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Here is every NBA Finals MVP in league history – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
Here is every NBA Finals MVP in league history originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Nikola Jokic just added an NBA Finals MVP to pair with his two regular-season editions.
Jokic and the Denver Nuggets defeated Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat in a five-game series to cap off the 2022-23 NBA season on Monday night.
Even though the 28-year-old Serbian didn’t win the awards in the same season, it’s still a massive accomplishment that few players have ever achieved.
Here’s everything to know about the NBA Finals MVP award since its creation in the late 1960s.
The first ever NBA Finals MVP was awarded to Jerry West in 1968-69. West suited up for the Los Angeles Lakers, who lost the series 4-3 to the Boston Celtics. In that series, West averaged 37.9 points, 7.4 assists and 4.7 rebounds while shooting 49% from the field (96-for-196) and 83.9% from the foul line (73-for-87).
There has been only one losing player to win the NBA Finals MVP – Jerry West. It happened in the aforementioned series in which West and the Lakers lost 4-3 to the Celtics in the 1969 NBA Finals.
Michael Jordan has won the most NBA Finals MVPs with six, each coming with the Chicago Bulls.
LeBron James has won the award four times – the only player to do so on three different teams – while Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan all won it three times.
There have been 54 NBA players who have won Finals MVP since the 1968-69 campaign. Here’s a list of each winner in reverse chronological order:
There have been 15 instances where the winner of the regular-season NBA MVP also won the Finals edition. The most recent came in 2012 and 2013 when LeBron James achieved the feat in consecutive seasons, though Michael Jordan has done it the most times (four).
Here’s a chronological look starting from 1970, when Willis Reed became the first player to do so with the New York Knicks:
1970: Willis Reed
1971: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1983: Moses Malone
1984: Larry Bird
1986: Larry Bird
1987: Magic Johnson
1991: Michael Jordan
1992: Michael Jordan
1994: Hakeem Olajuwon
1996: Michael Jordan
1998: Michael Jordan
2000: Shaquille O’Neal
2003: Tim Duncan
2012: LeBron James
2013: LeBron James