NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award

The National Basketball Association Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given since the 1969 NBA Finals. The award is decided by a panel of 9 media members, who cast vote after the conclusion of the final round. The person with the highest votes wins the award. In at least one NBA Finals, fans balloting on NBA.com accounted for the tenth votes. [cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/la-sp-lakersfyi19-2008jun19,0,5202810.story|title=Numbers from final game tell bad tale for Lakers|publisher="Los Angeles Times"|accessdate=2008-07-15|author=Mike Bresnahan|date=2008-06-19] [cite web|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SAEC&p_theme=saec&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10B05696DC904A04&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|title=MVP voting as close as the series|publisher="San Antonio Express-News"|accessdate=2008-07-15|author=Johnny Ludden|date=2005-06-25] Originally, the award was a black trophy with a gold basketball-shaped sphere at the top, similar to the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, until a smaller trophy was introduced in 2005. [cite web|url=http://www.nba.com/finals2004/game5_notebook.html|title=Game 5 Notebook: Billups Wins MVP|publisher=NBA.com|accessdate=2008-07-16] [cite web|url=http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2005/06/23/spurs-pistons050623.html|title=Spurs crowned NBA champions|publisher=CBC Sports|accessdate=2008-07-16|date=2005-06-24]

Michael Jordan, who led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA Championships from 1991 to 1993 and 1996 to 1998, is the only player to win the award six times.cite web|url=http://www.nba.com/history/finalsmvps.html|title=Finals Most Valuable Player|publisher=NBA.com|accessdate=2008-07-14] Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Tim Duncan all won the award three times in their career while Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, and Hakeem Olajuwon won the award twice. Jerry West, the first ever awardee, won the award while being on the losing team in the NBA Finals. Hakeem Olajuwon of Nigeria, who was a naturalized U.S. citizen since 1993, Tim Duncan of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Tony Parker of France are the only three international players to win the award. Duncan is an American citizen, but is considered an "international" player by the NBA because he was not born in one of the fifty states or Washington, D.C. [cite web |url=http://english.people.com.cn/200606/29/eng20060629_278441.html |title=Bargnani becomes first European top NBA draft pick |accessdate=2008-06-16 |publisher="People's Daily Online" |date=2006-06-29 ]

Winners

Notes

*note label|Note1|a|a Jerry West is the only player to win the award while being on the losing team in the NBA Finals.
*note label|Note2|b|b Hakeem Olajuwon was born in Nigeria, but became a naturalized United States citizen in 1993. [cite web |url=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/hakeem_olajuwon/bio.html |title=Hakeem Olajuwon Bio: 1992-93 |accessdate=2008-06-15 |publisher=NBA.com ]
*note label|Note3|c|c Because Tim Duncan is a United States citizen by birth, as are all natives of the U.S. Virgin Islands, [cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/vq.html |title=Virgin Islands |accessdate=2008-08-12 |publisher=CIA World Factbook ] he was able to play for the U.S. internationally. [cite web |url=http://www.usabasketball.com/news.php?news_page=men_alpha_D |title=All-Time USA Basketball Men's Roster: D |accessdate=2008-06-16 |publisher=USA Basketball ]

References

General
*cite web|url=http://www.nba.com/history/finalsmvps.html|title=Finals Most Valuable Player|publisher=NBA.com|accessdate=2008-07-14
*cite web|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=nba&id=3450067|title=Finals Most Valuable Players|publisher=ESPN.com|accessdate=2008-07-15

Specific