There have been many great players in NBA history but there has been just a handful of dominating players. I mean, some are incredibly talented and skilled players but have never been able to lead their teams to silverware, let alone outplay our outscore the rest of the league.
However, there have been some guys that didn’t let anybody else eat during their watch. Guys that completely owned the league during one season (or more) and came away with pretty much every important award that year.
As a matter of fact, there have only been three of them and today, we’re going to let you know everything there is to know about the time when Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Michael Jordan won the Championship, Scoring Title, and Finals MVP on the very same season.
Shaquille O’Neal
(1999-2000)
Shaquille O’Neal won four rings and 2 Scoring Titles over his 18-year career but only one MVP award. Some people say he should’ve had at least two more but the league was biased towards Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns.
Truth or not, an undeniable fact is that Shaq was the league’s most dominant force during the 1999-20 season. He scored a career-high 29.7 points per game to lead the NBA in scoring, to go along with 13.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 3.0 blocks per game on 57.4% from the floor (also a league-high).
Shaq led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 67-15 record and eventually the NBA Finals, where he averaged 38.0 points, 16.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.0 steals, and 2.7 blocks per game on 61.1% shooting against the Indiana Pacers to win the first of his three straight Finals MVPs. Simply dominant.
Kareem Abdul Jabbar
(1970-71)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the winningest players in NBA history. He was as consistent and durable as they come, but his first years in the league really put the world on notice, as he dominated right out of the gate as the best player in the world.
Kareem (then known as Lew Alcindor) completely turned the Milwaukee Bucks around. He led the league in scoring with 31.7 points to go along with 16.0 rebounds on 57.7% from the floor, earning the MVP honors in just his second season in the NBA.
The Bucks ended up winning 66 games that season and sweeping the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA Finals thanks to Kareem’s 27.0 points, 18.5 rebounds, and 2.8 assists on 60.5% shooting.
Abdul-Jabbar would eventually win another Scoring title, 5 more rings, and an NBA-record 6 MVP awards.
Michael Jordan
(1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1997-98)
Michael Jordan dominated the NBA on ways no other player would ever do. In fact, he did on ways no one ever had done it before, not even Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain. How’s that? Simple: Jordan did it all.
He led the Chicago Bulls to 6 NBA Finals, winning all of them. He didn’t even need to play a Game 7 in the Finals, that’s just how dominant he was. Obviously, with his 33.6 points per game, he won the Finals MVP every time he made it to that stage.
But most importantly, Jordan was also the league’s most prolific and dominant scorer throughout his entire career. He led the NBA in points per game for 10 seasons (7 straight), including all the times he led the Bulls to a Championship.
Michael Jordan was the NBA’s leading scorer, Finals MVP, and Champion six times. No one has done it more than once. That’s why he’ll go down as the greatest player ever.
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