The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most storied franchises in all of professional sports with many of the greatest players to ever step foot on an NBA floor suiting up in the purple and gold. As such, when the NBA chooses to pay tribute and homage to its greatest players, the Lakers are always well represented.
The NBA has recently begun to rename and redesign many of its awards and trophies. The league created Conference Finals MVPs for which Magic Johnson had the Western Conference version named after him. Additionally, the All-Star Game MVP Award was named after the legendary Kobe Bryant, and now three more Lakers legends are being honored with awards being named after them.
The NBA and Lakers announced that Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and George Mikan will have the Rookie of the Year, Clutch Player of the Year, and Most Imporoved Player awards named after them, respectively:
Paying tribute to the legends that embody these prestigious awards — former Lakers Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and George Mikan will now have NBA Awards named after them.
Rookie of the Year, Most Improved Player, and Clutch Player of the Year trophies have been unveiled. pic.twitter.com/GJUbeCAEmJ
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) December 13, 2022
In addition to the awards being named after them, the trophies themselves have also been redesigned. Perhaps most notable is the creation of the new Clutch Player of the Year being named after West, who earned the nickname Mr. Clutch. The award will be voted on by a media panel based on nominations from NBA head coaches and will honor the NBA player who best comes through for his teammates in the clutch.
Chamberlain having the Rookie of the Year trophy named after him also makes a lot of sense considering his rookie season was absolutely unbelievable. Chamberlain averaged 37.6 points and 27.0 rebounds in 1960, winning not only Rookie of the Year, but also MVP.
Mikan was the NBA’s first superstar and dominant big man due to his mastery of the fundamentals and the ‘Mikan Drill’ continues to be used to help players improve to this day. This is why the Most Improved Player trophy will have his name attached to it.
In addition to these awards, the Regular Season MVP trophy will now be named after Michael Jordan, the Defensive Player of the Year trophy is named after Hakeem Olajuwon, and the Sixth Man of the Year trophy is named after John Havlicek.
Anthony Davis says only goal this year is to win championship for Lakers
If there’s a Lakers player who has the opportunity to bring home one of these awards it is undoubtedly Anthony Davis, who has been playing at an MVP level this season. But Davis isn’t focused on any individual awards, but rather the ultimate team one.
Davis made it clear that he is focused solely on winning a championship with the Lakers and believes that if your put all your focus on that, the other things will fall into place.
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