The NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award is now known as “The Michael Jordan Trophy,” celebrating what is considered the best basketball player of all time.
The NBA made the announcement on Tuesday morning, highlighting the Chicago Bulls legend who won the MVP award five times. Jordan is tied for second all-time with Bill Russell behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
In addition to those MVP Awards, Jordan had six NBA titles, six Finals MVPs, 11 All-NBA selections, 14 All-Star selections, three All-Star MVPs, 10 scoring titles, one Defensive Player of the Year award, and Rookie of the Year honors in 15 seasons.
The new trophy is a figure holding a crystal basketball in the air. The trophy is nearly 23.6 inches tall, a nod to Jordan’s trademark number and six NBA championships. There are 23 points on the crystal ball. The base of the trophy has five sides, highlighting Jordan’s MVP awards.
The trophy was created by Mark Smith, retired VP of Innovation Special Projects at Nike and a Jordan Brand designer, in collaboration with Jordan.
“I’m incredibly honored to have created the NBA’s MVP Trophy in partnership with Michael Jordan. Sculpting Michael’s vision of his own pursuit of athletic achievement into this award has been the opportunity and challenge of a lifetime,” Smith said. “As we worked together on this project, it was very important to Michael that the figure not be a likeness of him, but instead that the recipient should be able to see himself in the award. For Michael, naming the award in his honor was recognition enough.”
