Michael Jordan is widely regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time, thanks to a remarkable career filled with countless iconic moments. MJ won 6 titles, 6 Finals MVPs, and 5 MVPs, to name just a few of his accomplishments, and the NBA decided to honor him recently.
The league announced the new names for the major individual awards on Tuesday, and the MVP trophy will now be called the Michael Jordan trophy. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had played alongside Jordan in Chicago, and he said that this honor would mean a lot to MJ.
via NBC Sports:
“Oh, I think it means a lot to him,” Kerr said to NBC Sports Bay Area. “This is a guy who went to the Finals six times, won six times and won Finals MVP all six times. So, he was the obvious choice if you were going to name the trophy after someone.”
“I think as guys get older after they retire, it’s a weird feeling to retire from playing,” Kerr explained. “There’s a sense of loss. You lose what has made you happy for your whole life since you were a little kid, in most cases. You lose your body’s super powers. All of the sudden things start to hurt. It forces you to reflect and take on different interests in your life.”
“For a guy like Michael Jordan, you can only imagine as great as he was night in and night out, that’s a big sense of loss to no longer be able to go out and do that. So I think there is a certain amount of reflection that all of us go through and it’s fun to think back to the good times, and it’s an incredible honor to have your name attached to something like that.”
MJ hasn’t come out and said anything about this yet, but a Nike executive said that Jordan helped design the trophy, so he was very much involved in the process. It did seem a bit wrong that there was no award named after him in the NBA, and we’re glad they have rectified that.
Hakeem Olajuwon, Wilt Chamberlain, John Havlicek, George Mikan, And Jerry West Also Got Awards Named After Them
The NBA has been honoring its past legends in the last year or so, with Conference Finals MVP trophies being named after Magic Johnson (West) and Larry Bird (East). Now, Hakeem Olajuwon, the all-time leader in blocks and a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, gets that award named after him.
Wilt Chamberlain, who had arguably the greatest rookie season in NBA history when he averaged 37.6 PPG and 27.0 RPG, got the Rookie of the Year award named after him. A Jerry West Trophy will be handed out to the Clutch Player of the Year in a new award, while Sixth Man of the Year gets named after Celtics legend John Havlicek. The league also honored one of its first superstars, as the George Mikan Trophy will be given to the Most Improved Player.
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