Steph Curry Being First Unanimous MVP Shows How Unpopular or Underappreciated Abdul-Jabbar and Chamberlain Were

Steph Curry made history today, becoming the first unanimous NBA MVP. That factoid kind of surprised me. Sure, Curry was the no-brainer choice and should have won, but he is probably not the most dominant season in NBA history relative to his peers, and it probably says more about other factors.

Here, using basketball-reference historic data, are the largest differences in “win shares” between the top player and the 2nd-highest player:

The players in gray won MVP, but those highlighted in red did not even get selected for the award despite the large statistical advantage they had. The top of the list is dominated by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain, with five combined seasons where they were at least 5 wins better than anyone else. And Wilt had one of the most dominant seasons ever in 1962 and lost out to Bill Russell. There are 26 seasons listed there, including Curry this year. Fourteen of them are Wilt and Kareem, with five of them being non-MVP years.

Curry being a unanimous choice is as much a function of his likability with writers, identifiability (you might notice that most of the people on that list are big men), and his team being a historic winner. For all their greatness, Wilt and Kareem weren’t always the most likable with the writers, and they also had other teams in the league that were considered “winners” that affected those debates.

The interesting thing about Curry being unanimous (which he should be) is more that there were always lone wolfs and differing arguments that robbed some of the most dominant seasons in league history of that honor.

[photo via USA Today Sports Images]