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#4 Michael Jordan, 1988-89
It is inconceivable that a player could average 32.5 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 2.9 steals and 0.8 blocks per game as a shooting guard could wind up not winning the MVP award these days. However, that is exactly what happened to Michael Jordan, as he wound up losing an MVP race for the second time in his career.
His first snub was arguably in 1986-87 when he became the only guard to average 37 points per game through a regular season campaign. That was when Magic Johnson, the eventual winner, averaged 23.9 points but added 12.2 assists per game as well in comparison to Michael's average of 4.6.
The race in the '88-89 season turned out in similar fashion, as Magic put up per game averages of 22.5 points, 12.8 assists and 7.9 rebounds. It was close, but Jordan's 88-89 season ranks #1 among all players through 71 years of NBA history in Player Efficiency Rating (PER). He was a much better defender than Magic as well, which makes this snub all the more inexplicable.
He's still regarded as the greatest player of all time, and a couple of regular season MVP awards lost this way don't take anything away from his Hollywood career.
Guess the Lakers players!
