The Most Valuable Player award is arguably the most coveted individual honor available to an NBA player and Stephen Curry has a unanimous one.
The award is given to the player selected as the best regular season player each year. Performance in MVP voting is widely regarded as a metric for evaluating a player’s performance and career.
The award winner is selected by a distinguished panel of sportswriters and broadcasters from the US and Canada. Therefore, there is often a lot of discussion about whether the media narrative surrounding a player is crucial in determining the winner.
MVP voting actions are used to determine how dominant a player’s season was, among the MVP candidates. MVP voting shares essentially represent the percentage of first-place MVP votes a candidate received from the total voter pool.
Also read: Penny Hardaway robbed Michael Jordan of achieving Stephen Curry’s MVP milestone before he did
Therefore, a 100% or unanimous vote, also considered the participation of 1,000 MVPs, is the highest individual award possible for a basketball player. And, the list of players to get the honor is Stephen Curry and no one else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXwbC1EemF4
However, it’s not like anyone has come close to achieving the feat. In fact, someone did it in several instances: The King, LeBron James.
Stephen Curry might have won the unanimous MVP once, but LeBron James came close to winning it three times.
The average NBA MVP gets about 80% of the first-place MVP votes in a particular year. This suggests that in almost every season, there is likely to be a standout candidate in the eyes of voters.
Shaquille O’Neal had a very public unanimous MVP snub where he fell short by one vote. What not many people know, however, is that James has also been on the receiving end of such a deal.
In his 2013 MVP season, LeBron James got 120/121 first-place votes. To Shaq, Bron also failed to be the first unanimous MVP for a singular voter’s digression from the norm.
Steph Curry is the only player in NBA history to win the MVP unanimously, but did you know there were 2 times someone was 1 vote away from winning the MVP unanimously?
In the 2012-13 season, LeBron got 120-121 votes for MVP
In the 1999-00 season, Shaq garnered 120-121 votes for MVP. pic.twitter.com/5IihLkpfig
— Basketball Muse (@Basketball_Muse) May 30, 2022
What’s more surprising is how Bron came close to achieving the unanimous honor of MVP on two other occasions. 2009 saw LeBron claim his first MVP title. In his first instance of getting his hands on silverware, LeBron almost wrote history.
Bron racked up 96.9% of the first place MVP votes on his first try.
Right after the next season, Bron outdid himself. This time, LeBron James took home 98% of the first place MVP votes along with the Maurice Podoloff trophy. Again a campaign almost, but not quite.
Regardless, there is still only one unanimous MVP in NBA history. And he did it in minor attempts. While not an overall racing metric, it’s hard to deny Steph the flowers for her epic 2016 MVP Race.
Three times unlucky, can LeBron make another try at 38?
Also read: “LeBron James would be dumb if he didn’t pick me”: Stephen Curry on $1 billion LBJ wanting to team up
