The 2022-23 season is officially over and the Denver Nuggets are the latest team to capture their first NBA championship in franchise history. With his incredible performance in the series, Nikola Jokic was named Finals MVP in a five-game series win over the Miami Heat. He is the third straight player to win his first Finals MVP award, with Giannis Antetokounmpo winning in 2021 and Stephen Curry earning his first one in 2022. The question now is, where does Jokic’s performance rank in comparison to the last 10 Finals MVPs, and how many have really performed better than he did this season on the NBA’s grandest stage?
When comparing Finals MVP performances, the rankings can only be based on how each player performed in the actual NBA Finals. Take everything you know about what these players did earlier in their respective playoff runs and throw them to the furthest part of your brain. They have no bearing in today’s ranking. Remember, each one of these performances resulted in an NBA championship for their teams, so in no way are we saying that any of these performances were bad. It is just that some championships, and Finals MVP awards, are built differently.
Here is how we would rank the last 10 Finals MVP award winners and their performances in the NBA Finals.
10. Andre Iguodala – 2015 Finals MVP
Finals Stats: 16.3 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.3 BPG
Andre Iguodala has had a fantastic end to his career, winning four NBA championships and a Finals MVP award in 2015. The 2015 NBA Finals featured the first of four straight meetings between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers on the game’s biggest stage and round one would go to the team from the Bay. There was a serious argument for Stephen Curry to win the award, leading the team in scoring and assists as the Warriors won their first championship since 1975.
Many claim to this day that Curry was the more deserving candidate for the award, but alas, it went to Iguodala for his defensive effort on LeBron James in the win. At first glance, it is tough to see James average 35/13/9 and say that anybody did a good job in slowing him down. That is until you realize that he shot under 40.0% from the field in getting to those numbers. Iguodala would also have a monster performance in the series-clinching Game 6 with 25 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals. Although it was well-deserved, it ranks dead last out of the last 10 Finals MVP performances.
9. Kawhi Leonard – 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNaHIRgK0NA
Finals Stats: 17.8 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.6 SPG, 1.2 BPG
The precedent was set for Iguodala’s 2015 Finals MVP win by Kawhi Leonard of the Spurs from the season before. Leonard and the Spurs were appearing in their second straight NBA Finals after falling to the Miami Heat in seven games in 2013. They were right back against Miami in 2014 as well, but this time, Leonard was one year older and ready to make a serious impact. As a rising star in Gregg Popovich’s system.
Leonard was honored for his incredible defensive effort on James, who was visibly frustrated by Leonard’s physical and disruptive style of play. Leonard also made a big contribution on the offensive side of the ball as well. After scoring just points combined in the series’ first two games, Leonard averaged 23.7 PPG on 68.5% shooting in the Spurs’ final three games to lead them to the NBA championship. Following the championship, Leonard would be honored by the NBA with back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year awards in 2015 and 2016.
8. Kawhi Leonard – 2019
Finals Stats: 28.5 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 4.2 APG, 2.0 SPG, 1.2 BPG
When I explained what someone did on an entire playoff run leading up to the NBA Finals had no bearing on this ranking, I specifically had Kawhi Leonard’s second MVP award in 2019 in mind. Leonard was incredible during that run which included one of the craziest buzzer-beaters in NBA history against the 76ers and dominance against the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals. When adding the fact that he led Toronto to their first NBA championship in team history, I knew this selection would get a bit emotional.
Look, Kawhi was amazing in the series, shooting 43.3% overall and averaging 28.5 PPG. However, to ignore the elephant in the room would be a huge injustice. The Raptors caught a break when both Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson went down with injuries, leaving Stephen Curry to fend for himself against a hungry and talented Raptors team. Leonard scored 22 points in the series-clinching Game 6 but also got 26 points from both Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam. Leonard deserves credit for how he led Toronto for the majority of 2018-19, but as far as the last 10 Finals MVPs, eighth place is the highest he can get.
7. Kevin Durant – 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAgXfcd_Fa0
Finals Stats: 28.8 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 7.5 APG, 0.8 SPG, 2.3 BPG
Back in 2017 and 2018 when Kevin Durant joined the Golden State Warriors, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that the Warriors were going to walk away as NBA champions from the moment the deal was announced. Durant had been an MVP and four-time scoring champion joining a team that just went 73-9 and blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals. The lesser of the two Finals MVP performances for Durant would come in 2018, his second title and Finals MVP in a row.
I find it funny using the word “lesser” when I am talking about a four-game sweep of LeBron James and the Cavaliers led by Durant for his second Finals MVP award. That is only because he had Curry averaging similar scoring numbers next to him with 27.5 PPG on over 41.0% shooting from three. Still, Durant’s 28.8 PPG was done on 50/40/90 shooting splits while he added 7.5 APG and over 2.0 BPG with elite weak-side defense. Durant’s tenure in Golden State gets a bad rep but is still one of the seven-best Finals MVP showings of the last decade.
6. LeBron James – 2020
Finals Stats: 29.8 PPG, 11.8 RPG, 8.5 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.5 BPG
The long-winded debate about the legitimacy of the 2020 NBA championship is an exhausting one that is likely to last well into the future. You cannot help but imagine if any other team would have won, would the harshest of critics still argue against it? Regardless of that pointless debate, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers took care of business as James and Anthony Davis led the Lakers to their first championship since 2010 and LeBron’s fourth NBA title with his third different team.
The series was a hard-fought battle against the Miami Heat that resulted in a six-game series win for Los Angeles. James would lead both teams in scoring in four out of the six games which included 40 points in a loss in Game 5. James had one of the better shooting Finals series of his career when he shot 59.1% overall and 41.7% from three in the six games. James added 11.8 RPG and 8.5 APG, nearly going for a triple-double as he closed things out in Game 6 with 28 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists, and 1 steal.
5. Stephen Curry – 2022
Finals Stats: 31.2 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 5.0 APG, 2.0 SPG, 0.2 BPG
The 2021-22 season was a season of vindication for both Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. After four seasons without an NBA championship or even making an NBA Finals, the Warriors were written off by fans and members of the media. They were even openly mocked by media members Kendrick Perkins and Bomani Jones, who claimed that the dynasty was dead forever. Boy, were they ever wrong.
In the 2022 Finals, Stephen Curry and the Warriors were set to meet the Boston Celtics, led by the young tandem of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The Warriors fell down 2-1 in the series despite Curry leading all scorers for the first three games. Curry would drop 43 points in Game 4 to even the series in Boston. After a win in Game 5, Curry would close out the series and win his first Finals MVP award with 34 points on 6-11 shooting from three-point range. It was the Warriors’ fourth title since 2015, and finally, Stephen Curry‘s career resume filled its final void.
4. Nikola Jokic – 2023
Finals Stats: 30.2 PPG, 14.0 RPG, 7.2 APG, 0.8 SPG, 1.4 BPG
The Finals MVP performance coming in at number four is the most recent Finals MVP winner in NBA history. Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets made history by becoming the first championship team in Nuggets history with a 4-1 series win over the Miami Heat. For Jokic or his fans at least, it was a sweet, sweet way to cap off a season that many believe should have seen the Serbian big man claim his third straight MVP award after the regular season.
Instead, the Nuggets would chase the ultimate prize and be successful in their quest led by the greatest player in franchise history. Jokic had a couple of performances during the series that left audiences speechless. In Game 2, Jokic had 41 points and 11 rebounds in their only loss during the series. In Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead, Jokic recorded 32 points, 21 rebounds, and 10 assists, the NBA’s fourth such game that saw a player record 30 points and 20 rebounds in an NBA Finals game. The Finals cemented his legacy as the greatest player in Nuggets’ history. Jokic dominated the Heat in a way that made us question why anyone ever doubted the Nuggets as they controlled the pace of play from start to finish of the 2022-23 season.
3. Kevin Durant – 2017
Finals Stats: 35.2 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 5.4 APG, 1.0 SPG, 1.6 BPG
Kevin Durant turned the NBA on its head when he made the most traitorous move in NBA history and joined the Golden State Warriors after the 2016 season. The season before, Durant and the Thunder blew a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference Finals to the Warriors just before the Warriors did the same in the NBA Finals against the Cavaliers. Dealing with becoming the most hated man in the NBA overnight, Durant responded in the only way he knew how.
Durant and the Warriors would cruise through the playoff competition and find themselves in a third straight meeting with LeBron James and Cleveland in the NBA Finals. This time, the series would not even be close as Golden State took care of business in five games. Over the first two games, Durant would score 33 points and 38 points respectively as the Warriors built a 2-0 lead they would never relinquish. To close things out in Game 5, Durant scored 39 points on 62.5% shooting to secure his first NBA title and first Finals MVP award.
2. Giannis Antetokounmpo – 2021
Finals Stats: 35.2 PPG, 13.2 RPG, 5.0 APG, 1.2 SPG, 1.8 BPG
Leading up to the 2021 playoffs, Giannis Antetokounmpo had done everything that a player could without winning an NBA championship. He was already a two-time MVP and a Defensive Player of the Year for the Milwaukee Bucks as well as the consensus best player in the world. The only blemish on his record was the fact that he and the Milwaukee Bucks always seemed to fizzle out early in the NBA playoffs. That would not be the case in 2021.
Giannis would be recovering from a hyperextended knee over the first two games in the Finals against the Phoenix Suns, an injury he suffered in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Hawks. After falling down 2-0, Giannis would lead the Bucks to four straight wins and their first NBA championship since 1971. Giannis closed out the series with one of the most incredible performances in NBA Finals history with 50 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 blocks to secure the win. There was talk, even when the Bucks were down 2-0, that Giannis could become the second Finals MVP in NBA history on the losing side of things. When he led the comeback from 2-0, it was a unanimous decision as to who was the most valuable player on the court.
1. LeBron James – 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6GAvDhtjcI
Finals Stats: 29.7 PPG, 11.3 RPG, 8.9 APG, 2.6 SPG, 2.3 BPG
When it comes to LeBron James’ performance in the 2016 NBA Finals, the NBA has never seen anything quite like it. For the second season in a row, the Cavaliers were set to do battle with the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. The only difference was that this Warriors team just set a record with a 73-9 season and swept Portland in the Western Conference Finals. Yes, LeBron had ample help with him in 2016, with Kyrie Irving averaging over 27.1 PPG in the series, but the way things played out, this series has to be number one on our list.
James and the Cavaliers would find themselves down 3-1 in the Finals through four games. After wins in Games 5 and 6, the Cavaliers were seeking to become the first team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the Finals. James would deliver 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists in Game 7, along with the greatest defensive play in NBA history to win the series for Cleveland and solidify himself amongst the greatest players to ever play the game. For the Cavaliers, it would be their first championship in franchise history as they pulled off the biggest upset the NBA has ever seen.
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