Retro Player of the Year 1970-71 UPDATE — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

[LA Bird]

Player of the Year
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
2. Oscar Robertson
3. Walt Frazier
4. Jerry West
5. Zelmo Beaty

Kareem with a dominant year on both ends but the Warriors and Lakers series were a precursor of the troubles to come in future postseasons. I feel like Kareem's individual offense was actually a bit underwhelming this year considering what we saw towards the end of his rookie season and next season but nobody else is remotely close enough to challenge him anyway.

Oscar being 2nd is not what I expected but this was a weak year in top end talent. Wilt still hasn't figured out what he is doing on the Lakers yet and West missed many games plus playoffs like in 1967. Beating the 5 SRS Bulls (in a 7 game series with a 1 point win) is nice but that team along with the post-Wilt Sixers were both regular season paper tigers that disappointed in the playoffs. Havlicek puts up his best raw stat line but the increase in scoring volume is offset by a decrease in efficiency and much of the team improvement could be accounted for by the arrival of Cowens and sophomore development of White. Frazier has the best box scores but the Knicks record tanked with the decline of Reed in the second half of the season (they started 29-8 with him) and they lost to an unspectacular Bullets team despite a strong performance from injured Reed in G7.

Beaty becomes the new ABA king immediately which says a lot about the quality of the league in those early years (and how underwhelming ABA Barry is). The Stars did already make the Finals the previous year despite mediocre SRS and they also added Red Robbins so I'm not sure the title itself is a good argument for Beaty. Still, top team success, dominant individual numbers, and proven history as borderline top 5 player even in NBA.

[AEnigma]

Votes are tallied. I recorded 10 voters: Djoker, AEnigma, Dutchball97, Dr. Positivity, Penbeast, La Bird, IlikeShaiGuys, One_and_Done, Narigo, and trelos. Penbeast, Narigo, One_and_Done, ILikeShaiGuys, and LA Bird abstained from voting for Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year. Please let me know if I seem to have missed or otherwise improperly recorded a vote.

1970-71 Results

(Retro) Offensive Player of the Year — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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Player       1st   2nd   3rd   Points  Shares
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar  4   1   0    23   0.920
2. Oscar Robertson  1   2   1   12    0.480
3. Jerry West   0   2   1    7    0.280
4. Walt Frazier   0   0   2    2    0.080
5. Billy Cunningham   0   0   1    1    0.040

(Retro) Defensive Player of the Year — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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Player         1st   2nd   3rd   Points  Shares
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar  3   0   2   17   0.680
2. Nate Thurmond    2   0   1    11    0.440
3. Dave DeBusschere    0   3   0    9    0.360
4. Wilt Chamberlain    0   2   1    7    0.280
5. Wes Unseld  0   0   1    1    0.040

Retro Player of the Year — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2) (Unanimous)

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Player      1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Pts  POY Shares
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 10 0 0 0 0   100   1.000
2. Walt Frazier  0  7  1  2  0   60   0.600
3. Oscar Robertson   0  1  5  1  0   35   0.350
4. Wilt Chamberlain  0  1  1  1  1   16   0.160
5. Jerry West  0  0  1  3  1   15   0.150
6. Zelmo Beaty   0  0  0  2  4   10   0.100
7a. Wes Unseld  0  1  0  0  1   8    0.080
7b. John Havlicek  0  0  1  1  0   8    0.080
9. Mel Daniels   0  0  1  0  0   5    0.050
10. Billy Cunningham  0  0  0  0  1   1    0.010
10. Chet Walker    0  0  0  0  1   1    0.010
10. Dave Bing    0  0  0  0  1   1    0.010

In the prior project, there were 17 votes, with Dr. Positivity and penbeast overlapping. With their prior ballots removed, these are the aggregated results of the two projects across 25 total ballots:

Spoiler:

Code: Select all

Player   1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Pts  POY Shares
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 25 0 0 0 0   250   1.000
2. Walt Frazier  0  11  6  8  0   131   0.600
3. Wilt Chamberlain  0  7  5  1  3   80   0.160
4. Oscar Robertson   0  2  10  3  3   76   0.350
5. Jerry West  0  3  2  6  4   53   0.150
6. John Havlicek  0  1  1  3  5   26    0.080
7. Zelmo Beaty   0  0  0  2  5   11   0.044
8. Wes Unseld  0  1  0  0  1   8    0.032
9a. Billy Cunningham    0  0  0  1  2   5    0.020
9b. Mel Daniels   0  0  1  0  0   5    0.020
11. Dave Bing    0  0  0  1  1   4    0.016
12. Chet Walker    0  0  0  0  1   1    0.004

1972 thread will open shortly.

[OhayoKD]

Seems I missed this one.

Probably would put Wilt 2nd and replace west and oscar with chet and beaty though I don't really have particularly strong opinions for 71 beyond Kareem 1