defender, they had similar team records, and shaq was way more efficient and dominant on offense, ai won it because he had the better story
@@steezsteezsteez because thats the norm, the last time an mvp was on a team that wasnt a top 3 seed before kobe was in the 1970s, kobe wasnt far ahead enough of everyone else to break that norm, even tho he was the best player in the league
Great vid as always. Very nice to see the 60s. I think it really helps to put into perspective why each wilt, Kareem, mj and Bron are considered to be the best in their respective eras.
I have tremendous respect for Bill Russel. He's the greatest winner in team sports and is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, defenders of all time. Not to mention a civil rights icon. But he didn't deserve his MVPs. It's a classic case of team success over individual talent, which I never understood. I don't understand people like Charles Barkley who insist the award should be given to the best player on the best team. Where in the world does it say that?! You can't just make up rules for a set-in-stone and well-defined criteria: "Most Valuable Player"; not "MVP on the best team" or "Most Valuable Nerrative" etc. How is it the player's achievement or fault that he is on a tremendous or trashy team? Kobe post-Shaq, was clearly the best player in the NBA but wasn't even top 5 in MVP voting because of people who like to play board games with made-up roles. When Bill Russel is eclipsed in EVERY statistical category by multiple people like Wilt, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Walt Bellamy, etc., you start to question the award. Since blocks and steals weren't recorded until the 73-74 season, and analytics and advanced metrics weren't reliably recorded until the late 70s, it's the only thing to go by. Even his 1958 MVP should have gone to someone like Bob Pettit, or the highly underrated and forgotten George Yardley, who had his most outstanding season by far. Even if you consider Bill's defense and rebounding, it's still not enough; it would be the equivalent of giving Dennis Rodman the MVP.
Agree 100%. Russell was a great player but he played with great teammates and was coached by Red Auerbach. Hondo went on to win a couple rings in the 70s without him.
@@yippee-ki-yay9925 Absolutely. I'm always surprised that when people think of the 60's Celtics, they immediately think of Bill and usually can't name anyone else, even though he played with ten, yes, TEN future Hall Of Famers.
Because the logic is that if you're really valuable to your team, they would be successful. I agree though that Bill Russell probably didn't deserve his MVPs, mostly due to his lack of offense.
@@x-man9473 But wouldn't it make sense to compare something like box +- or win shares or something? You're comparing the player's impact on his team REGARDLESS of total wins and losses. Look at MJ early in his career: drafted by an awful team and played alongside mostly crackheads in a highly competitive era. It's not on him that they had terrible records, as he still balled out.
When did Kobe’s defense decline in your opinion? I’ve heard some say he was better earlier, and didn’t deserve the last few all defensive team selections.
@@fortynights1513 04-07 he was coasting 08-10 was a slight improvement but there was a slight decline as he has trouble keeping up with off-ball players. 11-12 he did not deserve a 1st team & 2nd team selections respectively so if we're going by his undeserve All Defensive Selections it would be 04, 06, 07, 11 & 12.
@@fortynights1513 if we're being honest, sure kobe was a decent perimeter and on ball defender, but hes not the "all time great defender" that many people talk about him as, and he didnt deserve a lot of his all defensive team appearances
*@G.O.A.T.* Statistically speaking 2002-03 was probably Kobe's best year of his career, but Duncan was still slightly better imo. In 2002-03 Duncan performed one of the top 3 carry jobs in NBA history imo.
I'm from the UK, I only understand enough about the NBA that I named my son Jordan after the finals were televised here in 1998, but bro this was a great video, I was hooked all the way through.
I know you only looked at NBA but I think it's worth including ABA in the 70s since it was a separate major pro league and had some of the best players at the time. Dr J probably gets the nod over Kareem in a couple of those years.
I had a friend/mentor who used to say everyone has forgotten Moses Malone. great video I like analysis like this taking the popularity or voter fatigue out of the equation.
Your criteria seems to be who had the best stats. While stats are important, the object of the game is to win championships. There was a reason that the players voted for Russell. He was the catalyst that led to titles. He took a no-name college program to two NCAA championships. Won an Olympic gold medal. On becoming a pro, he immediately elevated his team to championship status. The only time the Celtics lost in the finals was when Russell was injured. Any team in the league would have gladly swapped their MVP for him. That includes Chamberlain and Robertson. I was lucky enough to see all three of them play. I agree that they were more talented, but they were not valuable.
Well stated. You notice there is NOTHING to be said about your comment. The facts stand on their own. They play to win championships and Russell is clearly the reason the Celtics won, period. Stats and awards are the 'participation trophies' for losers.
To be honest, I think Julius Erving should have kept his MVP in 1981 because he had more of an all-around season than KAJ with 2 steals and blocks a game that year and he only lost the All-Defensive nod to two of his teammates, and he comparable WS and WS per 48 minutes to KAJ that year even if I ignore their record.
I can reasonably argue the “missing your counterpart on your team/carrying” narrative for Kareem in 81’, knowing he lead the league in WS and his level of play with Magic missing that extended amount of time in the middle of the season. With Magic in the lineup, they were 26-11. Without him in 45 Games; 28-17. In those 45 Games, Kareem was 29/11/3 with 3 BPG on 62% TS (+9) 11/20 FG (58%) + 6/8 FT per game (79%) Magic came back averaging 22/9/9 on 58% TS (+5) in the last 17 games 8/16 FG (53%) + 5/7 FT (73%) per game, after starting the first 20 games with 21/8/9/3/1 on 58% TS (+5) 9/16 FG (53%) + 4/5 FT (79%) per game ⏺️Should be noted in the 2 games Kareem missed in 1981 RS, Magic was 2-0 averaging 22/9/11/6/1 on 44% TS (17/42 FGM + 10/18 FTM)
Personally I think I would go Larry bird in 87 but Mj right there so it don’t matter either way really also I feel as Lebron should get the edge over kd in 2014 because you didn’t mention defense and while kd had almost 50, 40 Lebron had 56% shooting and this is coming from a rockets fan that agrees with harden not winning 17,18,19. LOVE THE VIDEO!
Some people say Nash deserved those MVPs. I break it down like this... Imagine you were in a coma for 25 years and you wake up... Youre talking to a friend. Getting updated on basketball history. "So this guy Nash won 2 MVPs in a row and was 2nd place the 3rd year. He must have been great." "Yeah." "Well defense is half the game. Must have been a great defender to almost win 3?" "Uh, no. He was terrible. All time bad actually. Total liability. One of the worst defenders of his era." "Huh. Well he must have been one hell of a scorer!" "Well... 15 PPG." "Huh." "But that's inflated because his team had so many possessions because of their play style... It's more like 11-12 PPG." "Huh. Well his team. They must have won the championships those years?" "Uh, no. Nash wasn't very successful in the playoffs." "Well he must have had some pretty thin competition then..." "Well no. He was up against the most dominant player of his era one year and maybe the best personal offensive season since Wilt the second. The guy scored 35 PPG and made all NBA defensive first team. Scored 81 points on one game." "Huh." "Huh." "Huh." "Yeah."
This goes to show that Kareem remains #2 behind only MJ. BOTH have 6 rings, MJ 6finals MVPs, KAJ 6 reg season MVPs. KAJ 38k MJ on 33k tl pts. MJ 10 KAJ 2 Scoring titles a lot more
I've been waiting loong time for this😍😍😍😍😍these MVP videos are my favourite NBA videos. I would like to wait until this season finish and than make another video about Finals MVPs 😁😁. For now, I want to thank you for your content and your interesting videos.
@jonnyarnett at the 1:15:37 mark, with the master list displayed, you still have Iverson with the MVP in 2001 as new, but you gave it to Shaq when expalining. Great vid though, as usual…
My criticism of this re-evaluation of the MVP awards is that insane stats generally favour players who have high offensive win shares but not as much defensive win shares. Wilt had better stats than Bill Russell except in rebounds, Shaq had better stats than Tim Duncan, but Russell and Duncan have higher defensive win shares and more championships.
Not that my opinion matters a bit, but there are few youtube vids that I pretty much agree with. If one was gonna disagree, they really should have been there, or put in the work to have valid input. I was a pretty big Cavs fan from the early 70s to the mid 90s and even though I was NO Bulls/MJ supporter, I remember thinking how it was annual folly to give the MVP to anyone but MJ. He was like an alien in his impossible abilities. Glad to see Moses recognized too. He had a few year stretch that he rivaled anyone, ever, on impact. Just an outstanding job young man!
My picks are 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963: Wilt C 1964, 1965: Oscar Robertson 1966: Jerry West (though maybe Oscar is tied) 1967: Wilt 1968: Wilt (but Oscar might be tied) 1969: Jerry West 1970: Jerry West
@@Sf75178 I wish Jonny would have used that in his video. He seemed to just do rough estimates by pointing out the minutes played but he left it at that.
@@fortynights1513 Well, much of Russell's value doesn't show up. I find him interesting in how people evaluate him. In 95 out of 100 teams, Wilt is the better player to improve the team than Bill. Bill is only top top 10 goat level if he's on a team that has several very good scoring options and they need a defensive rim protector and rebounder. So basically the Celtics team he was on is about the most perfect fit for him. Statistically speaking, the 1959-60 season was his best season at 11.3pts 14.9reb 2.3ast 49.6% because it was his highest TS% when scoring over 10 pts per 75 and he it's his highest relative true shooting%. HIs scoring is is also much closer to the league leaders at this point. He would also be in his physical peak so likely at his defensive peak. I don't know if he deserves MVPs because that depends so much on how you judge that award. The team absolutely needs him because they focused on scoring options at other positions and he was the defensive anchor. But replace him and Wilt or Oscar Robertson or Jerry West with just a borderline allstars of that position, I don't think Bill's team would suffer the most in many of those years. A lot of people make a huge deal how the Celtics went from Championship in 1969 with Bill to no playoffs in 1970 without Bill. But the Celtics also lost top 75 great Sam Jones. He was a leading scorer on mid 60's celtics and scored 16.3pts on that 1969 team. In addition, the team was getting with players that remained. The top scorer was John Havlicek at age 28 and he kept improving but 2nd top scorer on 1969 team was Bailey Howell at 19.7pts at age 32. In 1970 he was 12.pts at age 33 and then went to another team to play his last year at age 34 with 10.7pts. He was aging. The 69 Celts 4, 5 and 6th highest scorers turned 30, 29, 31 years of age in 1970.
Say word Jerry West was that nice🥶🥶. Sometimes I wish I was old enough to watch basketball trailblazers play like West, Baylor, The Iceman, Jordan (in the 80s-90s), Big O and all that.
It’s insane watching this video that Elgin Baylor despite his numbers still wouldn’t have won a mvp with this criteria and that Shaq and Kobe never won more 1. Also, Shaq never averaging more 30 in a season is mind boggling
Shaq is overrated. Extremely underwhelming on defense. No way this guy said he was more impactful defensively than Allen Iverson. AI led the league in steals thrice which is an incredible feat for his position. Shaq never led the league in either rebounds or blocks as a 7 footer, nor steals for that matter. And his defensive team selections hold little weight considering that the raw and objective evidence points towards other players, including Iverson, being more valuable on the defensive end, whether frankly or simply at their relative positions.
@@officialconch I’ve heard some argue that Shaq was good defensively in his first three seasons or so, then didn’t put as much effort on that end, and couldn’t keep up on the perimeter. Considering the raw talent he had, he underachieved in some ways (as you said, never led in rebounding or blocks). The fact that he had his all defensive team selections in LA and not Orlando might say more about the field of centers in 2000 and 2001 than him though because people seem to agree that he was better defensively in Orlando, and he didn’t get the accolade when the field of centers was stronger. Not sure if I’d call Shaq significantly overrated (he’s labeled lower half of the top ten overall by most in my experience), but he certainly underachieved for a player on his level of talent. He does however have 12 seasons where he averaged at least 22 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks and on 55% from the field or better, and was considered the number one option on three championship teams, a fourth finals team, and depending on your interpretation, one or two other conference finals teams (I’ve heard some say his first Miami season he was the number one option, but not sold either way). What do you think?
@@fortynights1513 I just meant overrated defensively. His defense isn’t enough to take away Iverson’s MVP IMO. I made some points in another comment but I’ll repeat those sentiments here: To say Shaq dominated both ends better than Iverson is a little misguided in my opinion. Consider that in 2001, the Lakers ranked 21st in defense compared to the Sixers who were 5th. Of course some will argue this was due to Dikembe Mutombo’s presence on the roster (or Theo Ratliff before the trade), but Iverson also had a lower (or better) defensive rating than Shaq that season and his individual defensive rating was better than everyone on his own roster outside of Mutombo/Ratliff, George Lynch, and Jumaine Jones. In fact, he ranked 3rd among shooting guards in the league, and would’ve been 2nd if you considered him a PG. But Eric Snow, the Sixers starting PG, wasn’t even in the top 25 and Jason Terry, who played the vast majority of the season with Mutombo in Atlanta, was only 24th among SG’s. So no, Iverson wasn’t merely benefitting from the help defense of his front court. In comparison, Shaq was 10th among centers. So, Iverson was even a better defender at his position than Shaq.
@@officialconch That kind of goes against what I hear people say about Iverson. I typically hear people say that he was mediocre defensively outside of the steals, and people seem to imply that he had no all around game outside of scoring which he did inefficiently. Out of curiosity could it be argued that Shaq was better defensively in Orlando?
@@fortynights1513 Well yeah, unfortunately a lot of people have skewed the perception of Iverson from what those of us who witnessed it could see and feel. I’m not saying Iverson was an elite marksmen, but he was more of a streaky shooter than an “inefficient shot chucker” who just couldn’t hit the mark. Any time he was surrounded by sufficient offensive help (his last 1.5 seasons in Philly and the Denver experiment), it was very apparent that his shooting woes were a result of the system he played in. Going 47/40/90 and averaging 31 points and 10 assists against the defending champion, defensive minded Pistons in 2005-(same team that just shut down Shaq and Kobe in the finals and held Kobe to below 40% from the field)- is an example that, when surrounded by talent, Iverson was no where near as inefficient as people make him out to be. He could shoot! I will say, after handchecking was completely abolished and as he entered the second half of his career, he did became a poorer defender (even though I think the rule change equally affected other undersized players) Now onto Shaq, I think the perception around his defense is just his domineering appearance. But I can see the argument that, even if he never LED the league in any defensive category, he was consistently near the top, along with his offensive dominance which could be head and shoulders above others. This would lead to people saying he was an elite two-way presence. It’s no coincidence that after the downfall of Hakeeem, the Admiral, and Patrick Ewing, that’s when Shaq’s reign really started. And his prime was unfortunately very short lived because of his poor work ethic. He was a good post defender, but never the best at his position. I think that, had those other centers played with a player as gifted as Kobe, they would have several more championships. Shaq’s ego was too big for his lack of work ethic and lack of effort to improve defensively. He should have at least led the league in rebounds a few seasons. Honestly, the only thing different about Orlando Shaq was his weight and speed. Imagine Giannis if he was slightly worse defensively but slightly better offensively
Cant believe Shaq lost to Iverson that year. 42% to 57% shooting. Tons of rebounds. He even had almost as many assists. Plus he actually played defense. Pretty well.
Really interesting and in-depth watch! For the eras in which we have better defensive stats like Defensive Plus/Minus, I'd much rather look at those than who got selected, often erroneously, to all-defensive teams, which are just as narrative-driven as MVP awards. It's one thing for the eras where we just don't have the advanced stats to analyze this stuff, but once those numbers are available, if you're going to rate MVP candidates based on their numbers, it ought to go both ways. I think this only really mattered for you rating Kobe over Dirk, Duncan or Garnett in the mid-2000s. Kobe's defense actually looks worse than Dirk's in 2007 by just about every metric (DBPM, DWS). Garnett, unsurprisingly, was even better. Looking at the overall numbers, I'd say Nash's MVPs should have gone to Garnett or Duncan in 2005 and Dirk in 2006, and Dirk kept his MVP in 2007.
I think team success absolutely has to be included (and weighted heavily) when discussing an MVP. The game goes beyond raw stats. There’s a lot more to sports than that. When you talk about “value” to a team, you have to look at a lot of factors.
wins should definitely be a factor, mainly because it's a lot easier to stat-pad on a losing team. like when Adrian Dantley went from the mediocre Jazz to contender Pistons his scoring dropped dramatically.
@@uberneanderthal Detroit already had scorers. They needed only 19 from AD. They were getting 19 from both Thomas and Dumars. That team had many players who could score when needed. Its about fitting into the system as well. Raw stats are misleading.
@@uberneanderthalyes, winning is everything in any game whats the point of you rack up points and loss much games. The objective of game is to win, sometimes i dont understand people.
2006 - Bron beats Kobe in every advanced stats, also he was runner up. 2007 - Wade beats Kobe in every advanced stats. 2008 - Bron beat Paul 3 out of 5 advanced main stats. Also he lead the NBA at scoring.
Surprised there was no mention of Olajuwon’s stats in ‘89 and ‘’90 where he led the league in both rebounds and blocks. He was continuing the trend until a Bill Cartwright elbow put him out for awhile in ‘91.
These videos have hidden agendas. Hakeem was a vegetarian and Muslim. I'll let you fill in the blanks. Olijawon one of the kindest gentlemen of the game. He had I think 2 altercations in his career in an NBA that had lots of scuffles in his seasons. Yet you'll see videos subliminally suggesting Olijawon was an angry player. He was Tim Duncan with more smiling in reality. But after Adam Silver is jettisoned, some history will get updated with less bias. I was watching all these games if they were on cable or network tv. Another example different reasons: Everyone knew Pippen carried MJ. If MJ had to pick up top scorers on defense, he wouldn't have juice to hog the ball. Pippen was the key to MJ's success. Other role players obviously as well. But the shoe people and MJ's golfing buddy Donald Trump needs a false narrative that MJ did it all by himself. Just nonsense. Guys gushing over MJ just want a shoe deal.
@@Greg-io1ip Delusional weird take. Nobody cares if Hakeem is a Vegetarian Muslim. He was not as good as Jordan that is why he won 2 championships when he was gone and didn't win any MVPS while he was playing either. Also doesn't matter if he is kind.
I don’t know how in 2017 kahwi’s team won 60+ games with him being the lone all star while being all nba 1st team and all defense 1st team but you said harden , Westbrook and Lebron are all ahead ??? Pure comedy at best
Bill Russell earned many of those MVPs, and was the best player of most of that era. It's not all about stats. It's about value. Every other team owner would trade Wilt or Elgin or Oscar for Russell without a second thought, but Russell is literally untradeable.
@@calsums914 Same thing can be said for Wilt. He had HoF teammates like Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Billy Cunningham, etc. The league was smaller so the talent was more concentrated back then. Every team had multiple all stars. Yet only one of them had 11 titles. There must be a reason for that
@@kinosineSo Sam Jones is automatically better than Jerry West because he won 10 rings to West's 1? Would you as a team owner trade Jerry West for Sam Jones?
@@kinosine exactly Wilt also played with Thurmond, Barry, Arizin, Hal Greer, Chet Walker, Gail Goodrich. Outside of Cousy and Havlicek, none of Russell teammates were better than West, Baylor, Cunningham or Arizin
1960: Wilt keeps it 1961: Bill Russell loses it to Wilt(2) 1962: Bill Russell loses it to Wilt(3) 1963: Bill Russell loses it to Wilt(4) 1964: Oscar keeps it 1965: Bill Russell loses it to Oscar Robertson(2) 1966: Wilt loses it to West 1967: Wilt keeps it(5) 1968: Wilt keeps it(6) 1969: Unseld loses it to Reed 1970: Reed loses it to West(2) 1971: Kareem keeps it 1972: Kareem keeps it(2) 1973: Cowens loses it to Kareem(3) 1974: Kareem keeps it(4) 1975: McAdoo keeps it 1976: Kareem keeps it(5) 1977: Kareem keeps it(6) 1978: Walton loses it to Kareem(7) 1979: Moses Malone keeps it 1980: Kareem keeps it(8) 1981: Dr J loses it to Kareem(9) 1982: Moses Malone keeps it(2) 1983: Moses Malone keeps it(3) 1984: Bird loses it to Magic 1985: Bird keeps it 1986: Bird keeps it(2) 1987: Magic loses it to MJ 1988: MJ keeps it(2) 1989: Magic loses it to MJ(3) 1990: MJ keeps it(4) 1991: MJ keeps it(5) 1992: MJ keeps it(6) 1993: Barkley loses it to MJ(7) 1994: Hakeem keeps it 1995: David Robinson keeps it 1996: MJ keeps it(8) 1997: Karl "age doesn't matter" Malone keeps it 1998: MJ loses it to Karl Malone(2) 1999: Karl Malone loses it to Shaq 2000: Shaq keeps it(2) 2001: AI loses it to Shaq(3) 2002: Duncan keeps it 2003: Duncan loses it to Kobe 2004: Garnett keeps it 2005: Nash loses it to Garnett(2) 2006: Nash loses it to Kobe(2) 2007: Dirk loses it to Kobe(3) 2008: Kobe loses it CP3 2009: LeBron keeps it 2010: LeBron keeps it(2) 2011: DRose loses it to LeBron(3) 2012: LeBron keeps it(4) 2013: LeBron keeps it(5) 2014: KD keeps it 2015: Steph Loses it to AD 2016: Steph keeps it 2017: Westbrook keeps it 2018: Harden loses it to LeBron(6) 2019: Giannis keeps it 2020: Giannis keeps it(2) 2021: Jokic keeps it 2022: Jokic keeps it(2)
You criminally underrate Bill Russell. Did you take his MVP away in every possible year you could have? Bill Russell was the most dominant player on the most dominant dynasty in NBA history. The 1969 championship over the heavily favored Lakers superteam with Wilt, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor was perhaps the greatest achievement of Bill Russell's career. He was head coach and one of the two best players on an inferior Celtics team. Bill Russell was the greatest NBA player of the late 50s and 60s, whatever the stats say. Honestly it is a disgrace to the sport how much you underrated him. There's a reason the Finals MVP award is named after Russell. Ultimately, you play the game to win. And Bill Russell won more than anyone else in his era.
I understand the desire to take away the narrative and team sucess, but I do think winning should somewhat play a role in who the best player is. It's the point of basketball and superstars in basketball have more individual influence on a team more than any other sport
Not many critical comments Fewer getting replies Dude lost me at that statement Apparently it's better to rack up garbage time stats than sit out the 4th quarter cos up 20
57:52 I think you can if your offense is so prolific it can hinder the output of your opponent due them expending so much energy defending you.. dame, steph, barkley, harden etc..
Most Valuable Player is not the same thing as Best Individual. Ignoring team success ignores two things: 1) Basketball is a team sport, not an individual sport. 2) The object is to win games and championships. The Celtics had won nothing before Russell arrived and won nothing after he left (until Cowens arrived). In the 13 years Russell was there, the Celtics won 11 championships. They won those championships because Russell - was so valuable.
Arnett's MVP awards would go to the players with the highest individual stats, period. Problem is that what players do to help their teams win games often can't be measured in statistics, which is why I can't take Arnett seriously.
Not only does he not give Scottie Pippen the '94 MVP but doesn't even give him an honorable mention. Scottie is one of only two players in NBA history that led his team for a whole season in all 5 major stats Scoring, Rebounding, Assists, Steals and Blocks. And he carried a terrible Bulls squad to the second round of the playoffs. Wins the All Star MVP and not even gets mentioned in this video.... WTF!
@@ObjectiveEthics That terrible Bulls squad had 3 players making the all-star team that season. Pippen had a great season, but 22 points per game isn't MVP offensive numbers. It was the golden era of centers, and Hakeem, Robinson and Shaq were all in their primes. They put up MVP-numbers. Winning the All-star MVP isn't something that's going to get Pippen into the MVP-conversation.
The ways that the players help their teams win games has to be measured into numbers and then calculated into statistics, in order to compare different players. I can't take half the sports entertainment panelists seriously, as they usually don't know their basic stats, and then start to weave some false narration about how some players make their teammates so much better, are better leaders, or are more dominant than others. All those words are nearly always completely empty. Sometimes the opposite that they say is true. For example there are dozens of examples of LeBron obviously making his teammates worse. Even though half the media keeps repeating that LeBron is the one player who makes his teammates better the most.
@@penkima4923 The most PPG Bill Russell averaged was just under 19..yet he won the league MVP 5 times (deserved it, too). From McClymonds HS to USF to Boston, all Bill Russell's teams did was win..and win..and win. And Russell was the common denominator with all of them.
@@toddfrank3344 Another common denominator was that those teams had so many Hall of Fame players, that some of them had to come off the bench. Russell surely had great intangibles as a teammate, but just how do they compare to other great players, is very difficult to be certain of.
Wilt was a freak his numbers at times were almost superhuman. 53 points, 32 rebounds, 14 assists, 24 blocks, and 11 steals. Wilts numbers for just 1 of his games. Therefore on judging the best player ever he is not given much recognition. The title best player ever means among mere mortals.
No notes, actually. I'm not 100% sure that the "best player on the best team" convention is bad, however. I agree that individual players can get stuck on bad teams, and their reputation and accolades suffer thereby. After all, my favorite player of all time is Patrick Ewing, who more or less single-handedly carried the New York Knicks into the playoffs with no help. His best teammate in all those years was a young Mark Jackson. But I also think it's a problem to award the MVP to a player on a non-contending team. You can get a lot of easy buckets and assists when your team is down by 20 points late in the 4th quarter, and that's going to happen a lot when your team isn't in playoff contention.
Patrick Ewing may not have been a deserving MVP at any point, but he might be a bit overlooked at times because of the other great centers of his generation.
Dude giving Wilt MVPs for essentially racking up garbage time stats!! How you playing 48mins AND the game's close?? They NEEDED "every single minute he played"???
@@AaronMichaelLong WHY WOULD I???? Who now plays 48mins with all the advances in sneakers??? I did gym class in plimsolls I played soccer in mud fields with jumpers for goalposts, not on smooth AstroTurf with official sized goals and Nets. What a stupid response!!!
@@darrengordon-hill What's stupid is pretending that you can compare athletes who are coddled with load management with a guy who played before de-segregation.
No it can't. It's completely subjective. For example if I defined MVP as most valuable to their team, I could make the argument that we should use the value over replacement stat (VORP) which tells you how much the player contributed to their team vs a bench player. LeBron in that metric is by far the single largest carrier in NBA history and would've won 9 MVPS purely based on the amount of times he lead the league in that advanced metric.
does Nikola Jokic deserve a 3xMVP when compared to one Bill Russell. By seasons 60/61 FG%42.6 AST 3.4 PTS 16.9. 61/62 FG%45.7 AST 4.5 PTS 18.9. 62/63 FG%43.2 AST 4.9 PTS 16.8. In his career, Jokic has only one season shooting from the field below 50% in 2017/18, i.e. 49.9 and according to that parameter he is unsurpassed. In this last triumphant season (FG%63.3), while Russell does not reach such a percentage even from free throws, only one match in the 22/23 season with FG below 50%. Unlike Jokic, Embiid has 14 and Giannis 20, respectively.
@@JT-km6th he is actually overated you cant be the best player in the 60's and by the same time never lead your team in scoring he was not a great player offensively ok he was an elite defender and rebounder but just that he played with the best roster each year
In your evaluation you forgot to include the influence that the players had on their team which is also an important aspect when it comes to the MVP race
People don't really realize how fast Jordan was unless you watched him really play. He was faster than anybody. Even today Jordan was faster in game than anything 2k could duplicate. It can't be done!
Who’s the best player you don’t see listed here: This is every player who has ever finished top five in an MVP vote. ABA Players (24): Connie Hawkins Doug Moe Mel Daniels Larry Jones Willie Somerset Jimmy Jones Rick Barry Spencer Haywood Roger Brown Bob Verga Zelmo Beaty Charlie Scott Dan Issel Artis Gilmore Billy Cunningham Julius Erving George McGinnis Ron Boone Joe Caldwell Willie Wise Bobby Jones Mack Calvin James Silas David Thompson NBA Players (97): Bob Pettit Paul Arzin Bob Cousy Mel Hutchins Dolph Schayes Bill Sharman George Yardley Bill Russell Maurice Stokes Elgin Baylor Wilt Chamberlain Oscar Robertson Jerry West Sam Jones Jerry Lucas Nate Thurmond Lenny Wilkens Dave Bing Wes Unseld Willis Reed Kareem Abdul Jabaar Walt Frazier John Havlicek Dave Cowens Tiny Archibald Bob McAdoo Bob Lainer Elvin Hayes Bill Walton Pete Maravich George Gervin David Thompson Walter Davis Moses Malone Bob Dandridge Larry Bird Dennis Johnson Dan Roundfield Robert Parish Gus Williams Magic Johnson Sidney Moncrief Bernard King Isiah Thomas Terry Cummings Dominique Wilkins Hakeem Olajuwon Michael Jordan Kevin McHale Charles Barkley Clyde Drexler Karl Malone Patrick Ewing David Robinson Scottie Pippen Shaquille O’Neil Penny Hardaway Grant Hill Tim Hardaway Glen Rice Gary Payton Tim Duncan Alonzo Mourning Allen Iverson Jason Kidd Kevin Garnett Chris Webber Tracy McGrady Kobe Bryant Jermaine O’Neil Peja Stojakovic Steve Nash Dirk Nowitski LeBron James Chauncey Billups Chris Paul Dwight Howard Dwayne Wade Kevin Durant Derrick Rose Tony Parker Carmelo Anthony Blake Griffin Joakim Noah James Harden Stephen Curry Russell Westbrook Anthony Davis Kawhi Leonard Isaiah Thomas Damian Lillard Giannis Antetokounmpo Paul George Nikola Jokic Luka Doncic Joel Embid Devin Booker
The only year I feel like I am qualified to disagree with the stats on is 97. Although Malone's efficiency was certainly better, anyone watching that season knew which player was more impactful to winning. Also, although they were both first team all defense, there is a pretty wide gulf between those two defensively. Jordan was significantly more disruptive with his defense than Malone. It's similar to saying both Giannis and Embiid are first team all defense caliber defenders. That isn't necessarily untrue, but it doesn't properly describe each players defensive quality.
@FortyNights yes certainly, especially in that era that had a rule set more favorable to big men in the post. You would expect Malone to have greater efficiency. Though MJ obscured many of those ideas with his unusual efficiency throughout much of his career, it still holds true that Malone was expected to be more efficient.
Nash deserved his 2005 MVP cause he took a 29-53 win team the year before which had the same players & Mike D'antoni as the coach and turned them into a 62-20 win team. Nash was the missing piece to that team and to discredit and not even mention that fact is disrespectful for Nash accomplishments. The MVP is not always the best player but the player that is most valuable to their team. Nash was the no-brainer cause without Nash that team probably misses the playoffs again. Sure you can argue Nash's 2006 MVP award cause i do agree that Kobe should've won that but again Nash without Amare for the entire season still had that team win 50 game & took that ragtag group of players to the Western Finals.
For those of you who have been following the series so far, the brand new content is the 60s, which begins at 1:38.
Also new is 2020-2022, which begins at 1:13:38.
Which ones do you disagree with?
Congratulation for the video Jonny, but for me you should've mention more details about Jokic's 2022 season like you did for other players. Jokic had that season the greatest per in NBA history beating Wilt Chamberlain(32,8), he also had the greatest +/- in NBA history beating both Michael Jordan and Lebron James (13,8), he had most triple doubles in the league, led the league in winshares and had higher true shooting than every other player who averaged at least 25 points that season (66,1%, 2nd highest after Curry's unanimous MVP season). He was also the only player in NBA history to ein MVP averaging at least 25 points and 58% from the field. Kareem never did it, Shaq never did it, Wilt never did it, but Jokic did. Also he became the only player with 2000 points, 1000 rebojndsand 500 assists and maybe none other player would be able to acomplish that. Truly one of the greatest regular seasons of all time. I honestly thought you would spent more time explaining that Jokic's season, but still congratulations for this video.
@@hristijandimitrovski8664 damn
@@WaveGretzky4440 yep😬
Jonny nice video!I hope in the end u will total the amount of the MVP the player won when this happen
Jonny u gotta do a dpoy one in the future
Kareem being a 9 time MVP and Jordan an 8 time MVP sounds about right. But I’d let Jordan keep the ‘98 MVP given the amount of adversity his team faced that year with the impending break up of the dynasty, Pippen missing 38 games, Rodman’s decline and the fact that the Bulls were going for their third straight chip as the oldest team in the league and they all must have been fatigued.
Agreed!
You think the jazz actually made it or the refs cheated? Be honest! They know it’s Jordan’s lady year, they couldn’t beat the Lakers if they made it there! Lakers should have had a 4 peat! And as far as Jordan, everyone forgets that he pushed off Russell to get that last shot! 💯😂😂😂😂😂
@@atron4535 Ummmmm…..what does any of that have to do with who should have won the regular season MVP?
@@atron4535OL Jordan would’ve shit all over Shaq like he did before and Kobe was not actual Kobe then. They were not a deep team and didn’t have Phil Jackson. Bulls in 4
@@atron4535how tf Lakers woulda 4 peat if Spurs won 1999? Are u dumb? 4-peat gotta be 4 straight chips.
You should do this for DPOYs as well
This
Rudy Gobert sweating
Lebron being MVP, FMVP, Champion and then DPOY...imagine that. Him winning 2013 DPOY is mind boggling!
THIS!!!
I wish it was possible to give official retroactive DPOYs for Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Walt Frazier, Bobby Jones, and other greats from the pre-DPOY NBA.
I'll be honest... I didn't realize how phenomenal Jerry West was. I'm not fortunate enough to have seen him play, but man, he sounds like an absolute baller. Didn't know he was an all time great defender as well.
I'll definitely have to read up more on him. Great video!
Underrated defender and was really clutch
There's a reason he is the logo player
As I have started to look more into players of the 60's and 70's including footage, Jerry West really stands out as someone that with small adjustments could be a top 5 player of say the past 20 years. You have to keep in mind the league didn't allow much in the dribbling department -- they had to dribble more stiffly due to the rules. He had a very quick shot which would allow him to get his shot off. he was also one of the best 15-20ft jump shooters ever -- that was his game and yet he shot a great fg% for a jump shooter. he likely would be a great 3pt shooter. He was a very good passer. He was also a very good defender and had quick hands allowing him to steal. The didn't keep track of steals until his final year at age 35 and he averaged 2.6stl, just 0.1stl fewer than the league leader.
And more evidence to his great skill...When Kareem was in his early part of his peak early 70's, old man Jerry age 33 was nearly 26pts 10ast (lead the league) 55%TS (1.08 relative true shootin) and won the championship on the 69 win team.
You definitely should check him out! West put up Curry numbers offensively without a 3 point line while being damn near Gary Payton level defensively. The only reason he did not win more championships was the absolutely loaded 60s Celtics...
same
This video increased my appreciation for players before my time. Moses Malone was a frickin’ beast.
Yes! He was a beast! He was unstoppable on the offensive boards!
I loved this series before. NOW YOU MADE IT ALL IN ONE VIDEO. GREAT WORK!
I like the video. But the MVP shouldn't be given to the best player. Because the best player isn't always the most valuable, that being said the way they do it now doesn't make much sense either
You guys forgot The logo,Jerry West
@@gamexsimmonds3581 There's a pretty big campaign to always automatically give the regular season Most Valuable Player award to the highest scorer on the team with the best record. Which usually means that the most selfish player on the team with the most all-star level players automatically gets the award. Defense doesn't matter at all, assists don't matter, and no other stat but points means nothing. Shooting percentage doesn't matter at all.
@@penkima4923 And what In saying is that it shouldn't be that way
This video: *exists*
Wilt, Kareem, Michael, Kobe & LeBron:
Crazy watching this video and having Kobe in this list of names 😬
Oscar Robertson had some phenomenal seasons thru his career
(Chamberlain numbers was just bananas even when he wasn't leading league in scoring 24 points, 24 rebounds 7 assist and league MVP along with championship, doesn't get any better than that)
Was the award giving out before the finals or before the playoffs? Bill won MVP alot over regular season Wilt
@@jaykaynum5569 good question 🤔
@@jaykaynum5569 there was no finals mvp. It included finals also
@@ahankumar2936 I know. Bill Russell spoke about how many he would've had
Wilt Chamberlain: 60, 61, 62, 63, 67, 68 (6)
Oscar Robertson: 64, 65 (2)
Jerry West: 66, 70 (2)
Willis Reed: 69 (1)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81 (9)
Bob McAdoo: 75 (1)
Moses Malone: 79, 82, 83 (3)
Magic Johnson: 84 (1)
Larry Bird: 85, 86 (2)
Michael Jordan: 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 96 (8)
Hakeem Olajuwon: 94 (1)
David Robinson: 95 (1)
Karl Malone: 97, 98 (2)
Shaquille O'Neal: 99, 00, 01 (3)
Tim Duncan: 02 (1)
Kobe Bryant: 03, 06, 07 (3)
Kevin Garnett: 04, 05 (2)
Chris Paul: 08 (1)
LeBron James: 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18 (6)
Kevin Durant: 14 (1)
Anthony Davis: 15 (1)
Stephen Curry: 16 (1)
Russell Westbrook: 17 (1)
Giannis Antetokounmpo: 19, 20 (2)
Nikola Jokic: 21, 22 (2)
Kareem is truly unbeatable
@@maryshaw9541
He’s the real 🐐
thank you
Kareem, Jordan, Lebron and Wilt are way above everyone else. Why doesn't it surprise me at all?
@@shuutsukiyama1553 lets add the fact that Lebron produced half of his points with offensive faults, with his buldozer and pushoffs with his offhand style of play close to the basket
This may be the coolest NBA video on youtube. Thanks for uploading.
The amount of research. Most diligent and unbiased NBA channel on RUclips. ❤
I hope he had CP3 over Kobe, cause he got robbed in 08 but they all knew Kobe should’ve won in 06 so he got the sympathy/benefit of the better team.
I've said it before, I'll say it again, this is the best NBA RUclipsr in the game. It's always about sports, always informative, and always well researched. Great job and thank you for your service. 👍🏾
„Its always about sports“?? So thats something special among Nba youtubers?
after jimmyhighroller
@@rajathnayak5624 jimmy has pretty editing and a nice video style but is actually so unbelievably garbage at actual bball analysis. He was telling people that Jokic was a dpoy level player, tried to compare lbj and mj by literally just adding up points rbs and ast, makes 15 minute videos about how basically giannis, joel and jokic have a high per (a very bad and misleading stat which heavily favours bigs btw) and doesn't even have Wilt top 10 all time. I can name so many other things he does which are stupid but what i hate the most is how he acts like a bball intellectual and and condescendingly calls people casuals when he is far below them in bball knowledge.
@@a3per818 fr
@@rajathnayak5624 nah he stretches graphics to make them look insane, uses stats that don't reflect the whole picture but fit the agende and stuff like that
Watching Abdul-Jabbar take those Sky Hooks and his follow through is poetry on the court.
Boy the 80s were a fascinating time. Legends everywhere
I add a teen in the 80s it was a great time for hoops
2020s are same sorry just better just look at overall stats of top 50 players of the league back and then
@@mustafatufan2683The 1980’s and 1990’s were more competitive than todays game
@Mustafa Tufan look at the defensive stats. They're trash, not one person even avg over 2 steals a game. Jordan would have won at least 5 dpoy awards, shaq would have had 40 ppg as nobody can defend the paint at all, and he would just dunk on every possession
Obviously I have some disagreements but this was phenomenal! I love how you actually include both sides of the ball and not just offense. Too many people only focus on the offensive side it’s crazy
What did u disagree on ? He literally included a thesis on every player he thought deserved mvp that year
@@Trvllclinton I don’t remember who he said for each year from 9 months ago. I disagreed with like 3 or 5 of them. Out of 60+ that’s still a lot to agree on lol
I think my one problem with this is that you're over-valuing guard defense. It has its values, I'd always take a good defender over a bad one, but for a lot of the Kobe years, especially the one where you pick him over Duncan, you're valuing both of their defensive contributions similarly when Duncan being the best paint defender is way more valuable. Duncan could effect almost any shot taken at the rim, Kobe could help occasionally on those shots but was mostly only valuable when ball-hawking for steals or when the action came to him.
I think using defense as a separator when both players play the same position is alright, I just think that rim protection is the most valuable part of defense. Especially in the early 2000s and before, when three-point shooting was still uncommon.
So true
Lol as part of the young ones, I laughed when he picked AD over stephen curry
Have you ever seen Kobe put the clamps on DWade. Both him and Duncan are all time defenders
@@nickpeitchev7763 I'm not saying that Kobe was a bad defender, defense at the rim is just much more valuable than clamping one guy, you can affect a lot more shots.
even post defense... its an important part of the game, but you cant go its 50/50 in terms of value and importance. im sure nobodys gonna say that rudy gobert is as important as jokic cause hes good defender or that tyson chandler was as valuable as dirk for those 2011 mavs that won the title.
How about a video on if the MVP was given for the whole entire season, postseason included. Like for example in 2007 Dirk got MVP, but was eliminated early, so I'd say Lebron was MVP for entire 2007 season, but in 2009 when he got MVP, then Kobe should've been it for all 2009.
That would be awesome lol, imagine if the nba actaully did that. If it's a clear cut mvp, Give it at the start of the playoffs, but if it's a really tight race, then do your idea 🔥
And same for 2010. Yeah I agree, that would be really interesting video.
So, what about 2011?
@@nataliapaembonan785 I think 2011 is the hardest choice. You really can't choose who was the best player that year. If you combine both regular season and play off, Lebron had better stats than Rose in regular season and he made the finals while Rose lost in first round, but on the other hand Lebron had the best team in the league and they could win easily title that year, but Lebron was terrible in those finals and Miami lost because of him. Soo you can say that Dirk won finals MVP, but when you look Wade's stats in those finals Wade was by far superior player. He averaged mor points, more assists, more steals, more blocks and was waay more efficient than Dirk. Soo I think 2011 was the year where NBA hadn't clearly the best player in the league that entire season. All of them had some great moments and some bad moments, nobody was on top.
@@hristijandimitrovski8664 extra point on Rose because he lost in Conference final
9 mvps in 11 years for Kareem would’ve been nuts but sounds accurate ! Good videos
This video is absolute gold. Thanks for your hard work.
The video is actually quite biased and horrible, dude just kept on d riding lebron
@@Mdksupreme1 LeBron has the stats, so that means this isn't biased, and he's not d riding.
He does not d ride LeBron. Kobe is his favorite player and he's a Jordan is the GOAT guy. Like he himself says. If your objective about Jordan people call you a Jordan stan. You're fair with LeBron and people say you're riding his d.
All I have to say is ....... GREAT VIDEO !! .. The research, facts, numbers comparison, along with the narrative, as to the why(?), are AWESOME.
Wilt - what a tremendous player, athlete, and dominant force. He was the reason that all the teams he played on won like they did! Hard to vote against Wilt for the G.O.A.T.!!!
It's actually not do you see the way they dribbled? How slow they are with the ball? Playing loosely on passing lanes. They honestly look like middle schoolers. Two different leagues then and now, so no i don't think wilt a goat
@@dr_ogm4dness680 You're discounting the advantage that players now have. Give Wilt that same advantage and he would easily dominate any era. The man was a master athlete well past his retirement as well. He could do anything. There's lots of documentaries about that. Think Shaq power, Giannis/Lebron athleticism, guard level passing later on, and the stamina of Karl Malone/Kobe. The dude scored 100 points in a game, for crying out loud. That's hard to do even with nobody guarding you. 😂
@@dr_ogm4dness680 the plays that they ran are still the same for many players from high school to college to the nba. They just played extremely fast paced
@@dr_ogm4dness680 are you dumb? The rules forced them to dribble that way. If you dribble like today, it would be a travel. It is two different leagues because it is two different rules. Wilt had the Dirk fadeaway with the strength of Shaq. Casual. But hey, you said middle schoolers instead of plumbers. At least we making progress on that front.
@@dr_ogm4dness680 The were forced to dribble that way because of the rules. The way players dribble today would have been illegal in Wilt's day.
Haven't watched the full video yet but Wilt's season with 50.4ppg-25.7rpg and the historic 100pts game being snubbed for MVP is probably one of , if not the biggest and wildest MVP snub in League history.
60s NBA don't get enough love coz of few teams but West, Baylor, Oscar and Wilt would dominate ANY era and I am sure of that.
Phenomenal efficiency and durability in a time when it was hard to do so.
Wilt would not put up 50 points and 25 rebounds a game in any other era than the 50s and 60s. Let's be totally honest here.
They definitely wouldn't lmao they'd be trash today and would not even be playing in the nba honestly college and highschool players today are more skilled
@@Kevin-fj3ff who's gonna body Wilt?
Some of the work you guys put in on RUclips would earn you a Masters degree. PROPS! LIKED AND ALREADY SUBBED! What a video! History is such a goldmine for youtubers imo.
Its a damn shame BLOCKS and STEALS were not recorded.
Wilt might have those records if they were
@@fortynights1513 would. He probably had more blocks in 1 quarter than the single game record
Yeah. Luckily, though, one person found 447 box scores from Wilt’s career, where he averaged about 11.3 Blocks per game. In a more official study with 112 games Wilt averaged 8.8 Blocks, and Russell averaged 8.1. Hopes this helps!
An hour video! What a treat 🤗
I just shake my head when I’m reminded that Nash has 2 MVPs and Shaq and Kobe combined for 2 in their careers. Crazy.
I mean... Nash is possibly one of the best leaders and passers in NBA history. Should he have gotten those MVPs compared to the other talent? No, probably not. But I think without them his impact would've been mostly forgotten about, and those Phoenix teams ain't the same without him. Kobe and Shaq both combined for two, and they're still discussed as goats. So, as a Nash sympathizer, I'm glad he got them... Even tho he shouldn't have them for at least one of those seasons
nash deserved 1 mvp, shaq deserved 2, kobe deserved 0... and im not hating on kobe, hes a great player and in my top 10 of all time, but there really wasnt a season where he met all criteria to be the mvp.. in 06, he was the best player in the league in my opinion, however his team was a 7 seed, and he wasnt far enough ahead of everyone else to break a 35 year trend... in 08, his real mvp season, sure he had a great year, but chris paul had one of the best point guard seasons of all time and had more wins, and in my opinion deserved that mvp, kobe won it because the media realized he had 0 up till then and didnt want him to retire with no mvps
as for shaq and nash, nash deserved at least 1 of his mvps, and shaq deserved both the 00 and 01 mvps, yes i love ai, but being real, shaq was a much better defender, they had similar team records, and shaq was way more efficient and dominant on offense, ai won it because he had the better story
@@Someone-hi1nt dudes putting up all time numbers whilst improving his team why does it matter that hes 7 seed
@@steezsteezsteez because thats the norm, the last time an mvp was on a team that wasnt a top 3 seed before kobe was in the 1970s, kobe wasnt far ahead enough of everyone else to break that norm, even tho he was the best player in the league
@@Someone-hi1nt Wasn't far ahead enough???? ur crazy lmao, dude averaged the most points at the time since MJ in 87 and that isnt far ahead enough
Great vid as always. Very nice to see the 60s. I think it really helps to put into perspective why each wilt, Kareem, mj and Bron are considered to be the best in their respective eras.
I have tremendous respect for Bill Russel. He's the greatest winner in team sports and is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, defenders of all time. Not to mention a civil rights icon. But he didn't deserve his MVPs. It's a classic case of team success over individual talent, which I never understood. I don't understand people like Charles Barkley who insist the award should be given to the best player on the best team. Where in the world does it say that?! You can't just make up rules for a set-in-stone and well-defined criteria: "Most Valuable Player"; not "MVP on the best team" or "Most Valuable Nerrative" etc. How is it the player's achievement or fault that he is on a tremendous or trashy team? Kobe post-Shaq, was clearly the best player in the NBA but wasn't even top 5 in MVP voting because of people who like to play board games with made-up roles.
When Bill Russel is eclipsed in EVERY statistical category by multiple people like Wilt, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Walt Bellamy, etc., you start to question the award. Since blocks and steals weren't recorded until the 73-74 season, and analytics and advanced metrics weren't reliably recorded until the late 70s, it's the only thing to go by. Even his 1958 MVP should have gone to someone like Bob Pettit, or the highly underrated and forgotten George Yardley, who had his most outstanding season by far. Even if you consider Bill's defense and rebounding, it's still not enough; it would be the equivalent of giving Dennis Rodman the MVP.
Agree 100%. Russell was a great player but he played with great teammates and was coached by Red Auerbach. Hondo went on to win a couple rings in the 70s without him.
@@yippee-ki-yay9925 Absolutely. I'm always surprised that when people think of the 60's Celtics, they immediately think of Bill and usually can't name anyone else, even though he played with ten, yes, TEN future Hall Of Famers.
Because the logic is that if you're really valuable to your team, they would be successful.
I agree though that Bill Russell probably didn't deserve his MVPs, mostly due to his lack of offense.
@@x-man9473 But wouldn't it make sense to compare something like box +- or win shares or something? You're comparing the player's impact on his team REGARDLESS of total wins and losses. Look at MJ early in his career: drafted by an awful team and played alongside mostly crackheads in a highly competitive era. It's not on him that they had terrible records, as he still balled out.
@@RVered Win shares and box plus minus didn't exist until the 2000s. They can trace it back now in retrospect. But they didn't have it back then.
Honestly Kobe's 02-03 season is underrated it's arguably better than his 05-06 he was more efficient & was a better defender
When did Kobe’s defense decline in your opinion? I’ve heard some say he was better earlier, and didn’t deserve the last few all defensive team selections.
@@fortynights1513 04-07 he was coasting 08-10 was a slight improvement but there was a slight decline as he has trouble keeping up with off-ball players. 11-12 he did not deserve a 1st team & 2nd team selections respectively so if we're going by his undeserve All Defensive Selections it would be 04, 06, 07, 11 & 12.
@@fortynights1513 if we're being honest, sure kobe was a decent perimeter and on ball defender, but hes not the "all time great defender" that many people talk about him as, and he didnt deserve a lot of his all defensive team appearances
*@G.O.A.T.*
Statistically speaking 2002-03 was probably Kobe's best year of his career, but Duncan was still slightly better imo. In 2002-03 Duncan performed one of the top 3 carry jobs in NBA history imo.
@@justsayin669 Oh I agree Duncan was the best player in 03 & I would say until 05 Kobe didn't become the best player until 06
I'm from the UK, I only understand enough about the NBA that I named my son Jordan after the finals were televised here in 1998, but bro this was a great video, I was hooked all the way through.
That's funny... I'm American and I know nothing about soccer but I named my kid Ronaldinho.
The agenda against James Harden in this league is absolutely crazy. Never seen as good of a player being disrespect at this level.
This video had anti-harden agenda written all over it, its actually hilarious
My god Larry bird is a monster, those highlights were crazy. NOBODY has all those moves he did, that was amazing
Right, not even the Worm!!
Glaze
Overrated
@@IronheartvsMiles You're 12 years old.
@@IronheartvsMilesnothing you've ever said has been intelligent lol
This is the MOST impressive stellar work i've seen on youtube in a while
I know you only looked at NBA but I think it's worth including ABA in the 70s since it was a separate major pro league and had some of the best players at the time. Dr J probably gets the nod over Kareem in a couple of those years.
he faced worse competition which inflated his stats
For what it's worth I think the Doc should've gotten it over Kareem in '80.
I had a friend/mentor who used to say everyone has forgotten Moses Malone. great video I like analysis like this taking the popularity or voter fatigue out of the equation.
Tremendous work, thanks for that wonderful video
Your criteria seems to be who had the best stats. While stats are important, the object of the game is to win championships. There was a reason that the players voted for Russell. He was the catalyst that led to titles. He took a no-name college program to two NCAA championships. Won an Olympic gold medal. On becoming a pro, he immediately elevated his team to championship status. The only time the Celtics lost in the finals was when Russell was injured. Any team in the league would have gladly swapped their MVP for him. That includes Chamberlain and Robertson. I was lucky enough to see all three of them play. I agree that they were more talented, but they were not valuable.
Well stated. You notice there is NOTHING to be said about your comment. The facts stand on their own.
They play to win championships and Russell is clearly the reason the Celtics won, period.
Stats and awards are the 'participation trophies' for losers.
Nice that you made the full 1 video now
To be honest, I think Julius Erving should have kept his MVP in 1981 because he had more of an all-around season than KAJ with 2 steals and blocks a game that year and he only lost the All-Defensive nod to two of his teammates, and he comparable WS and WS per 48 minutes to KAJ that year even if I ignore their record.
I can reasonably argue the “missing your counterpart on your team/carrying” narrative for Kareem in 81’, knowing he lead the league in WS and his level of play with Magic missing that extended amount of time in the middle of the season.
With Magic in the lineup, they were 26-11.
Without him in 45 Games; 28-17.
In those 45 Games, Kareem was
29/11/3 with 3 BPG on 62% TS (+9)
11/20 FG (58%) + 6/8 FT per game (79%)
Magic came back averaging
22/9/9 on 58% TS (+5) in the last 17 games
8/16 FG (53%) + 5/7 FT (73%) per game,
after starting the first 20 games with
21/8/9/3/1 on 58% TS (+5)
9/16 FG (53%) + 4/5 FT (79%) per game
⏺️Should be noted in the 2 games Kareem missed in 1981 RS, Magic was 2-0 averaging 22/9/11/6/1 on 44% TS (17/42 FGM + 10/18 FTM)
Personally I think I would go Larry bird in 87 but Mj right there so it don’t matter either way really also I feel as Lebron should get the edge over kd in 2014 because you didn’t mention defense and while kd had almost 50, 40 Lebron had 56% shooting and this is coming from a rockets fan that agrees with harden not winning 17,18,19. LOVE THE VIDEO!
Great video Johnny. You put a lot of work in your videos and it shows
Some people say Nash deserved those MVPs. I break it down like this... Imagine you were in a coma for 25 years and you wake up... Youre talking to a friend. Getting updated on basketball history.
"So this guy Nash won 2 MVPs in a row and was 2nd place the 3rd year. He must have been great."
"Yeah."
"Well defense is half the game. Must have been a great defender to almost win 3?"
"Uh, no. He was terrible. All time bad actually. Total liability. One of the worst defenders of his era."
"Huh. Well he must have been one hell of a scorer!"
"Well... 15 PPG."
"Huh."
"But that's inflated because his team had so many possessions because of their play style... It's more like 11-12 PPG."
"Huh. Well his team. They must have won the championships those years?"
"Uh, no. Nash wasn't very successful in the playoffs."
"Well he must have had some pretty thin competition then..."
"Well no. He was up against the most dominant player of his era one year and maybe the best personal offensive season since Wilt the second. The guy scored 35 PPG and made all NBA defensive first team. Scored 81 points on one game."
"Huh."
"Huh."
"Huh."
"Yeah."
This list is amazing!! And I am just happy to see Kobe and Shaq get more than 1 MVP's which they both deserve.
It was fun to watch but there were some terrible takes
@@nickpeitchev7763like?
McGrady should have won 2003 MVP since wins didn't matter except for tie breaker.
This goes to show that Kareem remains #2 behind only MJ.
BOTH have 6 rings, MJ 6finals MVPs, KAJ 6 reg season MVPs. KAJ 38k
MJ on 33k tl pts. MJ 10 KAJ 2 Scoring titles a lot more
Bout time! Been waiting forever for the 60s
What A great video. Great job Budd.
I've been waiting loong time for this😍😍😍😍😍these MVP videos are my favourite NBA videos. I would like to wait until this season finish and than make another video about Finals MVPs 😁😁. For now, I want to thank you for your content and your interesting videos.
I don't usually last thru an hour and 15 minutes of trivia, but this video started great and got better
@jonnyarnett at the 1:15:37 mark, with the master list displayed, you still have Iverson with the MVP in 2001 as new, but you gave it to Shaq when expalining. Great vid though, as usual…
Thanks man! I knew I’d screw at least one up… lol
no prob 😂
My criticism of this re-evaluation of the MVP awards is that insane stats generally favour players who have high offensive win shares but not as much defensive win shares. Wilt had better stats than Bill Russell except in rebounds, Shaq had better stats than Tim Duncan, but Russell and Duncan have higher defensive win shares and more championships.
I was today years old when I learned that Bob Macadoo was a BEAST, not just a dude with a dope name.
@36:30 In the 1961-62, Elgin Baylor averaged 38.3 points and 18.6 rebounds per game, all while serving in the Army. He played in 48 games that season
I always thought offensive player of the year and MVP should be 2 different things
Bruh I appreciate your time in putting out this video. It definitely shows who the real goat is
MJ should have won at least 7 or 8 MVPs
Not that my opinion matters a bit, but there are few youtube vids that I pretty much agree with. If one was gonna disagree, they really should have been there, or put in the work to have valid input. I was a pretty big Cavs fan from the early 70s to the mid 90s and even though I was NO Bulls/MJ supporter, I remember thinking how it was annual folly to give the MVP to anyone but MJ. He was like an alien in his impossible abilities. Glad to see Moses recognized too. He had a few year stretch that he rivaled anyone, ever, on impact.
Just an outstanding job young man!
I went through and calculated the per 75 stats for the players based on pace for the team of those players and the minutes those players played. Keep in mind, as Jonny mentioned, rebounds were more even per 75 because of the lower fg% and fewer free throws. The inverse is true of assist - they were low across the league on a per 75 because of many missed shots.
% are true shooting %
1960
WiltC: 21.9pts 15.7reb 1.3ast 49.3%
BRuss: 11.3pts 14.9reb 2.3ast 49.6%
Pettit: 19.5pts 12.7reb 2.7ast 51.0%
Baylor: 21.4pts 11.9reb 2.5ast 48.9%
1961
WiltC: 21.9pts 15.5reb 1.1ast 51.9%
BRuss: 10.2pts 14.5reb 2.1ast 45.4%
Pettit: 19.5pts 14.2reb 2.4ast 51.1%
Baylor: 23.4pts 13.3reb 3.4ast 49.8%
1962
WiltC: 28.5pts 14.6reb 1.4ast 53.6%
Russ: 11.5pts 14.4reb 2.7ast 48.9%
Pettit: 21.3pts 12.8reb 2.5ast 52.5%
Baylor: 25.2pts 12.2reb 3.0ast 49.2%TS
Oscar: 20.0pts 8.1reb 7.4ast 55.4%
1963:
WiltC: 27.5pts 14.9reb 2.1ast 55%
Russ: 10.6pts 14.9reb 2.8ast 46.4%
Pettit: 22.6pts 12reb 2.5ast 52.5%
Baylor: 24.7pts 10.4reb 3.5ast 51.9%
Oscar: 19.5pts 7.2reb 6.5at 58.8%
West: 21.1pts 5.4reb 4.4ast 52.5%
1964:
WiltC: 25.0pts 15.1reb 3.4ast 53.7%
Russ: 9.7pts 15.9reb 3.0ast 46.1%
Petti: 20.9pts 11.7reb 2.4ast 53.5%
Baylor: 20.2pts 9.5reb 3.5ast 48.7%
Oscar: 21.6pts 6.8reb 7.6ast 57.6%
West: 22.9pts 4.8reb 4.5ast 56.2%
1965:
WiltC: 23.1pts 15.3reb 2.3ast 51.3%
Russ: 9.2pts 15.8reb 3.5ast 47.2%
Pettit: 20.0pts 11.0reb 2.3ast 51%
Baylor: 20.7pts 9.8reb 2.9ast 46.3%
Oscar: 20.7pts 6.1reb 7.8ast 56.1%
West: 23.7pts 4.6reb 3.7ast 57.2%
1966:
WiltC: 20.8pts 15.2reb 3.2ast 54.7%
Russ: 8.8pts 15.5reb 3.3ast 44.8%
Baylor 16.2pts 9.4reb 3.3ast 45.6%
Oscar: 20.3pts 5.0reb 7.2ast 56.3%
West: 22.8pts 5.2reb 4.5ast 57.3%
1967:
WiltC: 15.5pts 15.6reb 5.0ast 63.7%
Russ: 9.7pts 15.3reb 4.2ast 50%
Baylor: 20.1pts 9.7reb 2.3ast 49.1%
Oscar: 21.1pts 4.3reb 7.4ast 58.5%
West: 20.7pts 4.3reb 4.9ast 55.9%
1968:
WiltC: 15.0pts 14.7reb 5.0ast 55.7%
Russ: 9.8pts 14.6reb 3.6ast 46.1%
Baylor: 20.2pts 9.5reb 3.6ast 50.5%
Oscar: 21.1pts 4.3reb 7.2ast 58.8%
West: 21.3pts 4.7reb 4.9ast 59.0%
1969:
WiltC: 14.5pts 14.9reb 3.2ast 56.4%
Russ: 7.1pts 13.8reb 3.5ast 46.7%
Baylor: 19.7pts 8.4reb 4.3ast 50.0%
Oscar: 17.9pts 4.6reb 7.1ast 57.9%
West: 21.1pts 3.5reb 5.6ast 55.7%
Unseld: 11.3pts 14.9reb 2.1ast 51.5%
Reed: 17.8pts 12.3reb 1.9ast 56.2%
1970:
WiltC: 20.5pts 13.8reb 3.1ast 55.4%
Baylor: 18.5pts 8.0reb 4.2ast 53.7%
Oscar: 18.5pts 4.5reb 5.9ast 57.7%
West: 23.5pts 3.5reb 5.6ast 57.2%
Reed: 17.9pts 11.5reb 1.7ast 55.2%
Kareem: 20.8pts 10.5reb 3.0ast 55.2%
My picks are
1960, 1961, 1962, 1963: Wilt C
1964, 1965: Oscar Robertson
1966: Jerry West (though maybe Oscar is tied)
1967: Wilt
1968: Wilt (but Oscar might be tied)
1969: Jerry West
1970: Jerry West
I like your research
@@Sf75178 I wish Jonny would have used that in his video. He seemed to just do rough estimates by pointing out the minutes played but he left it at that.
@@Homer-OJ-Simpson Not that he deserved any MVP’s but out of curiosity, what is Bill Russell’s best season in your opinion?
@@fortynights1513 Well, much of Russell's value doesn't show up. I find him interesting in how people evaluate him. In 95 out of 100 teams, Wilt is the better player to improve the team than Bill. Bill is only top top 10 goat level if he's on a team that has several very good scoring options and they need a defensive rim protector and rebounder. So basically the Celtics team he was on is about the most perfect fit for him. Statistically speaking, the 1959-60 season was his best season at 11.3pts 14.9reb 2.3ast 49.6% because it was his highest TS% when scoring over 10 pts per 75 and he it's his highest relative true shooting%. HIs scoring is is also much closer to the league leaders at this point. He would also be in his physical peak so likely at his defensive peak.
I don't know if he deserves MVPs because that depends so much on how you judge that award. The team absolutely needs him because they focused on scoring options at other positions and he was the defensive anchor. But replace him and Wilt or Oscar Robertson or Jerry West with just a borderline allstars of that position, I don't think Bill's team would suffer the most in many of those years.
A lot of people make a huge deal how the Celtics went from Championship in 1969 with Bill to no playoffs in 1970 without Bill. But the Celtics also lost top 75 great Sam Jones. He was a leading scorer on mid 60's celtics and scored 16.3pts on that 1969 team. In addition, the team was getting with players that remained. The top scorer was John Havlicek at age 28 and he kept improving but 2nd top scorer on 1969 team was Bailey Howell at 19.7pts at age 32. In 1970 he was 12.pts at age 33 and then went to another team to play his last year at age 34 with 10.7pts. He was aging. The 69 Celts 4, 5 and 6th highest scorers turned 30, 29, 31 years of age in 1970.
Say word Jerry West was that nice🥶🥶. Sometimes I wish I was old enough to watch basketball trailblazers play like West, Baylor, The Iceman, Jordan (in the 80s-90s), Big O and all that.
It’s insane watching this video that Elgin Baylor despite his numbers still wouldn’t have won a mvp with this criteria and that Shaq and Kobe never won more 1. Also, Shaq never averaging more 30 in a season is mind boggling
Shaq is overrated. Extremely underwhelming on defense. No way this guy said he was more impactful defensively than Allen Iverson. AI led the league in steals thrice which is an incredible feat for his position. Shaq never led the league in either rebounds or blocks as a 7 footer, nor steals for that matter. And his defensive team selections hold little weight considering that the raw and objective evidence points towards other players, including Iverson, being more valuable on the defensive end, whether frankly or simply at their relative positions.
@@officialconch I’ve heard some argue that Shaq was good defensively in his first three seasons or so, then didn’t put as much effort on that end, and couldn’t keep up on the perimeter.
Considering the raw talent he had, he underachieved in some ways (as you said, never led in rebounding or blocks).
The fact that he had his all defensive team selections in LA and not Orlando might say more about the field of centers in 2000 and 2001 than him though because people seem to agree that he was better defensively in Orlando, and he didn’t get the accolade when the field of centers was stronger.
Not sure if I’d call Shaq significantly overrated (he’s labeled lower half of the top ten overall by most in my experience), but he certainly underachieved for a player on his level of talent.
He does however have 12 seasons where he averaged at least 22 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks and on 55% from the field or better, and was considered the number one option on three championship teams, a fourth finals team, and depending on your interpretation, one or two other conference finals teams (I’ve heard some say his first Miami season he was the number one option, but not sold either way).
What do you think?
@@fortynights1513 I just meant overrated defensively. His defense isn’t enough to take away Iverson’s MVP IMO. I made some points in another comment but I’ll repeat those sentiments here: To say Shaq dominated both ends better than Iverson is a little misguided in my opinion. Consider that in 2001, the Lakers ranked 21st in defense compared to the Sixers who were 5th. Of course some will argue this was due to Dikembe Mutombo’s presence on the roster (or Theo Ratliff before the trade), but Iverson also had a lower (or better) defensive rating than Shaq that season and his individual defensive rating was better than everyone on his own roster outside of Mutombo/Ratliff, George Lynch, and Jumaine Jones. In fact, he ranked 3rd among shooting guards in the league, and would’ve been 2nd if you considered him a PG. But Eric Snow, the Sixers starting PG, wasn’t even in the top 25 and Jason Terry, who played the vast majority of the season with Mutombo in Atlanta, was only 24th among SG’s. So no, Iverson wasn’t merely benefitting from the help defense of his front court. In comparison, Shaq was 10th among centers. So, Iverson was even a better defender at his position than Shaq.
@@officialconch That kind of goes against what I hear people say about Iverson.
I typically hear people say that he was mediocre defensively outside of the steals, and people seem to imply that he had no all around game outside of scoring which he did inefficiently.
Out of curiosity could it be argued that Shaq was better defensively in Orlando?
@@fortynights1513 Well yeah, unfortunately a lot of people have skewed the perception of Iverson from what those of us who witnessed it could see and feel. I’m not saying Iverson was an elite marksmen, but he was more of a streaky shooter than an “inefficient shot chucker” who just couldn’t hit the mark. Any time he was surrounded by sufficient offensive help (his last 1.5 seasons in Philly and the Denver experiment), it was very apparent that his shooting woes were a result of the system he played in. Going 47/40/90 and averaging 31 points and 10 assists against the defending champion, defensive minded Pistons in 2005-(same team that just shut down Shaq and Kobe in the finals and held Kobe to below 40% from the field)- is an example that, when surrounded by talent, Iverson was no where near as inefficient as people make him out to be. He could shoot!
I will say, after handchecking was completely abolished and as he entered the second half of his career, he did became a poorer defender (even though I think the rule change equally affected other undersized players)
Now onto Shaq, I think the perception around his defense is just his domineering appearance. But I can see the argument that, even if he never LED the league in any defensive category, he was consistently near the top, along with his offensive dominance which could be head and shoulders above others. This would lead to people saying he was an elite two-way presence. It’s no coincidence that after the downfall of Hakeeem, the Admiral, and Patrick Ewing, that’s when Shaq’s reign really started. And his prime was unfortunately very short lived because of his poor work ethic. He was a good post defender, but never the best at his position. I think that, had those other centers played with a player as gifted as Kobe, they would have several more championships. Shaq’s ego was too big for his lack of work ethic and lack of effort to improve defensively. He should have at least led the league in rebounds a few seasons.
Honestly, the only thing different about Orlando Shaq was his weight and speed. Imagine Giannis if he was slightly worse defensively but slightly better offensively
Cant believe Shaq lost to Iverson that year. 42% to 57% shooting. Tons of rebounds. He even had almost as many assists. Plus he actually played defense. Pretty well.
Really interesting and in-depth watch!
For the eras in which we have better defensive stats like Defensive Plus/Minus, I'd much rather look at those than who got selected, often erroneously, to all-defensive teams, which are just as narrative-driven as MVP awards. It's one thing for the eras where we just don't have the advanced stats to analyze this stuff, but once those numbers are available, if you're going to rate MVP candidates based on their numbers, it ought to go both ways.
I think this only really mattered for you rating Kobe over Dirk, Duncan or Garnett in the mid-2000s. Kobe's defense actually looks worse than Dirk's in 2007 by just about every metric (DBPM, DWS). Garnett, unsurprisingly, was even better. Looking at the overall numbers, I'd say Nash's MVPs should have gone to Garnett or Duncan in 2005 and Dirk in 2006, and Dirk kept his MVP in 2007.
Great analysis. I agree with most everything you have presented
60: Wilt
61: Wilt*
62: Wilt*
63: Wilt*
64: Robertson
65: Robertson*
66: West*
67: Wilt
68: Wilt
69: Reed*
70: West*
71: Kareem
72: Kareem
73: Kareem*
74: Kareem
75: McAdoo
76: Kareem
77: Kareem
78: Kareem*
79: Moses
80: Kareem
81: Kareem*
82: Moses
83: Moses
84: Magic*
85: Bird
86: Bird
87: Jordan*
88: Jordan
89: Jordan*
90: Jordan*
91: Jordan
92: Jordan
93: Jordan*
94: Hakeem
95: Robinson
96: Jordan
97: Malone
98: Malone*
99: Shaq*
00: Shaq
01: Shaq*
02: Duncan
03: Kobe*
04: Garnett
05: Garnett*
06: Kobe*
07: Kobe*
08: Paul*
09: LeBron
10: LeBron
11: LeBron*
12: LeBron
13: LeBron
14: Durant
15: Davis*
16: Curry
17: Westbrook
18: LeBron*
19: Giannis
20: Giannis
21: Jokic
22: Jokic
Leaders in “Real” MVPs
9 Kareem
8 Jordan
6 Wilt
6 LeBron
3 Moses
3 Shaq
3 Kobe
2 Robertson
2 West
2 Bird
2 Malone
2 Garnett
2 Giannis
2 Jokic
1 Reed
1 McAdoo
1 Magic
1 Hakeem
1 Robinson
1 Duncan
1 Paul
1 Durant
1 Davis
1 Curry
1 Westbrook
Every facts always points to MJ being the GOAT.
I think team success absolutely has to be included (and weighted heavily) when discussing an MVP. The game goes beyond raw stats. There’s a lot more to sports than that. When you talk about “value” to a team, you have to look at a lot of factors.
wins should definitely be a factor, mainly because it's a lot easier to stat-pad on a losing team. like when Adrian Dantley went from the mediocre Jazz to contender Pistons his scoring dropped dramatically.
@@uberneanderthal Detroit already had scorers. They needed only 19 from AD. They were getting 19 from both Thomas and Dumars. That team had many players who could score when needed. Its about fitting into the system as well. Raw stats are misleading.
@@chrisguevara that's the point. it's easier to rack up scoring numbers on a team where you're the only scorer.
I think it's a INDIVIDIAL award
NOT a TEAM award
@@uberneanderthalyes, winning is everything in any game whats the point of you rack up points and loss much games. The objective of game is to win, sometimes i dont understand people.
2006 - Bron beats Kobe in every advanced stats, also he was runner up.
2007 - Wade beats Kobe in every advanced stats.
2008 - Bron beat Paul 3 out of 5 advanced main stats. Also he lead the NBA at scoring.
There's nothing objective about this video. It's just as biased as regular MVP voting
Surprised there was no mention of Olajuwon’s stats in ‘89 and ‘’90 where he led the league in both rebounds and blocks. He was continuing the trend until a Bill Cartwright elbow put him out for awhile in ‘91.
These videos have hidden agendas. Hakeem was a vegetarian and Muslim. I'll let you fill in the blanks. Olijawon one of the kindest gentlemen of the game. He had I think 2 altercations in his career in an NBA that had lots of scuffles in his seasons. Yet you'll see videos subliminally suggesting Olijawon was an angry player. He was Tim Duncan with more smiling in reality. But after Adam Silver is jettisoned, some history will get updated with less bias. I was watching all these games if they were on cable or network tv. Another example different reasons: Everyone knew Pippen carried MJ. If MJ had to pick up top scorers on defense, he wouldn't have juice to hog the ball. Pippen was the key to MJ's success. Other role players obviously as well. But the shoe people and MJ's golfing buddy Donald Trump needs a false narrative that MJ did it all by himself. Just nonsense. Guys gushing over MJ just want a shoe deal.
@@Greg-io1ipWho cares if he's vegeterian or lesbian or japanese or alien, he didn't deserve it
What a load of crap lmao @@Greg-io1ip
@@Greg-io1ip Delusional weird take. Nobody cares if Hakeem is a Vegetarian Muslim. He was not as good as Jordan that is why he won 2 championships when he was gone and didn't win any MVPS while he was playing either. Also doesn't matter if he is kind.
Great video Mr. Arnett I enjoy your eloquent approach to your videos! I think it would be cool to follow this up with the Finals mvps videos?
I don’t know how in 2017 kahwi’s team won 60+ games with him being the lone all star while being all nba 1st team and all defense 1st team but you said harden , Westbrook and Lebron are all ahead ??? Pure comedy at best
Jerry West and Oscar Robertson are ahead of Kobe.
Bill Russell earned many of those MVPs, and was the best player of most of that era. It's not all about stats. It's about value. Every other team owner would trade Wilt or Elgin or Oscar for Russell without a second thought, but Russell is literally untradeable.
Not true and he wouldn't have won without the other Celtic teammates.
@@calsums914 Same thing can be said for Wilt. He had HoF teammates like Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Billy Cunningham, etc. The league was smaller so the talent was more concentrated back then. Every team had multiple all stars.
Yet only one of them had 11 titles. There must be a reason for that
@@kinosineSo Sam Jones is automatically better than Jerry West because he won 10 rings to West's 1?
Would you as a team owner trade Jerry West for Sam Jones?
Absolutely agree with this, if I were to draft any player in the league during Russell's MVP's number 1, I'd pick Russell
@@kinosine exactly Wilt also played with Thurmond, Barry, Arizin, Hal Greer, Chet Walker, Gail Goodrich. Outside of Cousy and Havlicek, none of Russell teammates were better than West, Baylor, Cunningham or Arizin
I was waiting for this video for so long.
So Wilt, Kareem, Jordan, and Lebron are the most statistically dominant players of all time. Makes sense.
1960: Wilt keeps it
1961: Bill Russell loses it to Wilt(2)
1962: Bill Russell loses it to Wilt(3)
1963: Bill Russell loses it to Wilt(4)
1964: Oscar keeps it
1965: Bill Russell loses it to Oscar Robertson(2)
1966: Wilt loses it to West
1967: Wilt keeps it(5)
1968: Wilt keeps it(6)
1969: Unseld loses it to Reed
1970: Reed loses it to West(2)
1971: Kareem keeps it
1972: Kareem keeps it(2)
1973: Cowens loses it to Kareem(3)
1974: Kareem keeps it(4)
1975: McAdoo keeps it
1976: Kareem keeps it(5)
1977: Kareem keeps it(6)
1978: Walton loses it to Kareem(7)
1979: Moses Malone keeps it
1980: Kareem keeps it(8)
1981: Dr J loses it to Kareem(9)
1982: Moses Malone keeps it(2)
1983: Moses Malone keeps it(3)
1984: Bird loses it to Magic
1985: Bird keeps it
1986: Bird keeps it(2)
1987: Magic loses it to MJ
1988: MJ keeps it(2)
1989: Magic loses it to MJ(3)
1990: MJ keeps it(4)
1991: MJ keeps it(5)
1992: MJ keeps it(6)
1993: Barkley loses it to MJ(7)
1994: Hakeem keeps it
1995: David Robinson keeps it
1996: MJ keeps it(8)
1997: Karl "age doesn't matter" Malone keeps it
1998: MJ loses it to Karl Malone(2)
1999: Karl Malone loses it to Shaq
2000: Shaq keeps it(2)
2001: AI loses it to Shaq(3)
2002: Duncan keeps it
2003: Duncan loses it to Kobe
2004: Garnett keeps it
2005: Nash loses it to Garnett(2)
2006: Nash loses it to Kobe(2)
2007: Dirk loses it to Kobe(3)
2008: Kobe loses it CP3
2009: LeBron keeps it
2010: LeBron keeps it(2)
2011: DRose loses it to LeBron(3)
2012: LeBron keeps it(4)
2013: LeBron keeps it(5)
2014: KD keeps it
2015: Steph Loses it to AD
2016: Steph keeps it
2017: Westbrook keeps it
2018: Harden loses it to LeBron(6)
2019: Giannis keeps it
2020: Giannis keeps it(2)
2021: Jokic keeps it
2022: Jokic keeps it(2)
This is awesome, man! Thanks for making this. 👏🙌
Tracy mcgrady was the best player in 02-03, led the league in PPG, PER, WS/48, BPM, and VoRP
You criminally underrate Bill Russell. Did you take his MVP away in every possible year you could have?
Bill Russell was the most dominant player on the most dominant dynasty in NBA history. The 1969 championship over the heavily favored Lakers superteam with Wilt, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor was perhaps the greatest achievement of Bill Russell's career. He was head coach and one of the two best players on an inferior Celtics team.
Bill Russell was the greatest NBA player of the late 50s and 60s, whatever the stats say. Honestly it is a disgrace to the sport how much you underrated him.
There's a reason the Finals MVP award is named after Russell. Ultimately, you play the game to win. And Bill Russell won more than anyone else in his era.
Very informative breakdown with great attention to detail! 🔥vid
MJ is incredible. My goodness.
I understand the desire to take away the narrative and team sucess, but I do think winning should somewhat play a role in who the best player is. It's the point of basketball and superstars in basketball have more individual influence on a team more than any other sport
Not many critical comments
Fewer getting replies
Dude lost me at that statement
Apparently it's better to rack up garbage time stats than sit out the 4th quarter cos up 20
57:52 I think you can if your offense is so prolific it can hinder the output of your opponent due them expending so much energy defending you.. dame, steph, barkley, harden etc..
Hey, Johny. Do you think Embiid deserves.the MVP this year, or if Jokic should've gotten it?
Considering how much Jonny values defense he might edge it to Embiid
I know this video took a while so I had to leave a like for the amazing quality and research
YAY 1 hour video!!
Most Valuable Player is not the same thing as Best Individual. Ignoring team success ignores two things:
1) Basketball is a team sport, not an individual sport. 2) The object is to win games and championships. The Celtics had won nothing before Russell arrived and won nothing after he left (until Cowens arrived). In the 13 years Russell was there, the Celtics won 11 championships. They won those championships because Russell - was so valuable.
Arnett's MVP awards would go to the players with the highest individual stats, period. Problem is that what players do to help their teams win games often can't be measured in statistics, which is why I can't take Arnett seriously.
Not only does he not give Scottie Pippen the '94 MVP but doesn't even give him an honorable mention. Scottie is one of only two players in NBA history that led his team for a whole season in all 5 major stats Scoring, Rebounding, Assists, Steals and Blocks. And he carried a terrible Bulls squad to the second round of the playoffs. Wins the All Star MVP and not even gets mentioned in this video.... WTF!
@@ObjectiveEthics That terrible Bulls squad had 3 players making the all-star team that season. Pippen had a great season, but 22 points per game isn't MVP offensive numbers. It was the golden era of centers, and Hakeem, Robinson and Shaq were all in their primes. They put up MVP-numbers. Winning the All-star MVP isn't something that's going to get Pippen into the MVP-conversation.
The ways that the players help their teams win games has to be measured into numbers and then calculated into statistics, in order to compare different players. I can't take half the sports entertainment panelists seriously, as they usually don't know their basic stats, and then start to weave some false narration about how some players make their teammates so much better, are better leaders, or are more dominant than others. All those words are nearly always completely empty. Sometimes the opposite that they say is true. For example there are dozens of examples of LeBron obviously making his teammates worse. Even though half the media keeps repeating that LeBron is the one player who makes his teammates better the most.
@@penkima4923 The most PPG Bill Russell averaged was just under 19..yet he won the league MVP 5 times (deserved it, too). From McClymonds HS to USF to Boston, all Bill Russell's teams did was win..and win..and win. And Russell was the common denominator with all of them.
@@toddfrank3344 Another common denominator was that those teams had so many Hall of Fame players, that some of them had to come off the bench. Russell surely had great intangibles as a teammate, but just how do they compare to other great players, is very difficult to be certain of.
I love the video and for the most part you’re right but I believe teammates or lack of teammates should count for a small portion but great video 😊
Can you do a video on if whoever won the scoring title won the mvp that year?
Great work! Thank you
Bro are you immortal
Wilt was a freak his numbers at times were almost superhuman. 53 points, 32 rebounds, 14 assists, 24 blocks, and 11 steals. Wilts numbers for just 1 of his games. Therefore on judging the best player ever he is not given much recognition. The title best player ever means among mere mortals.
No notes, actually. I'm not 100% sure that the "best player on the best team" convention is bad, however. I agree that individual players can get stuck on bad teams, and their reputation and accolades suffer thereby. After all, my favorite player of all time is Patrick Ewing, who more or less single-handedly carried the New York Knicks into the playoffs with no help. His best teammate in all those years was a young Mark Jackson. But I also think it's a problem to award the MVP to a player on a non-contending team. You can get a lot of easy buckets and assists when your team is down by 20 points late in the 4th quarter, and that's going to happen a lot when your team isn't in playoff contention.
Patrick Ewing may not have been a deserving MVP at any point, but he might be a bit overlooked at times because of the other great centers of his generation.
Dude giving Wilt MVPs for essentially racking up garbage time stats!!
How you playing 48mins AND the game's close??
They NEEDED "every single minute he played"???
@@darrengordon-hill You try playing 82 games for 48 minutes on Converse All-Stars.
@@AaronMichaelLong
WHY WOULD I????
Who now plays 48mins with all the advances in sneakers???
I did gym class in plimsolls
I played soccer in mud fields with jumpers for goalposts, not on smooth AstroTurf with official sized goals and Nets.
What a stupid response!!!
@@darrengordon-hill What's stupid is pretending that you can compare athletes who are coddled with load management with a guy who played before de-segregation.
This can be used for the MJ vs Lebron debate
No it can't. It's completely subjective. For example if I defined MVP as most valuable to their team, I could make the argument that we should use the value over replacement stat (VORP) which tells you how much the player contributed to their team vs a bench player. LeBron in that metric is by far the single largest carrier in NBA history and would've won 9 MVPS purely based on the amount of times he lead the league in that advanced metric.
if bill russell had averaged 20-25 ppg he would have been able to keep some of his mvps
does Nikola Jokic deserve a 3xMVP when compared to one Bill Russell. By seasons 60/61 FG%42.6 AST 3.4 PTS 16.9. 61/62 FG%45.7 AST 4.5 PTS 18.9. 62/63 FG%43.2 AST 4.9 PTS 16.8. In his career, Jokic has only one season shooting from the field below 50% in 2017/18, i.e. 49.9 and according to that parameter he is unsurpassed. In this last triumphant season (FG%63.3), while Russell does not reach such a percentage even from free throws, only one match in the 22/23 season with FG below 50%. Unlike Jokic, Embiid has 14 and Giannis 20, respectively.
Definitely, his elite defence and contributions to winning basketball such that everyone around him plays better easily eclipses the statpadder
Russell won championships.
@@JT-km6th he is actually overated you cant be the best player in the 60's and by the same time never lead your team in scoring he was not a great player offensively ok he was an elite defender and rebounder but just that he played with the best roster each year
@@ntinoskap4413 stupid point, man said you can't be the best if you don't lead in scoring. What a stupid comment.
In your evaluation you forgot to include the influence that the players had on their team which is also an important aspect when it comes to the MVP race
People don't really realize how fast Jordan was unless you watched him really play. He was faster than anybody. Even today Jordan was faster in game than anything 2k could duplicate. It can't be done!
Who’s the best player you don’t see listed here:
This is every player who has ever finished top five in an MVP vote.
ABA Players (24):
Connie Hawkins
Doug Moe
Mel Daniels
Larry Jones
Willie Somerset
Jimmy Jones
Rick Barry
Spencer Haywood
Roger Brown
Bob Verga
Zelmo Beaty
Charlie Scott
Dan Issel
Artis Gilmore
Billy Cunningham
Julius Erving
George McGinnis
Ron Boone
Joe Caldwell
Willie Wise
Bobby Jones
Mack Calvin
James Silas
David Thompson
NBA Players (97):
Bob Pettit
Paul Arzin
Bob Cousy
Mel Hutchins
Dolph Schayes
Bill Sharman
George Yardley
Bill Russell
Maurice Stokes
Elgin Baylor
Wilt Chamberlain
Oscar Robertson
Jerry West
Sam Jones
Jerry Lucas
Nate Thurmond
Lenny Wilkens
Dave Bing
Wes Unseld
Willis Reed
Kareem Abdul Jabaar
Walt Frazier
John Havlicek
Dave Cowens
Tiny Archibald
Bob McAdoo
Bob Lainer
Elvin Hayes
Bill Walton
Pete Maravich
George Gervin
David Thompson
Walter Davis
Moses Malone
Bob Dandridge
Larry Bird
Dennis Johnson
Dan Roundfield
Robert Parish
Gus Williams
Magic Johnson
Sidney Moncrief
Bernard King
Isiah Thomas
Terry Cummings
Dominique Wilkins
Hakeem Olajuwon
Michael Jordan
Kevin McHale
Charles Barkley
Clyde Drexler
Karl Malone
Patrick Ewing
David Robinson
Scottie Pippen
Shaquille O’Neil
Penny Hardaway
Grant Hill
Tim Hardaway
Glen Rice
Gary Payton
Tim Duncan
Alonzo Mourning
Allen Iverson
Jason Kidd
Kevin Garnett
Chris Webber
Tracy McGrady
Kobe Bryant
Jermaine O’Neil
Peja Stojakovic
Steve Nash
Dirk Nowitski
LeBron James
Chauncey Billups
Chris Paul
Dwight Howard
Dwayne Wade
Kevin Durant
Derrick Rose
Tony Parker
Carmelo Anthony
Blake Griffin
Joakim Noah
James Harden
Stephen Curry
Russell Westbrook
Anthony Davis
Kawhi Leonard
Isaiah Thomas
Damian Lillard
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Paul George
Nikola Jokic
Luka Doncic
Joel Embid
Devin Booker
Probably Zion & Ja
Reggie Miller
The only year I feel like I am qualified to disagree with the stats on is 97. Although Malone's efficiency was certainly better, anyone watching that season knew which player was more impactful to winning. Also, although they were both first team all defense, there is a pretty wide gulf between those two defensively. Jordan was significantly more disruptive with his defense than Malone. It's similar to saying both Giannis and Embiid are first team all defense caliber defenders. That isn't necessarily untrue, but it doesn't properly describe each players defensive quality.
Wouldn’t you expect a power forward to be more efficient than a shooting guard?
@FortyNights yes certainly, especially in that era that had a rule set more favorable to big men in the post. You would expect Malone to have greater efficiency.
Though MJ obscured many of those ideas with his unusual efficiency throughout much of his career, it still holds true that Malone was expected to be more efficient.
Nash deserved his 2005 MVP cause he took a 29-53 win team the year before which had the same players & Mike D'antoni as the coach and turned them into a 62-20 win team. Nash was the missing piece to that team and to discredit and not even mention that fact is disrespectful for Nash accomplishments. The MVP is not always the best player but the player that is most valuable to their team. Nash was the no-brainer cause without Nash that team probably misses the playoffs again.
Sure you can argue Nash's 2006 MVP award cause i do agree that Kobe should've won that but again Nash without Amare for the entire season still had that team win 50 game & took that ragtag group of players to the Western Finals.