Does An MVP Candidate Need His Team To Finish In 1st Place? D-Wade Hopes Not

by David Dwork on Mar 13, 2009 1:22 AM EDT Comment 0 comments

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With all the MVP talk surrounding Dwyane Wade, one point that many ‘experts’ make is that Wade is not on a 1st place team, while LeBeon James and Kobe Bryant are. How important is that when choosing an MVP? By definition, MVP is for the Most Valuable Player, but to whom? Is it to that player’s team, or to the league itself? I sincerely hope that it’s for the particular players team.

Well…I decided to see how important being on a first place team is to becoming an MVP. I did some digging and went back to 1985, searching the four major sports, and found each and every time an MVP was chosen that was not on a first place team.

NBA

87-88	Michael Jordan	Chicago Bulls	3rd in Central
98-99	Karl Malone	Utah Jazz	2nd in Midwest

NFL

1997	Barry Sanders (co. MVP w/ Brett Favre)	Detroit Lions	3rd in NFC Central
2000	Marshall Faulk	St. Louis Rams	2nd in NFC West
2003	Steve McNair (co. MVP w/ Peyton Manning)	Tennessee Titans	2nd in AFC South
2008	Peyton Manning	Indianapolis Colts	2nd in AFC South

MLB

1985	AL	Don Mattingly	New York Yankees	2nd in AL East
1986	NL	Mike Schmidt	Philadelphia Phillies	2nd in NL East
1987	NL	Andre Dawson	Chicago Cubs	Last in NL East
1987	AL	George Bell	Toronto Blue Jays	2nd in AL East
1989	AL	Robin Yount	Milwaukee Brewers	4th in AL West
1991	AL	Cal Ripken Jr.	Baltimore Orioles	6th in AL East
1993	NL	Barry Bonds	San Francisco Giants	2nd in NL West
1994	NL	Jeff Bagwell	Houston Astros	2nd in NL Central
1997	NL	Larry Walker	Colorado Rockies	3rd in NL West
1998	NL	Sammy Sosa	Chicago Cubs	2nd in NL Central
2001	NL	Barry Bonds	San Francisco Giants	2nd in NL West
2002	NL	Barry Bonds	San Francisco Giants	2nd in NL West
2003	AL	Alex Rodriguez	Texas Rangers	Last in AL West
2004	NL	Barry Bonds	San Francisco Giants	2nd in NL West
2006	NL	Ryan Howard	Philadelphia Phillies	2nd in NL East
2007	AL	Alex Rodriguez	New York Yankees	2nd in AL East
2008	NL	Albert Pujols	St. Louis Cardinals	4th in NL Central
2008	AL	Dustin Pedroia	Boston Red Sox	2nd in AL East

NHL

87-88	Mario Lemieux	Pittsburgh Penguins	Last in Patrick
88-89	Wayne Gretzky	Los Angeles Kings	2nd in Smythe
89-90	Mark Messier	Edmonton Oilers	2nd in Smythe
90-91	Brett Hull	St. Louis Blues	2nd in Norris
97-98	Dominik Hasek	Buffalo Sabres	3rd in Northwest
98-99	Jaromir Jagr	Pittsburgh Penguins	3rd in Atlantic
01-02	Jose' Theodore	Montreal Canadians	4th in Northeast
05-06	Joe Thornton	Boston Bruins/San Jose Sharks	2nd in Pacific (SJS)
06-07	Sidney Crosby	Pittsburgh Penguins	2nd in Atlantic

Obviously it's a little different in sports where more players have the opportunity to make a difference. In the NBA, usually at the most the 5 starters are the only ones who play enough to have a shot at MVP. In football, there are only a handful of positions that can provide an MVP. Baseball and Hockey have more players in the 'spotlight'...so you can see why they provide so many more non-1st MVPs. And baseball has one for each league, so....

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