Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Global Rating MVPs. vs. actual MVPs: 9-4
Global Rating points: 111
MVP points: 54
Difference: 57
According to Global Rating, Chamberlain should have won MVP as the league’s top player nine times instead of four, which was courtesy of Bill Russell winning the award more than was warranted. Lest we forget, Russell won five MVP awards while making 1st Team All-NBA just three times, indicating he wasn’t considered the league’s top center some seasons yet was still named MVP anyway.
That could have to do with the fact players voted for MVP until 1979-80 while the media handled All-NBA voting (and is just another example of media making better award choices than players).
As you’ll see below, some of the Global Rating vs. Actual MVP decisions were razor tight. That was not the case for Chamberlain, who had hugely better years, per our metric, than the players who beat him out for MVP those seasons.
In 1968-69, for example, Chamberlain lost out on MVP to Wes Unseld despite outpacing him in Global Rating by 12.58 points, the highest disparity we have in our database for a non-MVP over an MVP. In 1961-62, Chamberlain lost MVP to Russell even though he had a better rating by 12.55 points, the second-highest disparity in our database.
Mind you, that second one was the year Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points for the season, the highest single-season scoring average ever. He still didn’t win MVP that year. Go figure.
Just to save you time here, the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-highest disparities in Global Rating for a non-MVP over an actual MVP also all go in Chamberlain’s favor.
No player got screwed in MVP voting more in their career than the late, great Chamberlain.
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