NBA: 5 MVPs who never won an NBA Title
The Most Valuable Player is the most prestigious individual achievement award and is a validation to whatever a player has achieved throughout the season. Stephen Curry is the only MVP in the history of the game to have it won unanimously.
When Russell Westbrook won the award in 2016-17, he became the first player to win the award on a team that has failed to win at least 50 regular-season games since 1982-83.
Albeit there are a lot of MVPs who led their teams to championships, there are few legendary players who have been very unfortunate to miss out on a ring. Let us look at 5 MVPs who never won an NBA title.
#5 Charles Barkley
Career Stats: 22.1 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game
Charles Barkley is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest Power Forwards of all-time. One of the most dominant players at his position, he was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1984 NBA draft as the fifth overall pick and played for them for eight years. He led the team to post-season six times but never reached the finals.
He continued to enjoy the same success at the personal level after being traded to the Phoenix Suns. In the 1992-93 season, Barkley exploded in the regular season and averaged 25.6 points, 12.2 rebounds per game and successfully led the team to playoffs. It was only his first season with the Suns and was received huge praise for carrying the team on his back.
In the finals, he lost to the Michael Jordan's Bulls and that was the closest Chuck ever came to winning an NBA title. However, irrespective of the fact that he never won a ring, he will always be remembered as a hall-of-famer who gave his all for the game of basketball.