Who is the NBA’s All-Time MVP? As Smash Mouth said in the song “All Star”: “Yep, what a concept.” OMG, the comments on the NBA’s 50 Greatest were outrageous enough, let alone adding in today’s players. But, in a rudimentary statistical analysis, let’s see how the ball bounces.
Methodology.
- Overall, twenty NBA All-Stars were included in the sample.
- The ten NBA MVP award winners since 2000, which consists of Allen Iverson (2001), Tim Duncan (2002-2003), Kevin Garnett (2004), Steve Nash (2005-2006), Dirk Nowitzki (2007), Kobe Bryant (2008), LeBron James (2009, 2010, 2012, and -2013), Derrick Rose (2011), Kevin Durant (2014), and Stephen Curry (2015).
- The top ten statistically rated players from the NBA’s 50 Greatest List, as determined by my analysis (see http://hoopsbusiness.com/?p=166). This list consists of Elgin Baylor, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, Bob Pettit, Bill Russell, Jerry West, and Wilt Chamberlain.
- These twenty NBA players were rated from 1 (the best) through 20 (the lowest) in a “Weighted Average” comparison based on their career performance in each of the following six categories:
- Points per Game (PPG), worth 15.0% of the Weighted Average.
- Rebounds per Game (RPG), worth 15.0% of the Weighted Average.
- Assists per Game (APG), worth 15.0% of the Weighted Average.
- Minutes per Game (MPG), worth 15.0% of the Weighted Average.
- “Rings” won, worth 25.0% of the Weighted Average.
- MVPs won, worth 15.0% of the Weighted Average.
- If two or more players were tied with the same data, they were each given the best rank possible. Thus, in PPG, MJ and Wilt both earned a “1” (the best score) because they had identical 30.1 averages, the highest PPG average.
- The Weighted Average shows the factored average of all six categories of data, with the lowest number being the best rank. All six data categories were multiplied by the assigned percentage and then added together to arrive at the Weighted Average.
Results.
| Name
|
P | Points15.0%
Rank/PPG |
Rebounds15.0%
Rank/RPG |
Assists15.0%
Rank/APG |
Minutes15.0%
Rank/MPG |
Rings Won25.0%
Rank/Rings |
MVPs Won15.0%
Rank/MVPs |
WeightedAverage | ||||||
| Wilt | C | 1 | 30.1 | 1 | 22.9 | 12 | 4.4 | 1 | 45.8 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4.850 |
| Russell | C | 19 | 15.1 | 2 | 22.5 | 13 | 4.3 | 2 | 42.3 | 1 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 5.950 |
| MJ | G | 1 | 30.1 | 14 | 6.2 | 10 | 5.3 | 10 | 38.3 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 6.050 |
| LeBron | F | 4 | 27.3 | 12 | 7.1 | 4 | 6.9 | 6 | 39.3 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 6.500 |
| Kareem | C | 11 | 24.6 | 5 | 11.2 | 16 | 3.6 | 12 | 36.8 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 7.250 |
| Oscar | G | 9 | 25.7 | 10 | 7.5 | 2 | 9.5 | 3 | 42.2 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 7.750 |
| Magic | G | 16 | 19.5 | 11 | 7.2 | 1 | 11.2 | 13 | 36.7 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 8.050 |
| Bird | F | 12 | 24.3 | 8 | 10.0 | 8 | 6.3 | 9 | 38.4 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 8.200 |
| Pettit | F | 8 | 26.4 | 3 | 16.2 | 19 | 3.0 | 8 | 38.8 | 10 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 9.400 |
| Kobe | G | 10 | 25.4 | 16 | 5.3 | 11 | 4.8 | 14 | 36.5 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 10.300 |
| West | G | 6 | 27.0 | 15 | 5.8 | 6 | 6.7 | 7 | 39.2 | 10 | 1 | 19 | 0 | 10.450 |
| Baylor | F | 3 | 27.4 | 4 | 13.5 | 13 | 4.3 | 5 | 40.0 | 16 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 10.600 |
| Duncan | F | 16 | 19.5 | 6 | 11.0 | 18 | 3.1 | 19 | 34.4 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 11.050 |
| Iverson | G | 7 | 26.7 | 18 | 3.7 | 9 | 6.2 | 4 | 41.1 | 16 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 11.350 |
| Curry | G | 14 | 20.9 | 17 | 4.1 | 4 | 6.9 | 17 | 35.0 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 11.950 |
| Durant | F | 4 | 27.3 | 13 | 6.9 | 17 | 3.5 | 11 | 38.0 | 16 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 12.400 |
| Garnett | F | 18 | 18.2 | 7 | 10.2 | 15 | 3.8 | 17 | 35.0 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 12.700 |
| Nowitzki | F | 13 | 22.2 | 9 | 7.9 | 20 | 2.6 | 16 | 35.5 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 12.850 |
| Rose | G | 15 | 20.4 | 18 | 3.7 | 7 | 6.5 | 15 | 35.6 | 16 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 13.900 |
| Nash | G | 20 | 14.3 | 20 | 3.0 | 3 | 8.5 | 20 | 31.3 | 16 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 14.650 |
It is important to put the information on this list into context and draw your own conclusions from this table. Remember the quote popularized by in the US by humorist Mark Twain and widely attributed to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
So who’s the MVP? Wilt? Russell? MJ? LeBron? Kareem? Oscar? From my viewpoint, Russell, Jordan, and Kareem were the three greatest team players ever to play in the NBA, Russell and Kareem as “inside” players (the 4 or the 5) and MJ as an “outside” player (the 1, the 2, or the 3). Wilt, LeBron, and Oscar are the three greatest individual talents ever to play in the NBA, Wilt inside and LeBron and Oscar outside.
About the author – BILL HARVEY, Call Sign “Stats”, is the Editor of Hoops Business. He is a former basketball player, basketball referee, Army officer, and college instructor in technical writing with a public relations and journalism background. He is also the editor of the Net Set blog at http://thenetsetblog.com. BA degree from Xavier University and MA degree in Information Management.