Bob Cousy and the NBA's unofficial MVP Award

The NBA Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is an annual award, recognizing the league’s best player in the regular season. The inaugural recipient of the MVP award was the St. Louis Hawks’ Bob Pettit, in the 1955-56 season.

That means for the league’s first nine seasons (1946-47 to 1954-55), there was no official MVP award winner — which has contributed to fan’s unfamiliarity with the league’s earliest stars. However, prior to 1955-56, there was an unofficial MVP award, voted on by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) known as the Sam Davis Memorial Award. 

The MBWA is still an active organization, famously known for its Haggerty Award; an honor bestowed annually to the top men’s NCAA Division I basketball player in the New York metropolitan area. However, between the 1949-50 and 1969-70 seasons, their writers awarded the top NBA player with the aforementioned Sam Davis Memorial Award. The award provides us with unique insight into the league’s top players prior to the inaugural MVP in 1955-56. 

George Mikan was the league’s first true luminary, whose sheer dominance forced the league to widen the lane at the onset of the 1951-52 season. Mikan won the first two Sam Davis Memorial Awards amidst the Minneapolis Lakers dynastic run, winning his second NBA championship in ‘50 and reaching the Western Division Finals in ‘51. 

In 1951-52, Paul Arizin won the Sam Davis Memorial Award in his sophomore season, leading the league in scoring (25.4 per) and field goal percentage (.448). Unfortunately, Arizin missed the entire ‘53 and ‘54 seasons while serving in the Marines for the Korean War. 

In Arizin’s absence, Celtics’ legend Bob Cousy won in 1952-53, leading the league in assists (7.7 per), finishing fourth in points (19.8 per), and leading the Celtics to the Eastern Division Finals. Arizin’s teammate and Philadelphia Warriors’ center, Neil Johnston, won in 1953-54. This was Johnston’s second-consecutive season leading the league in scoring (24.4 per). In the final year before the NBA created their own MVP award, Bob Cousy won his second Sam Davis Memorial Award — leading the league in assists (7.8 per), finishing second in scoring (21.2 per), and leading the Celtics to the Eastern Division Finals for the third straight season. 

Since the 1980-81 season, the NBA MVP award has been voted on by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters under the umbrella of the Associated Press (AP). Prior to the 1980-81 season, the award was voted on by NBA players. What’s fascinating about the Sam Davis Memorial Award is that the MBWA continued to bestow the honor after the inception of the NBA’s official MVP award — demonstrating the difference between the press and player’s evaluation of individual and team success. 

This contrast between the official MVP award (selected by the players) and the Sam Davis Memorial Award (selected by the press) is stark. 

Many of the season’s recipients of both awards are the same. However, there are a few notable differences: 

In 1955-58, the MBWA awarded Dolph Schayes the Sam Davis Memorial Award. Schayes finished second in the players’ official voting, with eight fewer first place votes than the winner, Bill Russell. 

The 1961-62 season’s MVP race is infamous: Oscar Robertson averaged a 30 point triple-double for the entire season; Elgin Baylor averaged 38 points and 18 rebounds; and Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50 points and 25 rebounds. Chamberlain’s crowning achievement was on March 2, 1962 — when he scored 100 points against the New York Knicks in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Still, it was Bill Russell who won the MVP award — averaging a modest 19 points and 23 rebounds. For Russell, the statistic that mattered the most were wins, and the Celtics were the first team in NBA history to win 60 games. Russell was their cornerstone. Unlike the players, the MBWA voted Wilt Chamberlain as their Sam Davis Memorial Award winner — holding his individual dominance in higher regard than Russell’s. 

In 1962-63, Russell won his third-consecutive league MVP, and fourth overall, while Elgin Baylor came in second; averaging 34 points and 14 rebounds. However, the MBWA chose Baylor as the Sam Davis Memorial Award instead of Russell. In ‘63, Baylor’s acclaimed running-mate Jerry West missed 27 games, but the Lakers still won 53 games — finishing first in the Western Division and second overall. 

The MVP race in 1968-69 was one of the most peculiar in NBA history. Chamberlain joined Baylor and West in Los Angeles, to form the league’s first quasi-superteam. While Russell was the Celtics’ player-coach, he was in his final season and only averaged 9.9 points per game. Oscar Robertson failed to reach the postseason for the second straight year, despite playing with fellow All-Star Jerry Lucas. Incredibly, it was the Rookie of the Year winner and center for the Baltimore Bullets (now the Washington Wizards), Wes Unseld, who won the MVP award. The Bullets won 36 games the season prior. In Unseld’s inaugural campaign, the team won an astonishing 57 games — finishing with the best record in the NBA. Ostensibly, this turnaround fueled Unseld’s case as MVP. The New York Knicks’ center Willis Reed came in second place, with 35 fewer first place votes than Unseld. However, the MBWA awarded Willis Reed with the Sam Davis Memorial Award in lieu of Unseld. Reed began the season starting at power forward, with longtime big man Walt Bellamy starting at center. Midway through the season, the Knicks dealt Bellamy to the Detroit Pistons, in exchange for their power forward, Dave DeBusschere. Reed moved to center and the Knicks won 34 of their last 45 games. The rest is history. Ironically, Reed and the Knicks swept the Bullets in the first round — upsetting the first overall seed in dominant fashion. 

The Sam Davis Memorial Award provides us with a fascinating vantage into NBA history. While it sheds some light into who might have won the MVP award if it existed prior to the 1955-56 season; it illustrates the discrepancy between the players and press’ evaluation of individual success. That discrepancy demonstrates the inherent flaw of the MVP award itself. 

Still, at face value, the Sam Davis Memorial Award drastically changes our perception of several legends. The greatest beneficiary is Celtics’ legend Bob Cousy, who won three Sam Davis Memorial Awards. Had the Sam Davis Memorial Award been officially recognized as the MVP award prior to 1955-56, the "Houdini of the Hardwood" would have been a six time champion and the first point guard to win three MVP awards. (The only other being Magic Johnson)  

Cousy’s teammate, Bill Russell, on the other hand, only won two Sam Davis Memorial Awards; while his adversary Wilt Chamberlain was a record five-time Sam Davis Memorial Award winner. That’s a huge swing for Russell, who was a five time MVP award winner. 

Paul Arizin, Neil Johnston, Dolph Schayes, and Elgin Baylor unfortunately never won the league’s MVP award, but were all recipients of the Sam Davis Memorial Award. 

Like Cousy, George Mikan’s legacy greatly benefits from the Sam Davis Memorial Award. Mikan never truly had an opportunity to win an MVP award, retiring at the end of the 1953-54 season. While Mikan returned for a brief stint in 1955-56, he only played 37 games and was far from the dominant force he once was. For Mikan, two MVP awards and five NBA championships would put him in an exclusive club — only matched or exceeded by Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Michael Jordan. (Also Bob Cousy, in this hypothetical scenario) 

Does the Sam Davis Memorial Award hold any merit when its recipients were often different from the official MVP award winner? The same concern arose nearly a decade ago. After Stephen Curry won his first MVP award in 2015, the NBA Player’s Association conducted their own poll amongst active players to determine who they considered the MVP. The players chose James Harden, who finished second in the official awards voting. So is the official MVP award less prestigious today, because the players aren’t the one’s voting on the winner? 

Whether the MVP award should be determined by the press or players is admittedly difficult to answer. That’s why the Sam Davis Memorial Award’s value cannot be diminished. The NBA’s unofficial MVP award provides us with a unique insight into NBA history and helps recontextualize the legacies of some of basketball’s forgotten stars.