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***Ranking the top 74 individual seasons in NBA history.***

blackfoot NAP

blackfoot NAP

King Of Bling
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Ranking the top 74 individual seasons in NBA history​

When the NBA hands out its awards, it keeps the regular season separate from the postseason, issuing one MVP for the first 82 games and a second for the final four to seven (depending on how long it takes for the champion to finish off its last opponent). There's no award at all that combines the two, nor one that accounts for outstanding performances in the early rounds of the playoffs.
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No.74: BILL RUSSELL
1963-64 Boston Celtics
The Celtics had the league's worst offense, yet they won the title. How? Because Russell alone made the Celtics into the league's best defense by a mile.

No.73: KOBE BRYANT
2007-08 Los Angeles Lakers
Bryant's lone MVP season ended on a sour note, with Kobe shooting poorly, and the team losing in the NBA Finals to the Celtics.

No.72: WILT CHAMBERLAIN
1965-66 Philadelphia 76ers
In his first full season back in Philadelphia, Chamberlain led the league in scoring (33.5 points per game) for the seventh and final time.

No.71: PAUL ARIZIN
1955-56 Philadelphia Warriors
"Pitchin' Paul" powered the Warriors to their second Philadelphia-era title, leading all scorers with 28.9 PPG during the playoff run.

No.70:JERRY WEST
1965-66 Los Angeles Lakers
West's lone appearance came behind a career-high 31.3 PPG. The Lakers took the Celtics the distance with West averaging 33.9 PPG in the Finals.
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No.59: Michael Jordan
1987-88 Chicago Bulls
Jordan was the first player to win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.

No.58: Derrick Rose
2010-11 Chicago Bulls
"Why can't I be MVP of the league?" Rose asked. Seven months later, he hoisted the MVP trophy. He is still the youngest winner in NBA history

No.57: Kevin Durant
2011-12 Oklahoma City Thunder
At 23, Durant was already a challenger for "Best Player in the World" a contest he and LeBron James played out in the 2012 Finals

No.56: Dwyane Wade
2005-06 Miami Heat
Supplanting Shaq as Miami's go-to player, Wade won Finals MVP

No.55: Kevin Durant
2017-18 Golden State Warriors
Durant followed up his first championship and Finals MVP award with a brilliant encore in 2018, repeating on both counts.
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No.49: Larry Bird
1984-85 Boston Celtics
In the second of Bird's three straight MVP seasons, he led the league in minutes and averaged 28.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and 6.6 assists.

No.48: WILT CHAMBERLAIN
1961-62 Philadelphia Warriors
What was most impressive about Chamberlain's season? Achieving the greatest scoring season in history? His 100-point game?

No.47: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1976-77 Los Angeles Lakers
Abdul-Jabbar led the Lakers to the league's best record, averaging 26.2 PPG on a then-career-best 57.9 FG% to earn his fifth MVP award.

No.46: Stephen Curry
2016-17 Golden State Warriors
While Durant's arrival cast a bit of a shadow over Curry, he showed during Golden State's title run that he was still a force, averaging 28.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 6.7 assists while shooting 41.9% from 3-point range.

No.45: LeBron James
2013-14 Miami Heat
Coming off three straight NBA Finals appearances, James was still dominant (second in the league in win shares), as Miami made it to a fourth straight Finals before losing to the San Antonio.
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39. George Mikan
1950-51 Minneapolis Lakers
The league wasn't awarding MVP yet, but Mikan, the face of the NBA, certainly would have been in consideration. The 6-10 center also shot 78% from the free throw line in the regular season before being knocked out in the second round by Rochester.

38. Tim Duncan
1998-99 San Antonio Spurs
Go ahead and argue that the Spurs' title deserves an asterisk due to the lockout-shortened season. It's still awfully impressive that a 23-year-old Duncan averaged 27.4 points, 14.0 rebounds and 2.2 blocks as the Spurs dismissed the Knicks in five games in the Finals.

37. Bill Russell
1962-63 Boston Celtics
An MVP for the third season in a row, Russell anchored a defense that led the Celtics to 58 wins with the league's worst estimated offensive rating. Boston's playoffs were atypically bumpy but resulted in a fifth consecutive title.

36. Stephen Curry
2015-16 Golden State Warriors
That the 72-win Warriors eventually lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals has diminished Curry's brilliance that season, the first and only time in NBA history a player has been unanimously named the league's MVP.


35. Shaquille O'Neal
2000-01 Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers cruised to the league's second-best record with O'Neal leading the NBA in PER and finishing second in RPM. He and the Lakers lost only a single game in a dominant championship run that landed O'Neal his second straight Finals MVP

34. LeBron James
2017-18 Cleveland Cavaliers
Not only did James play all 82 games in his 15th NBA season, but he dragged a broken-down Cavaliers team to a fourth straight NBA Finals with a series of Herculean performances in one of the greatest accomplishments of his career.

33. LeBron James
2009-10 Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavaliers won 61 games to earn the top overall seed. James led the NBA in both box score-based PER and impact-based RPM to win his second consecutive MVP award, but the Cavs were upset in the playoffs by the Celtics.

32. Kevin Garnett
2003-04 Minnesota Timberwolves
Garnett led the Wolves in points, boards, steals and blocks in his 2003-04 MVP season. He also averaged five assists per game and finished second in the NBA in defensive win shares. His dominance wasn't enough to get Minnesota past Shaq and Kobe in the conference finals in 2004, but it was enough to keep the series interesting.

31. Hakeem Olajuwon
1993-94 Houston Rockets
Olajuwon remains the only player in NBA history to sweep the MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and Finals MVP awards in the same season.

30. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1971-72 Milwaukee Bucks
A year after leading the Bucks to the title, Abdul-Jabbar was even more spectacular during the regular season, averaging a career-high 34.8 PPG while repeating as MVP. He averaged 33.7 points in a six-game West finals loss to the Lakers but was limited to 46% shooting playing against the 35-year-old Chamberlain.
 
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29. Kevin Durant
2013-14 Oklahoma City Thunder
Durant won his fourth scoring title, got his MVP and capped it with an all-time speech.

28. Larry Bird
1983-84 Boston Celtics
Bird posted then-career highs with 24.2 PPG and 6.6 APG to lead the Celtics to 62 wins and earned his first MVP award. en route to his first Finals MVP and a Celtics championship.

27. LeBron James
2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers
James cemented his legacy with his incredible performance against the 72-win Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals. He scored more than 40 points in Games 5 and 6 before putting up a triple-double to win the city's first title in a half-century.

26. Michael Jordan
1992-93 Chicago Bulls
He averaged 32.6 points -- the most he averaged in any of Chicago's six title seasons -- and led the league in steals for the third time in his career. The Bulls then survived wars with the New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns in the playoffs to win their third title in a row.

25. Julius Erving
1975-76 New York Nets
The only ABA season to crack this list saw Erving win MVP of both the regular season and the playoffs (the ABA's award) as his Nets claimed the final title before the league's merger with the NBA. Oh, and he also won the inaugural dunk contest during the All-Star Game.
 
24. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1973-74 Milwaukee Bucks

23. LeBron James
2016-17 Cleveland Cavaliers

22. George Mikan
1949-50 Minneapolis Lakers

21. Michael Jordan
1996-97 Chicago Bulls

20. Bill Russell
1961-62 Boston Celtics
 
19. Oscar Robertson
1963-64 Cincinnati Royals
During Chamberlain's best season by win shares, a season in which Russell's Celtics won 59 games, it was the Big O who won his only MVP by falling just a handful of rebounds short of averaging a triple-double for the second time

18. Stephen Curry
2014-15 Golden State Warriors
The arrival of Steve Kerr coincided with Curry exploding into a human supernova in the 2014-15 season, winning the first of two straight MVP awards and leading Golden State to the first of five straight NBA Finals appearances -- and winning the first of the franchise's three titles

17. Michael Jordan
1991-92 Chicago Bulls
The Bulls had their most dominant season to that point with 67 wins, the best record in the NBA by 10 games. Jordan won his seventh straight scoring title and second straight MVP, his third overall.

16. Bill Russell
1964-65 Boston Celtics
Russell and the Celtics were cruising at their peaks in 1965. The Celtics had the best record in the NBA by a whopping 13 games over the second-place Lakers. According to Basketball-Reference.com. Russell won his fifth rebounding title and fifth MVP, and the Celtics won their seventh straight championship.

15. Magic Johnson
1986-87 Los Angeles Lakers
A 27-year-old Johnson was a force, scoring a career-best 23.9 points per game, leading the league in assists with 12.2 per game and earning the fourth of his five rings. He started off the Finals with 29 points and 13 assists in Game 1, followed by 22 points and 20 dimes in Game 2 en route to the win and series MVP over Bird and the Celtics.
 
14. Moses Molone
1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers
Philadelphia's run to its last title in 1983 is most remembered for Malone's utterance that the Sixers were going to win in "Fo, Fo, Fo." They lost one game on their way to the title in one of the more dominant postseasons in history. Malone lived up to the hype after being acquired from Houston prior to the season, winning his second straight MVP award as he led the league in rebounding for a third of five straight.

13. Tim Duncan
2002-03 San Antonio Spurs
Duncan and David Robinson were co-stars during San Antonio's first title run four years earlier. The Spurs had clearly become Duncan's team by this championship season. Duncan put the finishing touches on this title run with one of the most dominant all-around performances ever in a Finals clincher, knocking out the Nets with a 21-point, 20-rebound, 10-assist, 8- block outing.

12. Michael Jordan
1997-98 Chicago Bulls
Jordan played the first chunk of his final season in Chicago without Scottie Pippen, who missed the first 35 games of that campaign after having surgery on his left foot. Jordan put the team on his back, notching 40 or more points five times, all wins before Pippen's return.

11. Larry Bird
1985-86 Boston Celtics
Out of all the great Celtics teams, only one won more games than the 67 that Bird's C's did in 1985-86, and that 1972-73 team that won 68 didn't finish things off with a championship like Mr. Legend. It was the last of Bird's three straight MVP seasons, and he finished the string off in fashion with a Finals MVP, notching a triple-double in the clinching victory over Olajuwon, Ralph Sampson and the Rockets.

10. Shaquille O'Neal
1999-2000 Los Angeles Lakers
It was the Most Dominant Ever's most dominant season. He filled up his awards shelf with the All-Star Game MVP, regular-season MVP and Finals MVP and captured the first of his four championships. Don't forget the 61 points against the Clippers in the regular season and going for 40-plus in three out of the six games against Indiana in the Finals.
 


9. LeBron James
2011-12 Miami Heat
In this lockout-shortened season, LeBron and the Heat looked to bounce back from a disappointing 2011 campaign. They would go on to win the championship, his first, with LeBron as the Finals MVP.

8. LeBron James
2008-09 Cleveland Cavaliers
Having teased his potential the previous two playoffs, James led the Cavaliers to the NBA's best record at 66-16 and won his first MVP. After sweeping the first two rounds, Cleveland was upset by Orlando in the Eastern Conference finals despite a historic series from James, who averaged 38.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 8.0 assists

7. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks
The version of Abdul-Jabbar that most people remember is from the late stages of his career playing with Magic Johnson and the Lakers. He led the league in scoring while averaging 16 rebounds a night as he won his first of six MVP awards and led the Bucks to their first and only NBA title.

6. George Mikan
1948-49 Minneapolis Lakers
This was Mikan's official rookie season he'd played in the NBL the previous two years and the final season of the Basketball Association of America. He upped his scoring average to 30.3 points across 10 playoff games, as Minneapolis beat the Philadelphia Warriors, New York Knicks and Washington Capitols to win the final BAA title

5. Michael Jordan
1990-91 Chicago Bulls
During his 1991 playoff run, Michael Jordan did a sit-down interview with then-NBC analyst Pat Riley, who asked him whether he would view his career as disappointing if he never won a title. Jordan said he wouldn't. After all, he owned five scoring titles, two MVPs and a Defensive Player of the Year award by the age of 27. But his playmaking in that Finals (11.4 assists per game) stands out even more than his 31 points per game.
 
4. Wilt Chamberlain
1963-64 San Francisco Warriors
The highest-rated non-championship season saw Chamberlain post 25.6 win shares, the second most in NBA history. Chamberlain's 1963-64 season rated better than his higher-scoring 1961-62 and 1962-63 seasons due to his commitment to passing (his 5.0 assists per game were a career high at the time) and the Warriors were better at the defensive end of the court, ranking second behind the Celtics in Basketball-Reference.com's estimated defensive rating. San Francisco still lost to Boston in the Finals, but Chamberlain averaged 29.2 points and 27.6 rebounds in the series, shooting 52% from the field while his teammates shot just 35%
 
3. LeBron James
2012-13 Miami Heat
The Heat posted their most dominant regular season during the Heatles era with 66 wins, the best record in the NBA by six games. LeBron had the most efficient shooting season of his career to that point, hitting 60.2% of his 2-point shots and 40.6% from downtown. He dominated the impact stats, lapping the league in real plus-minus (RPM), and earned a career-best 99.8% of the vote for his fourth MVP award. The Heat went on to win their second straight championship, with LeBron garnering his second consecutive Finals MVP
 
2. Wilt Chamberlain
1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers
While taking home the second of three straight MVP awards, Chamberlain averaged more rebounds (24.2) than points (24.1) in the regular season and upped his boards bounty to a wild 28.5 per game in the Sixers' six-game win over the San Francisco Warriors. The Finals MVP didn't exist yet or he probably would have taken it home. Philly won a then-record 68 games while "The Stilt" shot 68.3% from the field -- the second-best mark of his 14-year career. He also averaged 7.8 assists from the center position.
 
1. Michael Jordan
1995-96 Chicago Bulls
The 1995-96 Bulls set an NBA record with 72 wins, still the most for a champion, so it's no surprise there were plenty of win shares for Jordan, who received the highest vote share for MVP of anyone to that point. That award value puts Jordan's 1995-96 atop his many great seasons in these rankings even though the 1990-91 season rates as his best playoff run. It was an emotional season for Jordan, who proved he could still be the league's best player post-retirement and capped it by winning his first championship since the death of his father on Father's Day.
 
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