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The National Basketball Association has honored Hall of Famer Michael Jordan by dubbing its annual MVP regular season award after him.
The league announced the move on Tuesday (Dec. 13) as part of a new reimagining of the Kia Performance Awards given out at the end of the regular season. The Michael Jordan Trophy will go to the most valuable player in the league. Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, who won the trophy last season, will receive the newly designed trophy retroactively.
The newly redesigned trophy contains many nods to the numerous achievements of Jordan’s 15-year career with the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. One example of this lies in the statue’s height of 23.6 inches tall, which represents his jersey number (23) and the number of NBA championships he won in his career (6). The jersey number is again represented in the crystal basketball at the top, which measures 1.23 inches in diameter.
The current Charlotte Hornets owner, joins five other great pioneers of the game with this honor. The Jerry West Trophy will go to the Clutch Player of the Year. The Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy will be awarded to the Defensive Player of the Year. The Wilt Chamberlain Trophy will go to the Rookie of the Year, and the Most Improved Player Trophy will now be known as the George Mikan Trophy. Lastly, the John Havlicek Trophy will go to the Sixth Man of the Year. Their trophies were also crafted by designer Victor Solomon – the Jordan statuette is the only one of the six with its own signature features.
“Our new collection of trophies celebrates some of the greatest and most impactful players in the history of the NBA,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in a statement. “As we recognize the league’s top performers each season, we also pay tribute to the legends who embody these prestigious awards.”
This represents the next level of the league’s reimagining of their trophies, which began with a newly designed Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy which was unveiled last year. The conference championship trophies
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