After introducing a worthless trophy no team should be shooting for last week, the NBA has once again fixed something that wasn’t broken and renamed the league’s MVP award The Michael Jordan Trophy.
In addition to being unnecessary because an MVP award does not need to be named after anyone as the title is fairly self-explanatory, naming the honor after Jordan is also illogical as he is not even the player who won Most Valuable Player the most number of times. The all-time NBA MVP is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six MVPs), not Jordan (five MVPs), so if the NBA felt the need to rename the award, they should have named it after the former, not the latter.
As for the trophy itself, it’ll be 23.6 inches tall and weigh 23.6 pounds in recognition of Jordan’s jersey number (23) and NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls (six). However, the trophy was designed to symbolize an anonymous player reaching for excellence, not Jordan, who has struggled in his post-playing career as the chairman of the Charlotte Hornets.
“Anybody should be able to see this and see themselves in it,” said trophy designer Mark Smith. “They should feel the excellence of Michael Jordan and his pursuit. It’s got his name on it, but it isn’t him. It’s everybody. It could be a shipbuilder or it could be a teacher or a lawyer or a writer who looks at it and says, ‘That’s what I’m trying to do.’”
In addition to renaming the MVP award for Jordan, the NBA also named the Defensive Player of the Year trophy after Hakeem Olajuwon, the Rookie of the Year after Wilt Chamberlain, the Sixth Man of the Year after John Havlicek and the NBA’s Most Improved Player after George Mikan. The league also revealed that a new award, the NBA Clutch Player of the Year, will be named after Jerry West. The Lakers legend was nicknamed “Mr. Clutch” by Los Angeles broadcaster Chick Hearn for his extraordinary shooting at the end of close games.
“Our new collection of trophies celebrates some of the greatest and most impactful players in the history of the NBA,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver. “As we recognize the league’s top performers each season, we also pay tribute to the legends who embody these prestigious awards.”
Jordan was so happy about the MVP award being named after him that he declined a request for comment from the Associated Press through the NBA.
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