Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1980. He averaged 33/14/4/5 that series before going down with an ankle injury, then Magic Johnson took over and famously played all five positions and won Finals MVP. Not that Magic was totally undeserving – but a lot of people feel that Kareem should have won Finals MVP that year since he carried the team every game except the last one.
Other Finals MVP snubs:
John Havlicek in 1969 – West was the only player to get FMVP on the losing team, but Havlicek would have definitely got it on the winning side as he was carrying the Celtics completely offensively with 28 PPG
Elvin Hayes in 1978 – he averaged 28/14 to Unseld’s 10/14 and somehow didn’t get FMVP?
Larry Bird in 1981 – averaged 15/15/7 but Maxwell won it because he averaged 2 more PPG and that’s really his only case over Bird
KG arguably deserved it over Pierce in 2008 – he was averaging 18/13/3 a game but Pierce outscored him by 4 PPG
Pau Gasol arguably deserved it over Kobe in 2010 – he was by far the most efficient player on the team and their best rebounder but Kobe’s PPG won it for him
Tim Duncan should have probably gotten it over Kawhi in 2014 – Kawhi got it for his defense over Lebron but Duncan was still the centrepiece of the offense and defense
Steph Curry should have gotten it over Iggy in 2015 – Iggy again got it for his defense over Lebron but Curry was averaging 26/5/5 that series
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