The National Basketball Association (NBA) is set to rename its annual awards after legendary players from their recent NBA 75 list. The MVP award will be named after the six-time NBA Champion Micheal Jordan. The North Carolina Alumni has won the MVP award five times in his illustrious 15-year career. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, after whom the NBA Social Justice Champion award is named, has won more MVP trophies with a tally of six.
The league announced the newly designed Michael Jordan Trophy along with five other redesigned trophies. These trophies are named after the pioneers and will be presented to the NBA's end-of-season performance award winners. All these awards are designed by basketball artist Victor Solomon.
The Micheal Jordan trophy has many special easter eggs honouring the man behind the award. The trophy is 23.6 inches tall representing Jordan's jersey number (23) and the number of NBA championships (six) he has won. The trophy has a five-sided base which is a nod to Jordan's five league MVPs, and the crystal basketball at the top consists of 23 points, and measures 1.23 inches in diameter, in reference to Jordan's standout career.
In addition to the Jordan Trophy for MVP, the other redesigned awards are:
The Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy for Defensive Player of the Year
The Wilt Chamberlain Trophy for Rookie of the Year
The John Havlicek Trophy for Sixth Man of the Year
The George Mikan Trophy for Most Improved Player
Talking about these players after which the awards are named, Hakeem Olajuwon has made the All-Defensive Team nine times and won the Defensive Player of the Year in 1993 and 1994. Wilt Chamberlain won both Rookie of the Year and MVP in 1960, averaging 37.6 points per game in his first season.
Jon Havlicek was an 11-time All-NBA player while coming off the bench for several seasons. George Mikan was considered the league's first superstar as he led the Minneapolis Lakers to five championships in the 1940s and 1950s.
