NBA renaming its individual awards

[Tetsujin]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1602651495186440194

They couldn't name any of these after guys who played sometime later than 1980? Also them naming DPOY after Hakeem rather than Bill Russell seems... odd?

 

[dude12]

Agreed on Hakeem over Russell…..just seems odd. Also, seems maybe they would name something after Kobe for this generation. George Mikan? Bird, Magic, Jabbar.

 

[Tetsujin]

and they couldn’t have named the clutch award after Kobe or something rather than the dude who is already literally the logo for the entire damn league?

 

[chief bromden]

Isn't All Star MVP named after Kobe? And Finals MVP after Russell? If so, they probably just don't want redundancy

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

They couldn't name any of these after guys who played sometime later than 1980? Also them naming DPOY after Hakeem rather than Bill Russell seems... odd?

Not really that odd, in light of the fact that the DPOY award didn't exist when Mister Russell played. I personally might have named it after Mutombo (tied with Ben Wallace for most-ever DPOY recipients), though.

 

[Tetsujin]

Isn't All Star MVP named after Kobe? And Finals MVP after Russell? If so, they probably just don't want redundancy

Sure but I’m not even sure George Mikan’s family would’ve been mad if the league named the Most Improved Player award after, say, Steve Nash instead of him. There are only a handful of people left who can even say they ever saw Mikan play a game.

or they could just wait ten years and make it after Giannis when he retires.

 

[Tetsujin]

Not really that odd, in light of the fact that the DPOY award didn't exist when Mister Russell played. I personally might have named it after Mutombo (tied with Ben Wallace for most-ever DPOY recipients), though.

Fair enough but MIP wasn’t even a thing until the 1990s which is still thirty years or so after George Mikan retired.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

That's absurd, IMO. No disrespect to the legacy of George Mikan, but that's ridiculous: how do you justify naming the MIP award after a guy who averaged 28ppg in his first official NBA season, and never actually did better than that? He was the first marquee player ever in the league but, improved? When? Not after the BAA/NBL merger, that's for sure.

They should absolutely name it after Antetokounmpo. If they don't want to wait until he retires, name it after the only recipient currently in the Hall of Fame: Tracy McGrady.