NBA renames MVP award after Michael Jordan amongst others

• The NBA league has renamed the annual MVP award for the regular NBA season
• The MVP award will now be named after NBA legend Michael Jordan 
• The league has also renamed other NBA trophies after several other legends who played in the league

Michael Jordan, the player that finished first on ESPN’s list of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team named last season, will now be the recipient of the league’s annual MVP award for the regular season.

On Tuesday, the NBA revealed the revamped Michael Jordan Trophy and five additional medals honouring the league’s pioneers. These trophies will now be awarded to the NBA’s end-of-season performance award winners.

Jordan won the MVP award five times during his 15-year career. The only player to have earned more MVP awards is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in whose honour the league’s Social Justice Champion award is named (six).

After being chosen MVP last season, Denver Nuggets centre Nikola Jokic will retroactively earn the inaugural iteration of the new award.

NBA legend Michael Jordan will now see the NBA MVP award renamed after him. | PHOTO: NBA |

In addition to the Michael Jordan trophy, other  renamed awards are:

• The Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy for Defensive Player of the Year
• The Wilt Chamberlain Trophy for Rookie of the Year
• The John Havlicek Trophy for Sixth Man of the Year
• The George Mikan Trophy for Most Improved Player

Olajuwon won Defensive Player of the Year in 1993 and 1994 and was chosen for the All-Defensive Team nine times. In 1960, Chamberlain, who averaged 37.6 points per game in his rookie season, earned the Rookie of the Year and MVP awards. Despite spending numerous seasons on the bench, Havlicek was an 11-time All-NBA pick, even though his career began before the 1982–83 season when the Sixth Man of the Year Award was established. In addition, Mikan, who led the Minneapolis Lakers to five titles in the 1940s and 1950s, was widely considered as the league’s first superstar.

Jerry West, who participated in nine Finals and is still the only player to win Finals MVP after losing the series, will be honoured with a new award for Clutch Player of the Year, according to the league.

A multiyear endeavour to redesign many of the NBA’s most significant awards includes the new trophy revisions. In addition to new conference championship trophies named after Oscar Robertson and Bob Cousy and conference finals MVP trophies named after Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, the NBA unveiled an updated version of the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy last season.

The NBA Michael Jordan Trophy will be handed to the NBA MVP winner. | PHOTO: NBA |

“Our new collection of trophies celebrates some of the greatest and most impactful players in the history of the NBA,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement seen by SportsLeo. “As we recognize the league’s top performers each season, we also pay tribute to the legends who embody these prestigious awards.”

In order to reach the ultimate rock—a crystal basketball—an NBA player is shown climbing out of a rock on the Michael Jordan Trophy. Former league commissioner Maurice Podoloff’s name will now be connected to a new trophy commemorating the team with the greatest regular-season record. Podoloff’s name was previously tied to the league’s MVP trophy.

The NBA said in a statement that the new trophy represents the MVP’s hard work and advancement from joining the NBA to winning the league’s highest individual distinction by becoming more burnished from bottom to top, or “raw to refined.”