School is often out when it comes to picking an MVP
School is often out when it comes to picking an MVP
In the spirit of March Madness -- otherwise known as that basketball tournament in which all those future lawyers and insurance agents compete mostly below the rim for their school's pride and athletic department coffers -- The Race decided to examine the alma maters of NBA Most Valuable Players. where to buy cheap NBA Jerseys?ujersy is a good choice.
So we're starting things off with a simple quiz.
Q: Which collegiate program produced the most NBA MVPs?
A) Duke.
B) Kentucky.
C) UCLA.
D) North Carolina.
E) None of the above.
The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is E. But that's not to suggest that some other school -- Michigan, Kansas State, Santa Clara or Slippery Rock -- actually ranks No. 1. The leading producer of NBA MVPs is, quite literally, None Of The Above.
As in, the award has been won eight times by players who never even redshirted through a college season. recommend directory: GRANGEE #33 Indlana Pacers White NBA Jersey.
The past four MVPs and five of the last seven went to players who entered the NBA directly from high school: LeBron James (2009, 2010), Kobe Bryant (2008), Dirk Nowitzki (2007) and Kevin Garnett (2004).
Steve Nash, the pride of Santa Clara U., was named MVP in 2005 and 2006, immediately boosting his school into a three-way tie for ninth place. Wake Forest (Tim Duncan in 2002 and '03) and Lousiana Tech (Karl Malone in 1997 and '99) also can claim two MVP awards courtesy of distinguished alumni.
But the preps-to-pros guys are the ones who rank No. 1 as a group. Besides the five cited above, there was Moses Malone, the burly center who was named MVP three times (1979, 1982, 1983).
Which school ranks highest among those that actually did produce MVPs? Not so surprisingly, it's UCLA. To go with the Bruins' 11 NCAA championships, they also can boast seven MVP winners -- six of them named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The seventh belonged to Bill Walton, Kareem's successor under coach John Wooden, who won the NBA honor in 1978.
North Carolina ranks next with six in a similar pattern -- five won by Michael Jordan and one by Bob McAdoo. After that, the University of San Francisco got five NBA MVPs from Bill Russell and Kansas can take some credit for Wilt Chamberlain's four.
In a nice bit of symmetry for the great rivals who defined the NBA in the 1980s, Larry Bird of Indiana State and Magic Johnson of Michigan State each won three MVPs. Then there is Louisiana State, which started strong -- Bob Pettit won two of the first four MVPs ever awarded in 1956 and 1959 -- and then had to wait until Shaquille O'Neal picked up a third for the SEC school in 2000.
After that, the MVPs and their schools are spread around -- 16 different players with 16 different alma maters, from Bob Cousy's Holy Cross and Wes Unseld's Louisville to Charles Barkley's Auburn and Allen Iverson's Georgetown.
But again, some of college basketball's most prominent and successful programs never have produced an NBA MVP, including Duke, Kentucky, Indiana, UNLV, Michigan and Florida. The coach-heavy systems at some of those schools might actually discourage the enrollment or development of players so supremely gifted as to be, eventually, the NBA's very best.
BYU isn't likely to produce one, either, anytime soon.
And before anyone asks, here's another NBA/NCAA/MVP tidbit: Only five former NBA MVPs were members of the NCAA champions. The short list: Jordan, Johnson, Walton, Abdul-Jabbar and Russell. Bob Cousy just missed -- he was an ineligible freshman in 1947 when the Holy Cross Crusaders beat CCNY and Oklahoma in the Final Four.
There were a couple other topics that grabbed The Race committee's attention this week:
Dave Cowens, mentiond just last week in this space, made news by putting his 1973 MVP trophy up for auction, along with a cache of All-Star jerseys and other memorabilia. The items will be available in August through Grey Flannel Auctions' annual NBA Hall of Fame event.
Cowens, a Hall of Famer with the Celtics who also logged six seasons as a head coach, apparently felt the time was right to clean out some closets. "He told me, 'I'm getting older, what am I gonna do with all this stuff?' Phil Castinetti of Sportsworld in Saugus, Mass., told the Boston Herald. "If he could sell it and get good money for it, why not? It's time to make some collectors happy."
Castinetti said it was hard to estimate the value of Cowens' trophy. "It could be $10,000, it could be $100,000 -- but I think it will draw great interest."
Orlando's Dwight Howard won't ever have to worry about auctioning off a 2011 MVP trophy, if his coach proves to be correct. Stan Van Gundy has been on the MVP trail telling reporters -- many of whom will cast ballots that haven't been distributed yet and won't be due untl April 14 -- that the voters already have made up their minds.
"I think it's over. Derrick Rose has it," Van Gundy said of the Chicago Bulls' guard who again tops this week's Race -- and has gathered supported from expert insiders such as Jordan, Boston coach Doc Rivers, Miami's Chris Bosh and LeBron James and various yakkers at TNT and ESPN.
Lobbying for his guy is nothing new for Van Gundy. It would be prudent even if Howard weren't in the top two or three among candidates deserving serious consideration, since the big fellow is Orlando's franchise player and therefore Van Gundy's meal ticket. The Magic coach has pounded the same drum in previous seasons, when Howard came away only with the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year awards.
That might be his lone hardware haul again this spring, though Van Gundy feels that only measures half of Howard's impact. "To me with his rebounding, his scoring and his defense, I just don't think there's anybody that impacts as many possessions in a game as Dwight does," the coach said.
It's possible, too, that Van Gundy might be going for the ol' reverse-psychology ploy, counting on some headstrong voters, maybe, to want to prove him wrong when he contends their minds already are made up. It's some nifty verbal play -- and challenging the media's fairness and open-mindedness can't get him into more trouble with a certain NBA commissioner.
Here are this week's ranking, still mere pixels on a screen rather than etched in stone the way Van Gundy alleges: recommend directory: MILLER #31 Indlana Pacers Yellow NBA Jersey.
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