You’re No Kobe: Recalling Some Unusual MVP Vote-Getters in the NBA

The NBA MVP voting generally seems pretty cut-and-dry. It’s usually down to one or two players—say, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, then maybe Dwyane Wade as a dark horse—and nobody else really stands a chance.

But when every vote has been counted, and all the hanging chads are accounted for, a lot more than three players receive votes.

The voters are sportswriters and broadcasters across the country: three from each city that hosts a team, and then a smattering of others nationwide. It’s important to realize that they each vote for their top five, in order—meaning that beyond the Kobes, LeBrons, and D-Wades there’s still room for stragglers.

I’ve picked through the last ten years of MVP voting, and found some interesting names of vote recipients—players that, looking back, you’d never have expected to get any sort of MVP attention. Whether they deserved it or not at the time is difficult to tell now, and since it’s unlikely that the voter felt they had any chance of actually winning, the fifth-place votes may actually become a way to recognize players that contribute meaningfully, but in a less superstar-ish way.

Here they are, in chronological order:

Mike Bibby, ‘02, Sacramento Kings

That’s right, the man who does the voice of Kermit the Frog got a single MVP vote.

With the Sacramento Kings eating the crumbs from the master’s table in the NBA lately, it’s easy to forget that they won 61 games in the 2001-2002 season, with Bibby at the point. The Kings went all the way to the Western Conference Finals that year, where they lost in seven games to the Shaq-Kobe Lakers.

Bibby was in a contract year—only his fourth year in the league—and he parlayed the season into a $80.5 million contract. He averaged 13.7 points and five assists, and hit a few clutch shots (including the game winner in Game 5 against the Lakers). His scoring production would increase each year after that with the Kings, but they would also win fewer and fewer games each year.

It’s also remarkable to note that Chris Webber and Peja Stojakovic, both teammates of Bibby’s on that Sacramento team, also garnered MVP votes. Webber was seventh overall, and Stojakovic—like Bibby—received just one fifth-place vote.

Jamal Mashburn, ‘03, New Orleans Hornets

Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like a long, long time ago that Monster Mash was playing.

Jamal Mashburn made his one and only All-Star appearance in 2002-2003, and he scraped up one fifth-place MVP vote in the process. His New Orleans Hornets won 47 games that year, and made an early exit from the playoffs at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Mashburn put up 21.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game that year; solid numbers all around. It was, sadly, his last season of real production—he only played in 19 games the next year, sitting out with a knee injury that eventually required microfracture surgery. He then sat out the entire 2004-2005 season, was traded to Philadelphia, and sat out another season there before being waived.

Sam Cassell, ‘04, Minnesota Timberwolves

E.T. himself has always been a good, respected player. But it was only in the 2003-2004 season that he was esteemed to be one of the league’s five best.

It was with the Minnesota Timberwolves, of all teams. It was the franchise’s best year—the year they won 58 games and went to the Western Conference Finals—and Cassell was the team’s second-leading scorer behind Kevin Garnett. He averaged 19.8 a game, plus 7.3 assists, as a 34-year-old veteran point guard.

Interestingly, by this point in his career Cassell was playing with his sixth different team (he played with two more before hanging it up). He had won rings in his first two seasons in the league, on a Houston Rockets team led by Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, but it wasn’t until 2004 that he made an All-Star team (his only one), and got an MVP vote or two.

Eventually it was KG that took home the MVP trophy.

Michael Redd, ‘04, Milwaukee Bucks

I’m a Michael Redd fan—I like pure shooters—but with the caliber of superstars now in the league it’s hard to think of Redd getting MVP attention. Still, he only got one fifth-place vote.

The year was 2003-2004, and the Milwaukee Bucks had traded Ray Allen to the Seattle Supersonics, allowing Redd to settle into a spot in the starting lineup. He had his best statistical season thus far in his career—a contract year—with 21.7 points, five rebounds, and 2.3 assists per contest. The Bucks went 41-41 that year, and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

The interesting thing here is that now the ‘03-’04 season is not the best season of Redd’s career. His scoring production continued to increase every year until three years later, when it peaked at 26.7 points per game. You can make the argument that the Bucks have struggled since then—but their record was only a pedestrian .500 when he got the vote.

Andrei Kirilenko, ‘04, Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz forward, a dead ringer for Ivan Drago from Rocky IV, managed not-just-one-but-two fifth place MVP votes, also in the 2003-2004 season.

And Kirilenko’s play on the court made a good case for such attention. It was the Jazz’s first season without John Stockton and Karl Malone, and Kirilenko led the team to a 42-40 record—only a five game drop-off from the prior year despite losing the two Hall of Famers. Kirilenko made his sole All-Star appearance that year, and really seemed to building toward a massive career.

What has happened to AK-47 since, then? The next year he sat out exactly half the season, but was still able to return mostly to form in ‘05-’06. But the Jazz changed; Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer took over leadership roles, and Mehmet Okur became an offensive force. Kirilenko stopped being the team’s leader, and since has instead been a spark man off the bench.

And, by all accounts, he’s been an excellent sixth man—and is still putting in 30 minutes a game.

PJ Brown, ‘05, New Orleans Hornets

Remember P.J. Brown?

P.J. was a serviceable big man for a long time in the NBA, putting in stints with the New Jersey Nets, Miami Heat, Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, Chicago Bulls, and finally the Boston Celtics. Interestingly, he won his only championship ring with the Celts in 2008; he only played in 18 regular-season games for them after signing during the All-Star break, but ended up being a clutch contributor in the playoffs.

But that’s not what we’re here to talk about. Brown got his one fifth-place MVP vote in the 2004-2005 season while with the Hornets. His numbers were rather pedestrian (10.8 points, 9 rebounds per game), and that was for a team that only won 18 games that season. Huh?

I’m not sure I can explain this one away. Brown was never an All-Star, though he did make the All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team three times (none of which were the ‘04-’05 season, however; he also posted his lowest blocks total of his career that year, minus his shortened Boston year).

If anybody can shed any light on P.J. Brown’s one MVP vote, I’d be interested to hear it. There certainly wasn’t a shortage of vote-getters that year, as the voting was led by Steve Nash, Shaquille O’Neal, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Tracy McGrady, etc. etc. etc.

The MVP, for better or worse, is often given to the best player on the best team. But in this case, a single vote went to a serviceable player on a bad team.

Marcus Camby, ‘05, Denver Nuggets

There was a legitimate defensive stalwart in that 2004-2005 voting pool, however, and also receiving one fifth-place vote was Marcus Camby.

Camby averaged 10.3 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks per game throughout that season, his third with the Denver Nuggets. They won 49 games that year and made the playoffs, led by Carmelo Anthony.

Camby never made an All-Star team either, but has earned some significant defensive accolades through the years. He made the All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team twice (including the ‘04-’05 season) and the 1st team twice more (all four in a row), and took home the NBA Defensive Player of the Year trophy in ‘06-’07. He also led the league in blocks four times, including the three straight years after his single MVP vote.

Antawn Jamison, ‘08, Washington Wizards

The most recent surprise MVP vote-getter is a little more believable than some of the others. Antawn Jamison, of the Washington Wizards, managed to reel in a fifth-place vote in the 2007-2008 season.

Jamison has been a scoring menace ever since he started in the league with the Golden State Warriors in 1998. He really came out to shine in the ‘07-’08 season when both Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler sat for chunks of the season with injuries. The Wiz still managed to win 43 games, in good part thanks to Jamison.

It was also his most well-rounded season statistically. His 21.4 points per game were a pretty standard Jamison line, but he also averaged 10.2 rebounds for the season (still a career high, and the only season in which he averaged a double-double). He made his second of two All-Star appearances that year.

Only a few years later, it already seems strange to see Jamison wrangle a vote with names like Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, and Dwight Howard on the ballot. Maybe that’s why they don’t let me vote.

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