Every player to win NBA MVP three or more times
Winning the NBA MVP award is incredibly difficult to do. On top of putting up one of, if not the best statistical season in the league, the MVP winner has to lead his team to one of, if not the best record in the league. Putting up numbers yourself while also making everyone around you better is hard to do, and that's why winning three MVP awards like Nikola Jokic just did is so hard to do.
Jokic won the MVP Award after averaging 26.4 points per game on 58.3/35.9/81.7 splits along with 12.4 rebounds and 9.0 assists. He was ultra-efficient from the field and nearly averaged a triple-double. He did so despite having no All-Stars around him and led the Denver Nuggets to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. Arguments can be made that either Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Luka Doncic should've won, but Jokic did wind up winning handily.
Many of the game's greats have won an MVP, but three? That's uncharted territory. Only nine players have ever done it.
Every player to win three NBA MVP awards
PLAYER | MVP WINS |
|---|---|
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 6 |
Michael Jordan | 5 |
LeBron James | 4 |
Bill Russell | 4 |
Larry Bird | 3 |
Wilt Chamberlain | 3 |
Magic Johnson | 3 |
Nikola Jokic | 3 |
Moses Malone | 3 |
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the only NBA player to win as many as six MVP awards. It feels almost impossible for one single player to win that many just because of voter fatigue, but Kareem is one of the all-time greats for a reason. The best part is he won those six in just a ten-year span. Absurd.
Michael Jordan ranks second all-time with five MVPs, just one shy of his championship rings. He was able to do this in ten years like Kareem, which, again, is extremely impressive and a testament to his dominance over a full decade.
Next up for Jokic is LeBron James and Bill Russell, who are tied with four MVP wins. It'd be crazy for Jokic to catch the greatest player (I said it) and the greatest winner in NBA history, but with one more MVP win he'd do just that. At just 29 years old, it's hard to believe that Jokic is slowing down anytime soon.
The only thing that can stop Jokic from being in the MVP conversation annually is voter fatigue. He's that good. It'll be interesting to see how high on this list he can climb. At this point, it'd be foolish to doubt him at all.
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