Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 11:09 pm  |  21 responses

The greats will now win the Bill Russell Finals MVP

Fittingly, from now the NBA Finals MVP Trophy will be named after the great Bill Russell.

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  • http://slamonline.com Russ Bengtson

    Pretty weird that they re-named the award for someone who never won it. Of course the Finals MVP didn’t even exist until 1969, but is that really a legitimate excuse?

  • http://slamonline.com Tzvi T

    Nice touch. Way to be classy NBA.

  • Blinguo

    Caught the announcer discussion of this, then left the room and it was back to commercials and I didn’t hear what it was for. Awesome its not a posthumous award, as in, he’s still alive and around instead of never gotten a chance to see it being announced(then 1st person to get it and so on) as happens with many legends of any sport and their respective named awards.

  • Sebastian B. O. Bunionstow, esq.

    Bravo, although Wilt was better.

  • t4inc

    11 Rings to 2 says Russell was better at winning. Hence, it’s only fitting that the Finals MVP be named after him.

    In the same vein, Russ — the Larry O’Brien trophy is named after the NBA’s former commish; he never won an NBA Title himself so I’m not sure what your point is, unless it’s simply to promote discussion on this thread.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Congrats, Big Bill! Well deserved!
    Great decision by the NBA.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    They should hand out trophies to the scoring champs each season titled, “The Wilt Chamberlain Scoring Title”.

  • http://www.hibachi20.blogspot.com Hursty

    t4inc- Russ is just doing…himself?

  • I am the walrus

    Why is this not named after Stephon Marbury? The Nba is crazy…

  • T Money

    This is a great decision by the NBA. Bill Russell is class personified

  • T Money

    I hope this inspires KG to show up in the playoffs

  • http://slamonline.com Ben Osborne

    One more thing on Russell; assuming you guys haven’t seen our own Vincent “The Commish” Thomas’ piece on NBA.com about Russell, please check it out: http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/02/10/thomas.russell.20090210/index.html

  • MalevolentKing7242

    wonder how LA feels if they win the finals and kobe gets the MVP only to find a celtic name on it

  • http://www.bebotbebot.com 007

    lol @ t4inc..

  • http://www.bebotbebot.com 007

    on another thought d guy above me has a point..

  • a_whiteman

    Teddy the bear, that’s a good idea. That is similar to what the nhl did with their awards, I’m for that. The block trophy has to be named after dikembe though

  • http://www.bbl.org.uk Josh D

    I guess thats why they named it after him,Russ. If he didn’t win it but he won 11 rings you’ve got give him something for that

  • Fat Lever

    I guess they decided pass on naming this after T-Mac…

  • http://www.basketballjerseyworld.com NBA-JERSEY-KING

    they should call it the Michael Jordan trophy – was there ever a better Finals player??

  • Young Chris MP3

    ^ I was thinking the same thing ^

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com.dacre Dacre

    Michael Jordan is TOO great an icon to have trophy’s named after him, his name has been alot more use for…. cologne and sneakers…?
    O_o

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