The NBA MVP award is the league’s highest individual honour. It goes to the player judged most valuable across the regular season. Unlike a scoring title decided purely by numbers, the MVP award involves a vote, opinion and debate. This guide explains how the NBA MVP voting works and looks back at some of the players who have won it.
What does MVP stand for and how is it decided?
MVP stands for Most Valuable Player. Each season, a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters across the United States and Canada casts votes ranking their top five candidates. Points are awarded based on where each voter ranks a player. The player with the most points wins.
Unlike some awards based purely on statistics, the MVP vote is subjective. Voters weigh team success, individual statistics, the strength of a player’s supporting cast, and the general narrative of the season. Because of that, the debate about who deserves it often continues long after voters announce the winner.
NBA MVP: the most decorated winners
A small group of players have won the NBA MVP award multiple times. That achievement cements their place among the greatest to play the game:
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: six MVP awards, the most of any player in NBA history.
- Michael Jordan: five MVP awards, spread across different eras of the Chicago Bulls dynasty.
- Bill Russell: five MVP awards, won during the Boston Celtics’ dominant championship run.
- LeBron James: four MVP awards, won across three different decades of his career.
- Wilt Chamberlain: four MVP awards, including the season he averaged 50.4 points per game.
Nikola Jokiฤ’s unusual path to multiple MVPs
The Denver Nuggets selected Nikola Jokiฤ, a Serbian centre, 41st overall in the 2014 draft. He went on to become one of the most decorated MVP winners of the modern era, despite not being an obvious physical specimen by NBA standards. His MVP seasons came thanks to extraordinary passing ability for a player his size, elite scoring efficiency and a mastery of the game’s fundamentals, rather than pure athleticism. That is a reminder that MVP voters reward basketball skill in many different forms.
Team success and the MVP debate
Historically, MVP voters have leaned toward players on winning teams. After all, it is difficult to argue a player was the league’s most valuable if his team missed the playoffs. However, there have been exceptions. Russell Westbrook won the award in 2016โ17 while averaging a triple-double for the entire season, a statistical feat not achieved since the 1960s. His Oklahoma City Thunder team, notably, was not among the league’s very best that year.
How the MVP differs from Finals MVP
Do not confuse the regular season MVP award with the Finals MVP award. The Finals MVP goes to the best player across the NBA Finals series specifically. A player can win both in the same year, but many great players have won one without the other. LeBron James, for example, has won several Finals MVP awards across his career. Voters decide the two honours separately, and they reward different things.
Youngest and oldest MVP winners
The MVP award has gone to players at very different career stages. Derrick Rose became the youngest MVP winner in NBA history at 22 years old in 2010โ11. At the other end of the scale, players have won the award into their mid-thirties. That shows sustained excellence, not just peak athleticism, can carry a player to the top of the vote.
Why the NBA MVP race matters
The MVP race adds a season-long storyline on top of the fight for playoff positioning. Fans and media track advanced statistics, team records and highlight-reel performances all season. They build a case for their preferred candidate long before voters announce the official result.
To understand how the regular season fits into the wider year, read our guide to the NBA season format. For official MVP voting results, visit the NBA’s official awards page, or browse more NBA guides.