The NBA will rename its regular season MVP award in honor of Michael Jordan, the player who topped ESPN’s ranking of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team last season.
The league unveiled the Michael Jordan Trophy on Tuesday, along with five other reimagined trophies named after league pioneers that will now be presented to the winners of the NBA’s end-of-season awards.
Jordan was a five-time MVP winner during his 15-season career. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbarfor whom the league’s Champion of Social Justice award was named, has won the most MVP trophies (six).
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokicwill retroactively receive the first version of the new trophy after being named MVP last season.
In addition to the Jordan Trophy, the other renowned awards are:
• Trophy Hakeem Olajuwon Defensive Player of the Year
• Trophy wilt chamberlain Rookie of the Year
• Trophy john havlicek Sixth Man of the Year
• George Mikan Trophy for Most Improved Player
Olajuwon was selected to the All-Defensive Team nine times and won Defensive Player of the Year awards in 1993 and 1994. Chamberlain won both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in 1960, averaging 37.6 points per game in his first season. Havlicek was an 11-time All-NBA selection despite coming off the bench for multiple seasons, though his career predated the creation of the Sixth Man of the Year award in 1982-83. And Mikan was widely considered the league’s first superstar, leading the Minneapolis Lakers to five championships in the 1940s and 1950s.
The league also announced a new Clutch Player of the Year award, named after Jerry Westwho played in nine Finals and remains the only player to win Finals MVP and lose the series.
The trophy updates are part of a project to reinvent many of the NBA’s biggest accolades. Last season, the NBA introduced an updated Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, along with new conference championship trophies bearing the names of Oscar Robertson and Bob Cousyplus conference finals MVP trophies bearing the names of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
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NBA names MVP award for Michael Jordan