Michael Jordan owns the record for most Finals MVP trophies, having won six with the Chicago Bulls. LeBron James, the four-time Finals MVP, is right behind him. The following players have won the Finals MVP award several times: Paul George, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Andre Iguodala.
Finals MVP is given to the player who best represents the team at the end of the season. It is based on statistics, awards, and significance throughout the year. There are no specific criteria for what matters in the voting process, but past winners tend to be recognized as important parts of their teams' successes.
The award was created by the media covering the NBA. Michael Jordan was the first player to win the award multiple times; he also holds the record for most overall wins with 11. He had two more seasons left when we started seeing more than one winner each time, which is when the award began to matter more. Since then, only three other players have won the award twice: Larry Bird, Tim Duncan, and LeBron James.
Bird and Duncan played for the Boston Celtics; James was a Los Angeles Laker. They are all five-time champions in the Finals.
The San Antonio Spurs are the most recent team to win the championship after winning the award. They beat the Heat 4-2.
Michael Jordan was chosen as the NBA Finals MVP (he had also won the award the last five times the Bulls won the Finals: 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1997). This is the most all-time of any player in NBA history.
He scored a season high 51 points in this game and went 10 for 10 from the free throw line. The 10 makes are a Chicago playoff record.
The Bulls lost in seven games to Orlando Magic's who were playing in their second straight Finals. This was also the first time that two 50+ point scorers played in the Finals (Karl Malone & Michael Jordan). It would not happen again until 2006 when LeBron James and Mike Durant did it.
Orlando's Hakeem Olajuwon was named the Finals MVP for the second year in a row. He had already won the award in 1995 when he was with Houston. This is his sixth career Finals MVP award and third with the Magic.
In addition to winning the championship, the Magic made their first ever Finals appearance. They were beaten by far and away the best team in the league - the Bulls - who had been defending their title since 1992. Chicago had 4 players vote for themselves in the All-Star Game (Jordan, Pippen, Harper, and Boylen).
The Boston Celtics' Bill Walton Bill Walton, the second and last Hall of Famer on this list, is the only player in NBA history to earn an NBA Finals MVP, a regular-season MVP, and a Sixth Man award. He is also the only player to win all three awards.
Walton led the Celtics to their first championship in 1970, when he was voted MVP after recording 33.4 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game. He again captured the award the following year, when he averaged 28.1 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game while helping the Celtics repeat as champions. After retiring as a Celtic in 1975, Walton came back in 1981 to help Boston win its sixth title in a row, this time as a coach. He has been named Coach of the Year twice by his own team (1970: before the award existed; 1971: after his retirement).
In addition to his career as a player and coach, Walton had a very successful broadcasting career, working both nationally for ABC and locally for Boston University's radio station. He currently works as an analyst for ESPN and appears on various other television shows as well.
Among current players, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder has won the most awards, having earned five total trophies. LeBron James is close behind with four awards.
Four most valuable players He now has four MVPs and is two away from tying Kareem Abdul-Jabaar for the most MVPs in history. In addition, James has won four titles and is the all-time top scorer in NBA playoffs.
The other three players who have four MVPs are Abdul-Jabbar, Bird, and Magic Johnson. No one else even comes close.
LeBron has also been named league MVP eight times, which is second only to Abdul-Jabbar's 10 awards.
James is one of just six players to win rookie of the year and MVP Award in the same season. The others are Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, and Kevin Durant.
He joined Oscar Robertson as the only players to win the NBA Finals MVP award every time they played in it (James is 0-4 when not awarded the medal).
James is also one of five players (along with Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Dirk Nowitzki, and Paul George) to win an Olympic gold medal as a player and silver as head coach of his country. He is the only person to win multiple Olympic gold medals in both roles (two each for USA and Spain).
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