Things I Learned While Looking Up Something Else
I was doing research on a piece on Kobe Bryant that will appear in Wednesday's newspapers when I discovered a bunch of things you might find interesting.
To wit:
--Leading the NBA in scoring average doesn't make you a great player or your team particularly successful. Wilt Chamberlain led the NBA in scoring six times; he won two NBA titles, one in Los Angeles when he was a rebounder first. George Gervin won the scoring title four times and never played for a title. Bob McAdoo won it three times, Adrian Dantley twice ...
--Two guys' scoring skill clearly helped them win a batch of championships. Michael Jordan, who won 10 scoring titles but also six NBA titles ... and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who won two scoring titles but was MVP six times and won, what, five NBA titles? Six? One in Milwaukee, the rest with the Lakers.
--Nobody who played for a team that didn't win at least 50 games has been named NBA MVP since 1982, when the Houston Rockets went 46-36 but center Moses Malone was MVP. Which is a big reason why Kobe Bryant can be considered one of the 1-2 best players in the game yet not come close to winning an MVP, so far.
--Allen Iverson, in 2001, is the last guy to win the scoring title and also be voted MVP. Though it had been done the year before, too, when Shaquille O'Neal was the top scorer AND the MVP -- for the one and only time in his career.
--Kobe Bryant averaged 35.4 points per game in 2005-06, and that was the highest season-ending total since Michael Jordan put up 37.1 for the 1986-87 Bulls. (Who did NOT win an NBA title, by the way.)
--Jordan won five MVPs, but Kareem won six. Jordan, however, is considered the best player who ever lived, even though Kareem won as many titles and scored more points in a longer career.
--What do Nate Archibald, Rick Barry, Alex English, Bernard King and Dominique Wilkins have in common? All won scoring titles.
--Iverson led the league in scoring four times, and as recently as 2005. Yet he has zero rings and one appearance in the Finals.
--Tracy McGrady led the league in scoring in consecutive seasons, 2003 and 2004, but none of his teams has ever won even a single playoffs round.
Hmm. Anyway, some interesting stuff, I thought.
And if you want to be MVP? Be the best player on the team with the best regular-season record. That is the best formula for success.