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The coveted NBA MVP award, or the Michael Jordan trophy, happens to be an attractive accolade for athletes playing in the National Basketball Association. Each player in the league aspires to win this title at least once in their professional career. Some become winners at a young age, while others triumph at old age. This article explores the youngest stars who have clinched the NBA MVP award.
Many of them dream of winning it early in their career, just like they would have won it in their career mode of NBA 2K. But a majority of them fall short of expectations. Unless you're head and shoulders above the rest of the league at such a young age, players don't have many opportunities to start games, let alone assert dominance.
But it isn't impossible to break conventional norms in the NBA. We saw Pablo Prigioni become the oldest NBA debutant for the New York Knicks at 35 years of age. Becky Hammon became the first female head coach of an NBA team in 2020.
So becoming the youngest NBA MVP may be difficult, but not impossible. Here is a list of five players, in descending order of their ages, who will become MVP. (ages taken according to statmuse listings)
5 youngest NBA MVP award winners
#5 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - 23 years
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had a stellar career, playing for 20 years in the league. He won six league titles, six regular MVPs, and two final MVPs. All that to go with the second-highest points total ever, a record that was just broken by LeBron James in the past season.
His first MVP came in the 1970–71 season, just a year after making his debut. Playing all 82 games that year, Jabbar also led Milwaukee to their first-ever championship - becoming one of the very few players to win MVP and FMVP in the same year.
His regular-season statistics looked like this: 31.7 PPG, 16 RPG, 3.3 APG. Those averages would win you MVP in any year, and KAJ was fully deserving to win it that year.
#4 Bob McAdoo - 23 years
Tied with Kareem, Bob McAdoo won his first NBA MVP after just 3 seasons in the league with the Buffalo Braves. In his second season, he became the league's top scorer, averaging 30.6 PPG. He went one step higher in the next season, scoring 34.5 points a game, taking the MVP crown from KAJ in 1974–75.
He went on to have a legendary career, joining hands with Kareem on the Lakers for four years. They won two championships together, in 1982 and 1985.
#3 Moses Malone - 23 years
Moses Malone had a slightly longer career compared to the first two on the list, playing for four seasons, before winning his first NBA MVP in his fifth year. He started his professional career at 19, winning the Maurice Poldoff Trophy at 23.
Winning the trophy while playing for the Houston Rockets, the 1978–79 season saw Malone play all 82 games, for almost 42 minutes a game. He averaged 24.8 points, 17.6 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks.
Beating out players like McAdoo, Wilt Chamberlain, and Kareem is no mean feat, and Malone deserved his trophy. He won two more after his first, and was also a champion in 1983 with Philadelphia.
#2 Wes Unseld - 22 years
The first player to win it at age 22, Wes Unseld, did everything right in his rookie season (1968–69)—yes, rookie season to win the prestigious NBA MVP trophy. The only other player to win both ROTY and MVP in the same year was Wilt Chamberlain, in 1959–60.
Playing at the highest level, Unseld scored 13.8 points a game, 18.2 rebounds a game and led the Baltimore Bullets to an impressive record of 57-25, first in the eastern division.
#1 Derrick Rose - 22 years
Finally, the youngest ever to win it, Derrick Rose broke a 42-year-old record, winning the NBA MVP in 2011. He beat out LeBron James on the Miami Heat for the trophy, something, not many people can claim.
Running point for a charged-up Chicago, Rose looked like the heir apparent to Michael Jordan, 13 years after Air Jordan left the team. Winning 62 games, he averaged 25 points, 7.7 assists, and 4.1 rebounds a game. There was no one finer than Rose that year, and he remains the youngest ever to win it.
Bonus: Wilt Chamberlain also won the NBA MVP at the age of 23, although he was just days older than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, so he misses out on this list. But his achievement came in his first-ever NBA season, when he won ROTY too.
Guess the Lakers players!
