RealGM

There are several cases where you feel A player should have won the MVP over player B. Which do you consider is the most unfair? Do you agree with this ranking?

https://fadeawayworld.net/nba/10-greatest-nba-players-who-never-won-finals-mvp

1. Bill Russell - 1969 NBA Finals
Bill Russell: 9.1 PPG, 21.1 RPG, 5.1 APG
Jerry West (MVP): 37.9 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 7.4 APG
Jerry West, the only person to win the award while being on the losing team in the NBA Finals.

2. Steph Curry - 2015 NBA Finals
Steph Curry: 26.0 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 6.3 APG, 1.8 SPG, 0.2 BPG
Andre Iguodala (MVP): 16.3 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.3 BPG
Iguodala's defense was important, but to me it was more due to Nike's influence over Under Amor...

3. Elvin Hayes - 1978 NBA Finals
Elvin Hayes: 20.7 PPG, 11.9 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.6 SPG, 2.0 BPG
Wes Unseld (MVP): 9.0 PPG, 11.7 RPG, 0.6 APG, 0.6 SPG, 0.1 BPG
Hayes led the team in scoring, rebounding, steals, and blocks. The only reasonable explanation was that this was a cumulative award for Unseld's contributions as a Washington Bullet, while Hayes was the new guy.

I'd say White over Cowens in 76 and Hondo probably had a better case than Russ that year(69). Reed over Frazier in 70 as well was a robbery imo.

I think Frazier should have won the one in 1973, although it wasn't completely unfair.

I think Cowens should have won the FMVP in 1976, 1974 was a fair choice though. 1976 was definitely him though, he was excellent in the whole series.

1978 is very controversial and I'd have to rewatch this series very closely to draw a clear conclusion. I think Dandridge is also a strong candidate.

1979 definitely wasn't a robbery, but I think Gus Williams and Jack Sikma also deserved conversation.

1980 was a clear robbery to me, Kareem was head and shoulders above Magic in the first five games (with ATG performance in game 5). We all know why he didn't win that one though.

1981 was controversial and I think both Bird and Parish had stronger cases for the award. Parish defense on Moses was massive factor.

Magic should be robbed out of his 1980 award, but 1988 clearly belongs to him. Worthy had marvelous game 7, but over the whole series Magic was by far the best player on the floor, with not a single weak performance.

I think Rodman has a decent case for 1996 finals, but that's definitely not a robbery.

2004 could be really anybody from Pistons starting 5, they played so well in that series as a group.

You can argue that Manu was better than Duncan in 2005 finals, I think Duncan was critical for that win though.

2007 isn't a robbery, but it wasn't very competitive series. Duncan didn't win it because he shot poorly in two games and in such a short series it's enough to swing the averages down.

2008 should be Garnett's award. Celtics defense was the reason they won so convincingly and KG was the driving force behind it.

2015 should be Curry, asusming we don't give the award to losers.

2017 likely should be Curry's award, but the series wasn't ultra competitive.

Reed over Frazier 1970. Missed game and one leg for other is too much for me.

1980 Kareem who posted 33/14/3/5 on 55%

2008 Finals MVP: Boston nuked an excellent LA offense and KG was center of it.

Bill Russell never winning the Bill Russell Award is the greatest injustice of the award.

1973 Frazier, 2008 Garnett, 2015 Curry are probably my top 3, not counting the more obscure ones like 1978 which I'm not sure about.

West over Russell is perfectly fine.

Iguodala over LeBron was a travesty.

dygaction wrote:while Hayes was the new guy.

More like the disliked guy