6 biggest MVP snubs in NBA history

There's only one important distinction to consider when weighing the merits of the NBA's previous Most Valuable Player Award recipients: Until 1980, the players themselves voted to determine the regular season's top performer. Media members took over those responsibilities starting in 1980-81.

With that caveat in mind, let's count down the six most-egregious MVP snubs in NBA history:

6. Iverson over O'Neal, 2001

Allen Iverson’s Philadelphia 76ers and Shaquille O’Neal’s Los Angeles Lakers both won 56 games in 2000-01, trailing only the 58-win Spurs for the best record in the league.

However, "The Answer" played considerably more contests against a weak Eastern Conference featuring only two other 50-plus-win teams - Ray Allen's Milwaukee Bucks and Alonzo Mourning's Miami Heat. Meanwhile, the West featured seven: The Spurs, Lakers, Chris Webber’s Kings, the still-relevant John Stockton and Karl Malone-led Jazz, the rising Dirk Nowitzki-Steve Nash duo for the Mavericks, Jason Kidd’s Suns, and a bruising “Jail Blazers” squad.

Against a tougher slate, Shaq averaged close to 29-13-4 with 2.8 blocks in 81 games that season. He was nearly unguardable in the low post, and the closest the NBA has come to Wilt Chamberlain in the modern era.

There's no doubt Iverson produced a must-see spectacle. Playing an incredible (and by today’s standards, inadvisable) 42 minutes per game, the sub-6-foot dynamo averaged close to 31-4-5 with a league-best 2.5 steals per game. (He also missed nine games that year, and the 76ers went 5-4 in his absence.)

The biggest difference between the two candidacies here is what Iverson took off the table. His fearlessness resulted in more than a few ill-advised shots, and his lack of size made him a liability on the defensive end, though he was adept at jumping passing lanes.

Physical presence and shooting efficiency (charity stripe aside) weren't concerns for peak Shaq. He was every bit as dominant in the early aughts as Iverson, but O'Neal didn't hurt his team nearly as often. That 2000-01 MVP should have been awarded to him.

5. Westbrook over Harden, Leonard in 2017

Statistically, Russell Westbrook made a strong case for taking home the MVP Award in 2017. The then-Oklahoma City Thunder star averaged a league-leading 31.6 points per game with 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists, and he also led the league in player efficiency rating (30.6), box plus-minus (11.1), and value over replacement player (9.3).

Of course, there are two massive storylines to consider: Westbrook was keeping the Thunder afloat following Kevin Durant's shocking defection to the Warriors in 2016, and he was only the second player to average a triple-double over an entire season.

But even with Westbrook leading the charge, OKC only mustered a 47-35 (.573) record - 20 games behind the West-leading Warriors. Meanwhile, both James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, the second- and third-place MVP finishers, finished with exceptional campaigns for far superior teams.

Harden put up over 29-8-11 and 1.5 steals per game, all while leading the league in assists. His style of play also unlocked the talents of his teammates, a cohort of catch-and-shoot role players. The Rockets' expertly crafted group amassed 55 wins to finish third in the West.

For his part, Kawhi averaged nearly 26-6-4 with 1.8 steals per game, dragging a Spurs roster featuring a backline of LaMarcus Aldridge and end-of-the-road Pau Gasol to the top defensive rating in the league.

Harden and Leonard were nearly as great as Westbrook individually, but both elevated their teammates. Ultimately, Harden, who led the league in win shares and posted a vastly more efficient scoring profile, should have taken the award over his former Thunder (and now-Rockets) teammate.

4. Russell over Chamberlain in 1962

Celtics icon Bill Russell was a five-time MVP in his career, while Wilt Chamberlain won the award four times. Exactly how each man arrived at his final tally carries less importance with each passing year.

Except for one notable exception: Wilt averaged 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds per game for the Philadelphia Warriors in 1961-62, but Russell still took home top honors.

(That was also the season Oscar Robertson averaged a triple-double to finish third in MVP voting, which kind of invalidates any argument that simply averaging a triple-double for an entire season guarantees MVP honors. Elgin Baylor put up 38-19-5 as a part-time player that campaign, too, even while serving as an army reservist on a military base in Washington state from Monday to Friday.)

There's plenty written about Russell's unselfishness and defensive prowess - attributes that are tough to parse out simply by staring at his Basketball-Reference page. He certainly put together a better career than Chamberlain, earning 11 championships to his foil's two rings.

But it's weird to not recognize Wilt's 50-26 line as the most jaw-dropping season-long feat in league history. Relative to the contemporaries of his era, no player has been better at scoring.

3. Bryant over Paul in 2008

After leading the league in scoring from 2005 to 2007 (but with a record barely above .500 and two first-round playoff exits to show for it), Kobe Bryant scaled back his shot attempts in 2007-08.

The Black Mamba still put up over 28-6-5 with nearly two steals per outing while shooting 45.9% from the floor with great (if slightly overrated) defense, and the Lakers improved from 42 wins to 57. The turnaround was partly chalked up to Bryant embracing more of a team-first approach, and that narrative essentially carried him to his lone career MVP trophy.

But the award should have gone to Chris Paul, who posted a monster third year with the then-New Orleans Hornets, averaging 21.1 points, 11.6 assists (a league and career high), four boards, and 2.7 steals (also a league high). The Hornets finished just one game back from the Lakers for the top seed in the West.

The advanced numbers back up the case for Paul, who torched Kobe in each of the four main metrics:

It feels a little wrong to retroactively reclaim Kobe's only MVP honor, but it's hard not to wonder if the voting might have been different if CP3 had played for a historically significant franchise like the Lakers.

2. Nash over Nowitzki, James, and Bryant, 2006

On an individual level, Steve Nash's second MVP season was even better than his first. With Amar'e Stoudemire missing all but three games due to injury, the floor general shouldered the load alongside his historically underrated co-pilot Shawn Marion. Nash averaged close to 19-4-11 with 51.2% shooting from the floor, 43.9% on 3-pointers, and 92.1% from the free-throw line.

So even though the Phoenix Suns dropped to 54 victories after a 62-win season in 2004-05, Nash held on to his MVP trophy, beating out a trio of worthy candidates: LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kobe Bryant.

Here's how the four compared in terms of advanced numbers (listed in order of the MVP balloting):

Nash finished last - by a wide margin - in each of the four catchall advanced metrics.

LeBron probably would have won his first MVP Award this season, if not for the Detroit Pistons. It's tough to give a fourth-seeded Cavs team a ton of credit when they were 14 games behind the conference leaders.

Similarly, the Lakers wouldn't have gone anywhere without Kobe. But even with the Black Mamba scoring a league-high 35.5 points per game, L.A. finished just 45-37 (.549). That would have been the worst record for an MVP's team since 1976.

That leaves Dirk as the biggest snub from the 2005-06 MVP race. The Dunking Deutschman put up close to 27-9-3 with exceptional (almost Nashian) shooting splits for a 60-win Dallas team. Ignoring their eventual collapse, the Mavericks' run to the 2006 NBA Finals is a strong testament to Nowitzki's impact that season.

Thankfully, all three snubs would be made whole in short order, with Dirk taking the crown in 2007 when Nash was arguably at his most deserving, Kobe winning in 2008, and LeBron securing his first of four MVP trophies in 2009.

Nash's iffy win in 2006 was like Denzel Washington losing out on Best Actor for "Malcolm X" in 1992, creating a ripple effect throughout many awards seasons to come.

1. Malone over MJ, 1997

Let's start with the brass tax. Here's a basic statistical comparison of Karl Malone's 1996-97 MVP season versus Michael Jordan's numbers the same year:

It's pretty much a wash, and numbers you'd expect from All-NBA talents at their respective positions.

However, the advanced metrics begin to tilt the argument in Jordan's favor:

Malone led the league in player efficiency rating that year, but Jordan took the three other big advanced metrics.

There's no denying that the Chicago Bulls, coming off a historic 72-win season in 1995-96, were a powerhouse. Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman were future Hall of Famers, and Toni Kukoc, Steve Kerr, and Ron Harper were top role players. Those five combined for 39.2 win shares that season.

But the 1996-97 Utah Jazz weren't exactly Iverson's 76ers in 2001 or Westbrook's Thunder in 2017. The five best players in Utah after Malone were Hall of Fame point guard John Stockton, Jeff Hornacek, Bryon Russell, Greg Ostertag, and Antoine Carr. That quintet posted a combined 39.5 win shares. There were plenty of solid (and a few spectacular) players supporting both Jordan and Malone.

Both teams led their respective conferences. The Bulls went 69-13 (.841) in the East when nine of the conference's 15 teams finished with winning records and six notched 50-plus victories. Malone's Jazz went 64-18 (.780) amid a Western Conference with three sub-.500 teams qualifying for the postseason.

Voters started to take Jordan's greatness for granted after awarding him MVP on four prior occasions. Meanwhile, Malone had consistently remained on the cusp, finishing in the top five in MVP balloting five times.

The Bulls dropping from 72 wins to 69 was all voters needed to convince themselves that someone other than Jordan could be the most important and most valuable player in 1996-97 - resulting in the worst aberration in the history of MVP snubbery.