NBA All-Time Most Valuable Assets

Milwaukee Bucks, centre

1970-71 season, age 23

The Most Valuable Player award and the Milwaukee Bucks’ first championship in his second professional season, a 66-win team built around a 23-year-old center already unguardable with the skyhook. He led the league in scoring at 31.7 points a game. Milwaukee had the player who would go on to break the career scoring record, already the best player in the sport before he turned 24.

Cincinnati Royals, guard

1961-62 season, age 23

He averaged a triple-double for the entire season, 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists a game, the first player in NBA history to do it, and the only one for fifty-five years, until Russell Westbrook in 2016-17. He was 23. Cincinnati had that from a guard in his third season.

Philadelphia Warriors, centre

1961-62 season, age 25

He averaged 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds a game across all 80 games, the only 50-point scoring average in NBA history; no other player has averaged 40. On March 2 he scored 100 points in a single game against the Knicks, still the NBA record more than sixty years later. Philadelphia had the most dominant single season any player has ever produced, at 25, with no ring yet to his name.

Chicago Bulls, guard

1987-88 season, age 25

The Most Valuable Player award, the Defensive Player of the Year award, a scoring title at 35.0 points a game and First-Team All-Defense in the same season, a combination no perimeter player had ever produced together. He was 25, without a championship yet. Chicago had the best player the league has ever produced, already the most dominant two-way force in the sport three years before his first ring.

Boston Celtics, centre

1957-58 season, age 24

His first Most Valuable Player award, in his first full season: 16.6 points, 22.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists a game across 69 games, the first player in league history to average more than 20 rebounds. He already had the 1957 title from his rookie spring. That April he sprained an ankle in Game 3 of the Finals and Boston lost to St. Louis, the only Finals series he would lose in twelve. He was 24. Boston had a 24-year-old MVP with one ring already and eleven more to come.

Cleveland Cavaliers, forward

2008-09 season, age 24

His first Most Valuable Player award, 28.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 7.2 assists a game for a Cleveland team that won 66 games, the best record in the league. He was 24, without a championship yet, three years before the first of his own. Cleveland had the best player in the world already, years before anyone was arguing about where he ranked all time.

Milwaukee Bucks, forward

2019-20 season, age 25

A second straight Most Valuable Player award and his first Defensive Player of the Year award in the same season, only the third player in NBA history to win both together in one year, after Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. He averaged 29.5 points, 13.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists a game across 63 games for a Bucks team that went 56-17 before the season was cut short.

San Antonio Spurs, forward

2002-03 season, age 26

His second Most Valuable Player award and second championship and Finals MVP award, 23.3 points, 12.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists a game for a 60-win team, closed out with 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and 8 blocks in the series-clinching Game 6. He was 26. San Antonio had the sport’s most fundamentally complete power forward, a two-time champion who would go on to win three more titles without ever leaving the Spurs.

San Francisco Warriors, forward

1966-67 season, age 22

35.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists a game, an NBA scoring title in just his second professional season, then a run to the Finals that ended in a loss to Chamberlain’s 76ers. He was 22. San Francisco had the league’s most explosive scorer already, a season before a jump to the rival ABA would pull him away for four years.

Chicago Bulls, guard

2010-11 season, age 22

The Most Valuable Player award at 22, still the youngest winner in NBA history, 25.0 points and 7.7 assists a game for a 62-win Bulls team. Chicago had the league’s most explosive young point guard, the face of a franchise built to contend for a decade, a torn ACL in the following spring’s playoffs still unimaginable at the time.

Oklahoma City Thunder, guard

2024-25 season, age 26

His first Most Valuable Player award, a scoring title at 32.7 points a game, and the championship, on a 68-win Oklahoma City team built around a defense as dominant as its offense. He was 26. Oklahoma City had the league’s most efficient shot creator, a former late-lottery throw-in from a trade for Paul George who had quietly become the best player alive.

Dallas Mavericks, guard

2023-24 season, age 25

A league-leading 33.9 points a game plus 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists, the most combined points, rebounds and assists any player had averaged since the NBA-ABA merger, then a run to the NBA Finals for the first time in thirteen years. He finished third in Most Valuable Player voting behind Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander despite arguably the best season any non-winner has ever put up.

Los Angeles Lakers, forward

1960-61 season, age 26

34.8 points and 19.8 rebounds a game and an All-NBA First Team selection, with 71 points against the Knicks in New York on November 15, at the time the most ever scored in an NBA game. He was 26. Los Angeles had that forward on a full season, the year before Army Reserve duty cut him to 48 games.

Oklahoma City Thunder, forward

2013-14 season, age 25

His first Most Valuable Player award, a scoring title at 32.0 points a game on 50.3 percent shooting and 39.1 percent from three, adding 7.4 rebounds and 5.5 assists a game, with fourteen 40-point games across the season. He was 25. Oklahoma City had the league’s smoothest scorer at his individual peak, still built around a young core with Russell Westbrook that had already reached one Finals.

Minneapolis Lakers, centre

1949-50 season, age 25

27.4 points a game, a second straight scoring title, and the championship in the first season played under the newly merged NBA name. Two years later the league doubled the width of the free-throw lane, from six feet to twelve, because of him. He was 25. Minneapolis had the first true American superstar the sport produced, a center so dominant that opposing teams stalled entire games rather than face him.

Los Angeles Lakers, centre

1999-2000 season, age 28

The Most Valuable Player award and the first of three straight championships and Finals MVP awards, 29.7 points and 13.6 rebounds a game on 57.4 percent shooting. He was 28. Los Angeles had the most physically dominant center of his generation, unguardable by conventional means, at the start of a three-peat.

Golden State Warriors, guard

2015-16 season, age 28

The first unanimous Most Valuable Player award in NBA history, 30.1 points a game and an NBA-record 402 three-pointers made, a mark that still stands. He was 28, on a 73-win Warriors team that broke the league’s all-time regular-season wins record. Golden State had the player who had permanently changed how the game is shot, the engine of what was, at the time, the best regular season ever played.

Utah Jazz, forward

1988-89 season, age 25

29.1 points and 10.7 rebounds a game, second in the league in scoring, and a third-place finish in Most Valuable Player voting in just his fourth professional season. He was 25. Utah had the league’s most punishing power forward already, eight years before the MVP season and Finals run that would follow.

Houston Rockets, centre

1988-89 season, age 26

24.8 points, 13.5 rebounds, 3.4 blocks and 2.6 steals a game across all 82 games, a rebounding title, First-Team All-NBA and First-Team All-Defense, the first player ever to rank top ten in points, rebounds, steals and blocks in the same season. He was 26. Houston had the league’s most complete two-way center already, five years before the MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and championship season that would finally arrive.

Boston Celtics, forward

1983-84 season, age 27

His first Most Valuable Player award and Finals MVP honors as the Celtics won their second title in four seasons, beating the Lakers in seven games. He averaged 24.2 points, 10.1 rebounds and 6.6 assists a game for a 62-win team, then 27 points and 14 rebounds a game across the Finals. He was 27. Boston had the best shooting forward the league had produced, about to win two more MVPs in a row.

Los Angeles Lakers, guard

1986-87 season, age 27

His first Most Valuable Player award, a fourth championship and a third Finals MVP award, 23.9 points, a league-leading 12.2 assists and 6.3 rebounds a game running the league’s most entertaining offense. He was 27. Los Angeles had the point guard who had reinvented the position at 6-foot-9, already a four-time champion with years of Showtime still ahead.

New York Nets, forward

1975-76 ABA season, age 26

29.3 points, 11.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.9 blocks a game across 84 games, the ABA’s scoring leader, its Most Valuable Player, an All-Defensive selection and the league’s Playoffs MVP as the Nets won the championship in the ABA’s last season before the merger folded four of its teams into the NBA. He was 26. New York had the game’s most spectacular forward at the peak of a league he had already outgrown, a year before the merger would prove it.

Los Angeles Lakers, guard

1964-65 season, age 26

31.0 points a game, a career high to that point, then a Western Division Finals series against Baltimore that spring in which he averaged 46.3 points a game, still the NBA record for a playoff series. He was 26, seven years from the championship that would finally end his run of Finals losses. Los Angeles had the league’s model of two-way scoring guard play, the player whose silhouette the NBA still uses as its logo.

Philadelphia 76ers, guard

2000-01 season, age 25

The Most Valuable Player award, a scoring title at 31.1 points a game, and a run to the Finals for the first time since 1983, beating Milwaukee in a seven-game Eastern Conference Finals along the way. He was 25. Philadelphia had the league’s most dangerous undersized scorer, a one-man offense who dragged a roster further than its talent should have allowed.

New Orleans Pelicans, forward

2014-15 season, age 22

24.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and a league-leading 2.9 blocks a game for New Orleans, an All-Star and First-Team All-NBA season that also produced four 40-point games. He was 22. New Orleans had the most versatile big man in the league already, before a trade demand four years later sent him to the Lakers and changed the direction of his career entirely.

New Orleans Hornets, guard

2007-08 season, age 22

21.1 points and a league-leading 11.6 assists and 2.7 steals a game, leading New Orleans to the best record in franchise history and finishing second to Kobe Bryant in Most Valuable Player voting. He was 22. New Orleans had the league’s best pure point guard already, a Rookie of the Year turned franchise engine years before a trade would send him searching for the ring he never found.

Orlando Magic, centre

2010-11 season, age 25

His third straight Defensive Player of the Year award, the first player in NBA history to win it three years running, 22.9 points and 14.1 rebounds a game, anchoring an Orlando team that had reached the Finals two years earlier. He was 25. Orlando had the league’s most dominant defensive center, a franchise cornerstone before injuries and a trade request changed the shape of his career.

St. Louis Hawks, forward

1958-59 season, age 26

The MVP award and 29.2 points and 16.4 rebounds a game for St. Louis, his second such award, three seasons after the first. He was 26. The Hawks had the game’s premier power forward before the position had that name, an undersized center who out-worked bigger men on the boards for a decade.

Philadelphia 76ers, centre

2018-19 season, age 25

27.5 points, 13.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists a game across 64 games, All-NBA Second Team and All-Defensive Second Team honors, and a Philadelphia team that reached the Eastern Conference Semifinals, losing to Toronto on Kawhi Leonard’s series-winning buzzer-beater. He was 25. Philadelphia had the league’s most skilled seven-footer already, four years before the scoring title and MVP season that would follow.

Miami Heat, guard

2005-06 season, age 24

Finals MVP honors for Miami’s first championship, averaging 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists a game across the Finals, including 42 points to key a Game 3 comeback and 43 more in the closeout Game 5, after the Heat had trailed the series two games to none. He was 24. Miami had the league’s most explosive young guard, delivering a title in only his third season.

New York Knicks, guard

1969-70 season, age 24

20.9 points, 8.2 assists and 6.0 rebounds a game, the offensive engine of a Knicks team that won the franchise’s first championship, with 36 points and 19 assists in the Game 7 clincher itself. He was 24. New York had the coolest, most complete guard in the league, a two-way force who also made First-Team All-Defense that same season.

Denver Nuggets, centre

2021-22 season, age 27

A second straight Most Valuable Player award, 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists a game on 58.3 percent shooting across all 74 games he played, leading his own team outright in every one of those categories. He was 27, one year before the championship he would finally win. Denver had the league’s best offensive hub, a second-round pick out of Serbia turned the game’s most unique superstar.

Minnesota Timberwolves, forward

2003-04 season, age 27

The Most Valuable Player award, 24.2 points, 13.9 rebounds and 5.0 assists a game for a Minnesota team he carried to the Western Conference Finals almost single-handedly. He was 27. Minnesota had the most versatile big man in the league, a do-everything forward four years from the championship he would finally win after a trade to Boston.

Los Angeles Lakers, guard

2005-06 season, age 27

A 35.4 points-a-game scoring average that included an 81-point game against Toronto in January, at the time the second-highest single-game total in NBA history behind only Chamberlain’s 100. He was 27, still three years from his first championship without Shaquille O’Neal alongside him. Los Angeles had the league’s most ruthless scorer, carrying a middling roster to the playoffs on volume and will alone.

New York Knicks, centre

1989-90 season, age 27

A career-high 28.6 points and 10.9 rebounds a game, third in the league in scoring and second in blocks at 4.0 a game, before the Knicks were beaten in five games by the defending champion Pistons in the conference semi-finals. He was 27. New York had the game’s premier defensive center, a franchise cornerstone who never got the ring the era’s Bulls and Rockets kept from him.

Philadelphia 76ers, forward

1989-90 season, age 27

25.2 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists a game on 60.0 percent shooting, a third straight First-Team All-NBA selection, and more first-place Most Valuable Player votes than the eventual winner, Magic Johnson, before finishing second by 22 total points. He was 27. Philadelphia had the league’s best undersized power forward already, three years before the trade to Phoenix and the Finals run that would define his prime.

Toronto Raptors, forward

2018-19 season, age 27

A one-year run with Toronto that ended with the franchise’s first championship and his second career Finals MVP award, only the third player ever to win the award with two different teams, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James. He averaged 28.5 points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists a game across the Finals itself, punctuated by the buzzer-beating four-bounce shot that had eliminated Philadelphia two rounds earlier. He was 27. Toronto had, for one season, the league’s best two-way wing on a team built entirely around delivering him a ring, and it worked.

Indiana Pacers, forward

2013-14 season, age 23

21.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists a game, Third-Team All-NBA and First-Team All-Defense in the same season, leading Indiana back to the Eastern Conference Finals against Miami for a second straight year. He was 23. Indiana had one of the league’s best two-way wings, a career still ahead of a gruesome leg injury the following summer that this season gave no hint of.

Portland Trail Blazers, guard

2017-18 season, age 27

26.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 6.6 assists a game across 73 games, his first and only First-Team All-NBA selection, and a fourth-place finish in Most Valuable Player voting for a Portland team that made the playoffs as the third seed. He was 27. Portland had the league’s most fearless clutch shooter at his First-Team peak, two years before the bubble season most remembered for the shot from just past midcourt.

Philadelphia 76ers, centre

1982-83 season, age 28

“Fo, fo, fo,” he predicted for the playoffs, and the 76ers came about as close as a team can, losing a single game across three rounds and sweeping the Lakers in the Finals. He won his third Most Valuable Player award the same season, averaging 24.5 points and 15.3 rebounds a game. He was 28. Philadelphia had the league’s most dominant rebounder finally paired with a championship roster built to use him.

New York Knicks, centre

1969-70 season, age 27

The MVP award in the regular season, the All-Star Game and the Finals in the same year, the first player in NBA history to sweep all three. He famously played through a torn thigh muscle to start Game 7 of the Finals, scoring the first basket and igniting a Knicks blowout that delivered the franchise’s first championship. He was 27. New York had a captain who defined what it meant to play hurt for a title.

San Antonio Spurs, centre

1994-95 season, age 29

The Most Valuable Player award, 27.6 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.2 blocks and 1.7 steals a game for a Spurs team that won a league-best 62 games and had not yet added Tim Duncan. He was 29. San Antonio had the game’s most dominant two-way center without a championship yet to show for it, two years before Duncan arrived and four before the two of them won it.

Oklahoma City Thunder, guard

2016-17 season, age 28

The Most Valuable Player award for averaging a triple-double across an entire season, 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists a game, only the second player in NBA history to do it after Oscar Robertson. He was 28, playing without Kevin Durant for the first time after Durant’s departure that summer. Oklahoma City had a player doing something the sport had not seen in fifty-five years, by himself, on a 47-win team.

Houston Rockets, guard

2017-18 season, age 28

The Most Valuable Player award, a scoring title at 30.4 points a game, and a franchise-record 65 wins for Houston. He was 28. Houston had the league’s most prolific isolation scorer and passer combined into one guard, the best offensive engine in basketball for a team one game from the Finals.

Chicago Bulls, forward

1993-94 season, age 28

First-Team All-NBA and First-Team All-Defense in the same season, running the Bulls in Michael Jordan’s first retirement and proving the team’s defense had never depended on one player alone. He averaged 22.0 points, 8.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists a game. He was 28. Chicago had the league’s best two-way wing, a three-time champion carrying a contender by himself for a season.

Dallas Mavericks, forward

2006-07 season, age 28

The Most Valuable Player award, 24.6 points and 8.9 rebounds a game for a 67-win Mavericks team, the best regular season in franchise history. He was 28. Dallas had the league’s best-shooting seven-footer, a stretch four before the term existed, still four years from the championship that would finally arrive in 2011.

Detroit Pistons, guard

1989-90 season, age 28

Finals MVP honors as the Pistons repeated as champions, 27.6 points and 7.0 assists a game across the Finals itself against a Portland team that could not slow him down. He was 28. Detroit had the floor general of the league’s toughest, most physical team, a two-time champion built on defense that he ran the offense for.

Utah Jazz, guard

1989-90 season, age 28

A league-leading and NBA-record 14.5 assists a game, the third of what became nine straight seasons leading the league, running a Jazz offense built on his pick-and-roll with Karl Malone. He was 28. Utah had the most efficient point guard the league has ever seen, a career assists and steals record already taking shape underneath him.

Boston Celtics, guard

1956-57 season, age 28

His first Most Valuable Player award and the Celtics’ first championship, 20.6 points, 7.5 assists and 4.8 rebounds a game, leading the league in assists while directing an offense built on the fast break he had popularized. He was 28, already a six-time All-Star before this season. Boston had the point guard who invented the position’s modern possibilities, with a title finally attached.

Phoenix Suns, guard

2004-05 season, age 31

His first Most Valuable Player award, in his first season back in Phoenix after signing as a free agent from Dallas, 15.5 points and a league-leading 11.5 assists a game running the fastest, highest-scoring offense in the league. He was 31, older than most names here but shooting 50.2 percent from the field and 43.1 percent from three at the same time, the efficiency that would produce a full 50-40-90 season the following year. Phoenix had the architect of modern pace-and-space basketball, years before the rest of the league caught up to what he was doing.

What he had done by the end of that season, measured against his own era: Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards, championships, scoring titles and records. A 50-point scoring season in 1962 and a 33-point one in 2023 are different things, each dominant against what the rest of the league was doing at the time.

How many good years he had left. A star at 23 is worth more than the same star at 33, all else equal.

How long his team could keep him. The modern max-contract system did not exist for most of the league’s history, and free agency in its current form is a product of the 1990s and after, so for most of this list team control was simply the rules of the era rather than a negotiated number. Where a contract is part of the modern record, it is noted; where it is not, years of team control before free agency or a trade changed it stand in its place.

How hard the role is to fill. A two-way center and a lead ball handler who creates his own shot have always been the hardest pieces to find in any era of the sport.