Throughout NBA history, there have been 63 MVPs and only six times has the winner of the award lead a team with winning percentage less than .600.
Looking at all 60+ MVP award winners since the league started handing out the award tells us how to define “valuable” when the inevitable MVP voting discussion rears it’s head in June. The question is how much should voters value winning over individual accomplishment? How heavy should that player’s contribution to their team weigh in the decision? If NBA history means anything, the answer is pretty clear. Let’s take a deeper look.
What Factors Determines “Most Valuable”
When it comes down to it, how one votes for the MVP depends on their definition of “valuble. So, what does “most valuable” mean when we speak of an NBA MVP?
The NBA MVP award has quickly become a yearly discussion in how to define it, what criteria should be weighed, what are the requirements and which factors should have the most influence? There are several angles one can take when discussing the merits of the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award, but the argument every year seems to boil down to two main interpretations of “most valuable”.
The first argument isn’t complicated; it’s basically the best player on one of the top four teams in the league (record-wise). The other argument takes “Most Valuable Player” much more literally; they argue that the “most valuable” is exactly that — the player that means the most to their teams. The hypothetical that’s used most often is if we removed that player from the team and replaced with an average player, the team would be a complete mess.
Most seasons, those two conversations coalesce and make voting for the two or three MVP candidates easy, but every few years there’s a player having such an extraordinary season that despite his team’s record, he forces his name into the conversation. The player is no doubt one of the best players that season, yet their team isn’t in any serious conversations for the NBA Championship.
Winning Matters Most for MVPs (Usually)
It’s insightful to have the MVP’s team records to evaluate when and how the trophy has been awarded in the past. Of the 63 NBA MVPs from the 1955-56 season to the 2016-17 season, here’s how their teams fared:
- 39 played for the team with that year’s best regular season record.
- 23 of them won that season’s championship.
As we mentioned earlier, since the first MVP award was given out in 1956, there have only been six MVPs that played on teams that have fallen below the .600 winning percentage. And shockingly, there have been two NBA MVPs whose teams were lost more games than they won.
| Season | Player | Team | Record | Team Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Moses Malone | Houston Rockets | 47-35 | 0.573 |
| 2017 | Russell Westbrook | Oklahoma City Thunder | 47-35 | 0.573 |
| 1982 | Moses Malone | Houston Rockets | 46-36 | 0.561 |
| 1976 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Los Angeles Lakers | 40-42 | 0.488 |
| 1956 | Bob Pettit | St. Louis Hawks | 33-39 | 0.458 |
Here’s all 63 NBA MVPs and sorted by their team’s winning percentage — from highest to lowest.
| Year | MVP | Team Record | Team Win% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Stephen Curry | 73-9 | 0.890 |
| 1996 | Michael Jordan | 72-10 | 0.878 |
| 1967 | Wilt Chamberlain | 68-13 | 0.840 |
| 1973 | Dave Cowens | 68-14 | 0.829 |
| 1986 | Larry Bird | 67-15 | 0.817 |
| 1992 | Michael Jordan | 67-15 | 0.817 |
| 2000 | Shaquille O'neal | 67-15 | 0.817 |
| 2007 | Dirk Nowitzki | 67-15 | 0.817 |
| 2015 | Steph Curry | 67-15 | 0.817 |
| 1971 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 66-16 | 0.805 |
| 2009 | LeBron James | 66-16 | 0.805 |
| 2013 | LeBron James | 66-16 | 0.805 |
| 1983 | Moses Malone | 65-17 | 0.793 |
| 2018 | James Harden | 65-17 | 0.793 |
| 1987 | Magic Johnson | 65-17 | 0.793 |
| 1997 | Karl Malone | 64-18 | 0.780 |
| 1965 | Bill Russell | 62-18 | 0.775 |
| 1972 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 63-19 | 0.768 |
| 1985 | Larry Bird | 63-19 | 0.768 |
| 1990 | Magic Johnson | 63-19 | 0.768 |
| 1968 | Wilt Chamberlain | 62-20 | 0.756 |
| 1981 | Julius Erving | 62-20 | 0.756 |
| 1984 | Larry Bird | 62-20 | 0.756 |
| 1993 | Charles Barkley | 62-20 | 0.756 |
| 1995 | David Robinson | 62-20 | 0.756 |
| 1998 | Michael Jordan | 62-20 | 0.756 |
| 2005 | Steve Nash | 62-20 | 0.756 |
| 2011 | Derick Rose | 62-20 | 0.756 |
| 1962 | Bill Russell | 60-20 | 0.750 |
| 1991 | Michael Jordan | 61-21 | 0.744 |
| 2010 | LeBron James | 61-21 | 0.744 |
| 1999 | Karl Malone | 37-13 | 0.740 |
| 1970 | Willis Reed | 60-22 | 0.732 |
| 1980 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 60-22 | 0.732 |
| 2003 | Tim Duncan | 60-22 | 0.732 |
| 1963 | Bill Russell | 58-22 | 0.725 |
| 1961 | Bill Russell | 57-22 | 0.722 |
| 1974 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 59-23 | 0.720 |
| 2014 | Kevin Durant | 59-23 | 0.720 |
| 1978 | Bill Walton | 58-24 | 0.707 |
| 1994 | Hakeem Olajuwon | 58-24 | 0.707 |
| 2002 | Tim Duncan | 58-24 | 0.707 |
| 2004 | Kevin Garnett | 58-24 | 0.707 |
| 2012 | LeBron James | 46-20 | 0.697 |
| 1969 | Wes Unseld | 57-25 | 0.695 |
| 1989 | Magic Johnson | 57-25 | 0.695 |
| 2008 | Kobe Bryant | 57-25 | 0.695 |
| 1964 | Oscar Robertson | 55-25 | 0.688 |
| 1966 | Wilt Chamberlain | 55-25 | 0.688 |
| 2001 | Allen Iverson | 56-26 | 0.683 |
| 1958 | Bill Russell | 49-23 | 0.681 |
| 1959 | Bob Pettit | 49-23 | 0.681 |
| 2006 | Steve Nash | 54-28 | 0.659 |
| 1960 | Wilt Chamberlain | 49-26 | 0.653 |
| 1977 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 53-29 | 0.646 |
| 1957 | Bob Cousy | 44-28 | 0.611 |
| 1988 | Michael Jordan | 50-32 | 0.610 |
| 1975 | Bob McAdoo | 49-33 | 0.598 |
| 1979 | Moses Malone | 47-35 | 0.573 |
| 2017 | Russell Westbrook | 47-35 | 0.573 |
| 1982 | Moses Malone | 46-36 | 0.561 |
| 1976 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 40-42 | 0.488 |
| 1956 | Bob Pettit | 33-39 | 0.458 |
Only once in the last 18 years did a player win the MVP with a win % less than .600 — Westbrook in 2017 . Outside of that, it wasn’t even close. The other 17 MVPs were on teams that won well-above 60% of their regular season games. In fact, they were all above .650. The team record closest to Westbrooks was Steve Nash‘s 2006 Phoenix Suns with a relatively-weak .659.
With that in front of us and seeing as there’s only been six MVPs that had teams that finished below .600 in NBA’s 60+ years, it’s safe to say that winning is the biggest factor when determining the league’s MVP. Putting it another way, approximately 9% of all regular season MVPs were given to players that had a very special season, but their teams weren’t even close to their greatness, record-wise.
On the other side, more than 90% of the time an MVP’s team finished well above the .600 mark and was usually one of the top one, two or three teams in the entire league. Using NBA history as what voters valued when determining the league’s MVP, winning matters the most when looking at “most valuable”.
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