3 NBA teams with most Finals MVP awards

#2 Boston Celtics – 6-time winners (1974, 1976, 1981, 1984, 1986, 2008)

Paul Pierce with the 2008 NBA Finals MVP honors

The Celtics probably should have won the 1969 NBA Finals MVP award too because no other player on a losing team has received the honor since. The Celtics had a good candidate as well for Finals MVP, with John Havlicek averaging 28.3 ppg and 11.0 rpg in that series versus the Lakers.

However, Havlicek would get his due in 1974 when he won his only Finals MVP award as the Celtics bested Kareem’s Bucks in seven games. Havlicek put up 26.4 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 4.7 apg and 1.9 spg in an all-round display for Boston. Two years later, Boston guard Jo Jo White would pick up the franchise’s second Finals MVP Award as Boston beat the Phoenix Suns in six games.

The Celtics were the other dominant team in the 1980s besides the Lakers. They made it to five NBA Finals in that decade, coming out trumps on three occasions. Cedric Maxwell picked up the 1981 Finals MVP Award while Larry Bird, a three-time consecutive regular season MVP between 1984 and 1986, picked up the Finals MVP awards in 1984 and 1986.

There are some who believe that Bird could have had a hat-trick of Finals MVP awards because he should have been Finals MVP in 1981 too. In those Finals versus Houston, Bird averaged 15.3 ppg, 15.3 rpg, 7.0 apg and 2.3 spg, but it was Maxwell who bagged the award for his 17.7 ppg, 9.5 rpg and for his defense on Moses Malone.

The last of Boston’s six Finals MVP awards came in 2008 when a recent entrant into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Paul Pierce, helped the Celtics past their arch rivals, the Lakers. Pierce picked up the Finals MVP, averaging 21.8 ppg and 6.3 apg, as the Celtics won the last of their 17 championships.

#1 LA Lakers – 13-time winners (1969, 1972, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 2000-02, 2009-10, 2020)

Kobe Bryant flaunts his first NBA Finals MVP Award in 2009

Jerry West winning the Finals MVP award in what is the only instance of a player receiving the honor while on the losing team. West won the honors for putting in an exemplary 37.9 ppg and 7.4 apg over a heart-breaking seven-game series loss for the Lakers against their arch rivals the Celtics. The Lakers won their next Finals MVP award on a happier note when Wilt Chamberlain bagged the honor after the Lakers trumped the New York Knicks 4-1 in the 1972 Finals.

The 1980s was a dominant phase for the Lakers. They went to eight Finals in that decade, missing only the 1981 and the 1986 NBA Finals. Of those eight Finals, they came out on the winning side five times. Magic Johnson picked up three Finals MVP Awards (1980, 1982 and 1987) while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1985) and James Worthy (1988) received the honor once each. Magic winning the 1980 Finals MVP is the only instance of a rookie winning the award while Kareem’s win at age 38 made him the oldest recipient of the honor.

The Lakers then went on another dominant run between 2000 and 2002, picking up their first three-peat since the Minneapolis Lakers won three straight NBA titles between 1952-1954. Shaquille O’Neal was the alpha star on that Lakers roster, picking up all three Finals MVP honors for the team.

After the NBA renamed the Finals MVP award to the Bill Russell Finals MVP Award in 2009, Kobe Bryant picked up the individual trophy as the Lakers won title numbers 15 and 16 in 2009 and 2010. LeBron James then became the last player in a Lakers jersey to pick up then honor when the LA team won the Larry O’Brien trophy in 2020. James is the only player to win the award with three different teams (Miami, Cleveland and the Lakers).