The Top 3 NBA MVP seasons ever...

 

The NBA MVP award is the most prestigious award and individual player can receive and only goes to the best of the best. Through the years players have given us MVP years that simply don't make sense and and differ from all the others. So let's go over what these seasons are....

               *The Following List only takes into account a players regular season performance*

3. 1987-88 Michael Jordan: Jordan's 1987-88 season is one of the very rare equations which we get to see a guard completely dominate the league like he was playing with children. Jordan had box score statistics of 35.0 PPG, 5.9 assists, 5.5 rebounds on 53.5% FG. Making him just 1 of 5 players to average 35 PPG in a season. MJ would also score a total of 2,868 points throughout the whole season providing us with only of the greatest scoring outputs in history. Not only would Jordan capture his first MVP this season but thanks to his defensive efforts he became the 4th guard in NBA history to ever win a Defensive Player Of the Year award. MVP and DPOY in the same season is such a rare feat in the NBA. Winning MVP is one thing, winning MVP and DPOY throughout your career is another...but doing both in a single season is completely unheard of... especially when a 24 year old shooting guard is the one doing it. In fact, only 2 other players in NBA history have ever done this. This is the moment when people quickly started to realize that the Nation Basketball Association was now becoming Jordan's league. Jordan was number 1 is basically everything. He was 1st in PPG, 1st in SPG, 1st in OWS, 1st in WS, 1st in BPM, 1st in OBPM, 1st in DBPM, 1st in field goals, 1st in free throws, 1st in PER, and 1st in VORP. 

Jordan had a Box Plus Minus of 12.9 and only 1 other player has had higher. Jordan had 21.2 WS and only 3 other players have had higher. He also had a 31.7 PER and only 2 player have achieved a greater status than that.

These stats didn't go to waste though because Jordan would lead the Chicago Bulls to a 50 win season. 50 wins may not seem like a lot for an MVP season but Jordan was the lone superstar on his team and 50 win was still good enough for 3rd in the Eastern Conference. Jordan didn't stand by any All star this season, and 76% of MVPs play along side another all star during their MVP season. Which is a solid reason as Jordan's win column wasn't as high as the standard MVP. 

2. 1999-00 Shaq: Shaquille O'Neal took the league by storm in his MVP season winning his very first MVP and having arguably the most dominate season in the history of the NBA right before our eyes. He would lead the NBA in points with 29.7 PPG, lead the NBA in made field goals, and he also had the best FG% in the entire NBA for the 4th time in his career. Besides his amazing scoring performance Shaq would also grab 13.6 rebounds a game and blocked an average of 3 shots a night. To put this in perspective Shaq's stat line of 29.7 points and 13.6 rebounds along with 3 blocks was so ridiculous that only 1 other player in history was ever able to accomplish this (since the league starting tracking blocks).

Shaqs worth on the Los Angles Lakers was unmatched and he was the league leader in almost every impact metric. Shaq led in PER, WS, OWS, DWS, WS/48, BPM, OBPM, DBPM, VORP. In the 79 games that Shaq played he had a double double in 66 of them. 

The lakers would have a 66-13 record in games were Shaq played and would secure not only the best record in the Western Conference but the best record in the entire NBA by a comfortable margin.

1. 2015-16 Steph Curry: In 2015 for Steph Curry's 1st MVP, he became only the 14th player in NBA history to win MVP and a championship in the same year. So into the upcoming season Curry had high expectations from people watching all over the world. Curry delivered bigger than what anyone was expecting and he would have the greatest offensive season in NBA history. This would be the season Steph would become widely recognized as the greatest shooter in NBA history. There was truly something different about this season. That's because in 2016 Curry wouldn't just win MVP...but he won the award unanimously. Which is something no player in history has ever done. Curry averaged 30 PPG on 50/45/90 shooting. This is the only time a player has averaged 30 points while also making the 50/40/90 club. For the whole season Steph Curry would make a total of 402 3 point shots...the most in NBA history by a decent gap. Steph would also led the league in SPG as well as points making him just the 3rd player to ever accomplish this feat.

We've seen other players average 30 points in a season..but Steph did it while maintaining a TS% of 66.9%...the only player ever to do that. But this impressive season went deeper than Curry's historic shooting. Cause that wasn't enough for Steph..as among players with 150 attempts Steph Curry led all players in FG% on layups proving to everyone around the league that he could torch any defensive scheme in whatever way he felt like.

Despite all of that Curry would do something that seemed impossible for many many years. Curry led the Golden State Warriors to a season in which they lost less than 10 games..the Golden State Warriors would have the best in the NBA and the best record ever in NBA history. In fact Curry's Warriors were so dominate that he was the 1st player to average 30 PPG while playing less than 35 minutes a game because his team was so dominate that there was really no reason for him to play to much in the 4th quarter since they were blowing out the competition night after night. And it's all due to Steph's Impact. Every MVP is gonna be an impactful player but Curry rewrote history with what he was doing.

Steph Curry 2016 impact metrics:

11.07 O-Raptor (1st)

13.86 Raptor (1st)

8.27 OPIPM (1st)

9.74 PIPM (T-1st)

10.35 OBPM (1st ever)

11.94 BPM (4th ever)

.318 Win Shares/48 Min (8th ever)

13.8 OWS (1st)

`17.9 WS (1st)

9.5 VORP (1st)

31.46 PER (9th ever, 1st in NBA)

Everyone was waiting for this performance and we are all gonna remember the moment in years to come when we saw Steph Curry change how basketball was played for the rest of history.

Honorable Mentions:

1994 Hakeem Olajuwon

2013 LeBron James

1986 Larry Bird

1996 Michael Jordan