The NBA MVP Wins the Championship About One Season in Three

We matched NBA.com's list of every MVP with each season's final standings. Every playoff series was rebuilt game by game from NBA.com's stats database.

How often the NBA MVP wins the championship

Twenty-four times in 71 seasons. Nine more MVPs lost in the Finals, so the MVP's team played for the title in 33 seasons, 46 percent. The most common shortfall came one round earlier: 20 losses in the conference finals, known as the division finals until 1969-70.

Earlier exits are rarer. Eleven MVPs' teams went out in the second round, six in the first round, and one, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 1975-76 Los Angeles Lakers, missed the playoffs.

The last MVP to win the title

Gilgeous-Alexander, in 2024-25. The Thunder went 68-14, the league's best record, beat the Indiana Pacers in seven games in the Finals, and he added the Finals MVP award. Before him, the last was Stephen Curry with the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors. The nine seasons in between, 2015-16 to 2023-24, are the longest stretch in which no MVP won the title; the previous longest was eight.

In 2025-26 Gilgeous-Alexander won the award again, the 14th player to win it in consecutive seasons, and the Thunder again had the best record, 64-18. The San Antonio Spurs beat them in seven games in the Western Conference finals, and the New York Knicks beat the Spurs in the Finals for their first title since 1973.

NBA MVPs who won the championship, decade by decade

The double has become rarer. Before 2000 the MVP's team won 18 of 44 titles, 41 percent; since then, 6 of 27, or 22 percent. Grouping seasons by the year they ended, the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s produced five each, the 2000s two, the 2010s three and the 2020s one so far.

Fifteen players have done it. Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics and Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls did it four times each; Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird and LeBron James twice; and Bob Cousy, Wilt Chamberlain, Willis Reed, Moses Malone, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Curry and Gilgeous-Alexander once.

Nikola Jokić won three MVPs, the most by any player who never won the title in an MVP season. The Denver Nuggets' championship came in 2022-23, when Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers was MVP.

MVP team record: how good was the MVP's team?

Usually one of the best: the typical MVP's team won 60 games on an 82-game pace, and in 44 of the 71 seasons it had the league's best record, alone or shared. Even then it won the title only 20 times, 45 percent. The two best records since 1955-56 both belonged to MVP teams, with opposite endings: Curry's 73-9 Warriors lost the 2016 Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Jordan's 72-10 Bulls won the 1996 title.

Without the best record, the MVP's team won 4 titles in 27 seasons: the 1979-80 Lakers, the 1990-91 Bulls and the 1993-94 Houston Rockets, all second-best, and the 2011-12 Miami Heat, fourth. See also how often the NBA's best record wins the title.

Eight MVPs played for teams ranked fifth or lower. The first MVP, Bob Pettit, had the worst record: his 1955-56 St. Louis Hawks went 33-39, tied for sixth in an eight-team league, and still reached the Western Division finals. Abdul-Jabbar's 1975-76 Lakers, 40-42, are the only MVP team to miss the playoffs. Three of the eight came in the last 10 seasons: Russell Westbrook's 2016-17 Thunder (10th at 47-35) and Jokić's Nuggets in 2020-21 (tied for fifth at 47-25) and 2021-22 (tied for 10th at 48-34).

NBA MVPs whose teams lost in the first round

Six MVPs went out in the first round, two of them with the league's best record. Moses Malone did it twice, both times in a best-of-three series:

• Wes Unseld, 1968-69 Baltimore Bullets: 57-25, the best record, swept by the New York Knicks in the Eastern Division semifinals.
• Moses Malone, 1978-79 Houston Rockets: 47-35, beaten in two games by the Atlanta Hawks.
• Moses Malone, 1981-82 Houston Rockets: 46-36, beaten in three games by the Seattle SuperSonics.
• Dirk Nowitzki, 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks: 67-15, the best record, beaten in six games by a 42-40 Golden State team.
• Russell Westbrook, 2016-17 Oklahoma City Thunder: 47-35, beaten in five games by the Houston Rockets.
• Nikola Jokić, 2021-22 Denver Nuggets: 48-34, beaten in five games by Golden State, the eventual champion.

Every NBA MVP winner and how their team finished

The 2026-27 season: the MVP and the title

The 2026-27 regular season starts on October 20, and the opening-night tripleheader ends with the Thunder at the Spurs, a rematch of last season's Western Conference finals. Under the labor agreement that began in 2023-24, players generally have to appear in at least 65 games to be eligible for MVP.

History gives the MVP's team about a one-in-three shot at the title, one in five since 2000. The NBA schedule has every game night by night, and the NBA simulator lets you play out the season game by game, or all at once with Simulate season. Our projected wins for 2026-27 are a starting point.

NBA MVP and championship: frequently asked questions

How often does the NBA MVP win the championship? The MVP's team won it in 24 of 71 seasons from 1955-56 to 2025-26, 34 percent, and in 6 of the 27 since 2000.

Who was the last NBA MVP to win the title? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, with the 2024-25 Oklahoma City Thunder. He repeated as MVP in 2025-26, but the Knicks won the title.

Which MVP's team had the worst record? Bob Pettit's 1955-56 St. Louis Hawks, at 33-39. The only MVP team to miss the playoffs was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 1975-76 Lakers, at 40-42.

Has an MVP's team lost in the first round? Six times, most recently Nikola Jokić's 2021-22 Denver Nuggets, beaten in five games by Golden State.

Who won the most titles in MVP seasons? Bill Russell and Michael Jordan, four each. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the only six-time MVP, did it twice.

How this was built: every MVP from 1955-56 to 2025-26, 71 seasons, from NBA.com's list of winners, matched with each season's final standings and every playoff game from NBA.com's stats database. Teams are ranked by winning percentage, with ties sharing a rank; a share of the best record counts as the best record. Each series is rebuilt from its games and placed in its round by counting back from the Finals. Champions, runners-up and Finals results match NBA.com's list of champions in every season, and each MVP's team and title match Wikipedia's list of winners.