Is Havlicek an MVP snub?

durantbird · Post #1 » by **durantbird** » Tue Jan 23, 2024 5:47 pm

How good was he in his prime? Should he have won MVP instead of Cowens?

AEnigma · Post #2 » by **AEnigma** » Tue Jan 23, 2024 5:54 pm

Cavsfansince84 · Post #3 » by **Cavsfansince84** » Tue Jan 23, 2024 6:04 pm

He was very good but 73 is sort of a down year after 71/72 and if anything it should have gone to Kareem. Cowens was likely the better choice for the Celtics.

Post #4 » by **tsherkin** » Tue Jan 23, 2024 6:35 pm

Nope, definitely not.

70sFan · Post #5 » by **70sFan** » Tue Jan 23, 2024 7:36 pm

Havlicek was unfortunate in terms of MVP voting, because he had his best seasons in the transitional period between Russell era and Hondo/Cowens era. I do think he could have got the MVP talks in different circumstances, although I don't think he was ever a solid MVP candidate.

I basically view his peak in similar light to guys like Pippen or Butler and such tier of players don't include clear MVP guys.

Post #6 » by **tsherkin** » Tue Jan 23, 2024 7:46 pm

70sFan wrote:Havlicek was unfortunate in terms of MVP voting, because he had his best seasons in the transitional period between Russell era and Hondo/Cowens era. I do think he could have got the MVP talks in different circumstances, although I don't think he was ever a solid MVP candidate.

I basically view his peak in similar light to guys like Pippen or Butler and such tier of players don't include clear MVP guys.

Hard to envision him as a legit MVP candidate.

Posted big stats, bolstered by big minutes. Not an elite-tier scorer. Hard to evaluate his passing. We're talking about a solid 20/7/6 guy PER36 for most of his career, but also a guy who was inefficient with Russell and hovered around league average thereafter apart from 1970 and 71... by which point he wasn't anywhere near the MVP with Kareem in the league. He definitely wasn't better than West or Oscar prior to that.

Good player. Major contributor on a bunch of title teams. Just not an MVP-level guy.

Dr Positivity · Post #7 » by **Dr Positivity** » Tue Jan 23, 2024 7:55 pm

I don't think him or Cowens should have been a winner as it's not clear enough who the best player is

falcolombardi · Post #8 » by **falcolombardi** » Tue Jan 23, 2024 8:00 pm

Depends what year do you think he was clearly the league best player

eminence · Post #9 » by **eminence** » Tue Jan 23, 2024 8:14 pm

Short answer - no.

Longer answer - snub to me implies he was clearly deserving and didn't get it, which I don't see much of a case for. But he was a good enough player that it wouldn't have been a sin for him to win one either. Several guys from that era with similar levels of peak/prime play who did manage to snag an MVP award between Unseld/Reed/Cowens/McAdoo (ymmv on those choices).

We could go into the ABA award as well, but let's not.