We always hear as a sport fan, you need a great team to win a championship. A sport like basketball requires more than one piece to win it all, and teams have rushed out to assemble all-star like rosters to achieve success. With all of the individual awards being handed out during the NBA Playoffs, I wanted to research how many of these award winners were actually on teams that had success.
I broke down the MVP, 6th Man of the Year, and Defensive Player of the Year for the past 12 NBA seasons. The results showed, having award winners on your team does not correlate with post-season success. We have to go back to the 2002-03 season to find a MVP award winner who also won the championship, as the last 8 MVPs have all been unsuccessful. The Defensive Player of the Year has had the most recent success with Kevin Garnett getting his ring in 2007-08, but he was the only champion in the past 18 seasons. The 6th Man of the Year award winner has produced the least amount of success. Since the 2000 season they have won zero championships and only Aaron McKie even made the finals back in 2000-01. The last championship won dates back to Toni Kukoc in the 1995-96 season.
With Tyson Chandler already knocked out this season we are left with the MVP, LeBron James and 6th Man, James Harden. Ironically, this is the NBA Finals Matchup that everyone wants to see, but will they make it?
| Most Valuable Player | |||
| 2000–01 | Allen Iverson | Philadelphia 76ers | Finals |
| 2001–02 | Tim Duncan | San Antonio Spurs | Conference Semifinals |
| 2002–03 | Tim Duncan | San Antonio Spurs | Championship |
| 2003–04 | Kevin Garnett | Minnesota Timberwolves | Conference Finals |
| 2004–05 | Steve Nash | Phoenix Suns | Conference Finals |
| 2005–06 | Steve Nash | Phoenix Suns | Conference Finals |
| 2006–07 | Dirk Nowitzki | Dallas Mavericks | First Round |
| 2007–08 | Kobe Bryant | Los Angeles Lakers | Finals |
| 2008–09 | LeBron James | Cleveland Cavaliers | Conference Finals |
| 2009–10 | LeBron James | Cleveland Cavaliers | Conference Semifinals |
| 2010–11 | Derrick Rose | Chicago Bulls | Conference Finals |
| 2011–12 | LeBron James | Miami Heat | |
| 6th Man of the Year | |||
| 2000–01 | Aaron McKie | Philadelphia 76ers | Finals |
| 2001–02 | Corliss Williamson | Detroit Pistons | Conference Semifinals |
| 2002–03 | Bobby Jackson | Sacramento Kings | Conference Semifinals |
| 2003–04 | Antawn Jamison | Dallas Mavericks | First Round |
| 2004–05 | Ben Gordon | Chicago Bulls | First Round |
| 2005–06 | Mike Miller | Memphis Grizzlies | First Round |
| 2006–07 | Leandro Barbosa | Phoenix Suns | Conference Semifinals |
| 2007–08 | Manu Ginóbili | San Antonio Spurs | Conference Finals |
| 2008–09 | Jason Terry | Dallas Mavericks | Conference Semifinals |
| 2009–10 | Jamal Crawford | Atlanta Hawks | Conference Semifinals |
| 2010–11 | Lamar Odom | Los Angeles Lakers | Conference Semifinals |
| 2011–12 | James Harden | Oklahoma City Thunder | |
| Defensive Player of the Year | |||
| 2000–01 | Dikembe Mutombo | Philadelphia/Atlanta | Finals/No Playoffs |
| 2001–02 | Ben Wallace | Detroit Pistons | Conference Semifinals |
| 2002–03 | Ben Wallace | Detroit Pistons | Conference Finals |
| 2003–04 | Ron Artest | Indiana Pacers | Conference Finals |
| 2004–05 | Ben Wallace | Detroit Pistons | Finals |
| 2005–06 | Ben Wallace | Detroit Pistons | Conference Finals |
| 2006–07 | Marcus Camby | Denver Nuggets | First Round |
| 2007–08 | Kevin Garnett | Boston Celtics | Championship |
| 2008–09 | Dwight Howard | Orlando Magic | Finals |
| 2009–10 | Dwight Howard | Orlando Magic | Conference Finals |
| 2010–11 | Dwight Howard | Orlando Magic | 1st Round |
| 2011–12 | Tyson Chandler | New York Knicks | 1st Round |
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I can always count on you for the “numbers” of the game! I still say, however, there are too many sports awards…period! Give out fewer “atta boys” and make the awards more competitive to win. Hey, these guys LIVE on competition, or they should!
Thanks for the comment. Yes I do try to come up with some kind of way to breakdown everything in a different way. Lol. Yeah every sport has a ton of awards, but the bottom line is money and I am sure they leverage these for money in contract talks.
Didn’t realize that Bn Wallace won it four times. He was a beast!
Nice article Gary!
Harden vs. James. One team with an award winner will win this year. Add scoring title to your rankings, I am sure Jordan won a few titles as the scoring leader.
You are right, according to the year’s used for this study, this will mark only the third time an award winner win the NBA Championship. I didnt jump into scoring titles (I did think about it though) and just stuck with the actual awards given out. For the sake of research I did go back and look for you from 2000-2012 there have been 0 championships won by scoring leaders. Durant has a shot to be the first within the research seasons. The previous season in 1999-2000 was the last time it happened, Shaq and the Lakers.
Wow thats amazing. I guess that is why teams win championships in basketball! love the research.