1) Bill Russell (1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966)
2) Tom Heinsohn (1959)
3) Sam Jones (1965)

The Finals MVP trophy is named after him but Russell never earned it himself. The award debuted for the 1969 NBA Finals, when Russell won his 11th title with the Celtics. But the winner was the Lakers’ Jerry West, the first and only player to earn the trophy in a losing effort. How many Finals MVP trophies would Russell have won if it existed as far back as 1957? He didn’t always compile his team’s best statistics, especially not in scoring, but that never prevented his fellow players from voting him league MVP five times. Here’s a year-by-year breakdown:

1957: Just as what actually happened in 1969, this would possibly be a case where Russell wins a title but a player from the losing team is the Finals MVP. The Hawks’ Bob Pettit, reigning league MVP, had an incredible performance with 30.1 points and 18.3 rebounds per game. Russell contributed 13.3 points and 22.9 rebounds per game for the series, including an incredible 32 rebounds in the deciding game seven.

Verdict: The rookie Russell, still disrespected around the league for having joined the Celtics mid season (and, let’s face it, because of racism), would have missed out on the MVP to Pettit.

1959: Even in a breezy series sweep where he averaged an incredible 29.5 rebounds per game, Russell found himself overshadowed by Lakers rookie sensation Elgin Baylor. Though Baylor was easily the most dynamic offensive threat on the floor, it was Heinsohn leading all scorers in the series with 24.3 points per game. Russell had just 9.3 points per game, making him Boston’s seventh-leading scorer. 

Verdict: Though his peers had named Russell league MVP in ’57-’58, many media members, even in Boston, were still wary of admitting the best basketball player in the world was Black. Heinsohn likely wins this one.

1960: In the rubber match of the Celtics-Hawks Finals rivalry, Russell led Boston to victory in another seven game classic, with 16.7 points and 24.9 rebounds per game. In the deciding game seven, he dropped 22 points and a record 35 rebounds. Heinsohn was again Boston’s leading scorer at 22.4 points per game, while Pettit led all scorers with 25.7 points per game and added 14.9 rebounds per game.

Verdict: After his incredible performance in a Celtics blowout win in game seven, voters have no more excuses left. Russell finally wins his first Finals MVP.

1961: In their fourth and final championship series matchup, the aging Hawks were no match for the Celtics, now a well-oiled machine. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, Heinsohn was the leading scorer for the Celtics with 22.0 points per game but Russell was undeniably the reason Boston prevailed in five games. This was also notable as the best Finals performance of Bob Cousy’s career, averaging 19.8 points and 10.6 assists per game.

Verdict: Fresh off accepting his second league MVP award, Russell, with 30 points and 38 rebounds in the clinching game five, also adds a second Finals MVP trophy.

1962: For the first time in his career, Russell was Boston’s leading scorer in 1962, averging 22.9 points per game, along with 27.0 rebounds. This was arguably the biggest heartbreak loss for Elgin Baylor. The series ended with Frank Selvy missing a series-winning shot late in game seven, while Baylor averaged 40.6 points and 17.9 rebounds per game, in one of the greatest performances ever in a Finals losing effort.

Verdict: Baylor is a tempting pick but Russell was league MVP in ’61-’62 even after Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points per game and Oscar Robertson averaged a triple-double. He would repeat the feat here.

1963: Another year, another Lakers-Celtics classic, another dominating Russell performance. The series was Cousy’s swan song, but there was little chance of sentimentality garnering him votes as he was far from the best player on the court at any point. Baylor was incredible again, with 33.8 points and 15.0 rebounds per game.

Verdict: Though his stats don’t quite compare to Baylor’s, with 20.0 points and 26.0 rebounds per game, the Celtics win the series in six with little doubt about the outcome at any point, so Russell adds a fourth Finals MVP trophy to go along with his fourth league MVP award.

1964: In his first NBA Finals matchup against Russell, Wilt Chamberlain averaged 29.2 points and 27.6 rebounds per game. But his Warriors lost to the Celtics in five (albeit close) games, meaning that Chamberlain’s MVP candidacy is a non-starter. Russell averaged just 11.2 points per game while Jones was Boston’s leading scorer with 25.2 points per game. Jones did struggle in the clinching game five, however, leaving voters with a dilemma.

Verdict: This is a close one as voter fatigue had to be settling in at this point, but we give Russell the slight edge over Jones, and his fifth Finals MVP award. 

1965: With Elgin Baylor was waylaid with a knee injury, Jerry West carried the Lakers to the NBA Finals almost single-handedly and averaged 33.8 points per game in the series. But the Celtics easily won in five games, with Russell averaging 17.8 points and 25.0 rebounds per game. Jones led the Celtics with 27.8 points per game, including a 37-point performance in the crucial game four that essentially put the series away.

Verdict: Though Russell was the hero of games one and two in this series, Jones is the one who carried the Celtics through the remaining three games. He wins his first Finals MVP trophy here.

1966: In a rare moment of taking over the team’s scoring load, Russell averaged 23.6 points per game in this series, along with 24.3 rebounds per game. It was a nail biter for the Celtics, with the Lakers winning not one but two games in the vaunted Boston Garden. Jerry West led the way with 33.9 points per game but the Celtics held on in seven for their eighth title.

Verdict: It’s tempting to award this one to West. He added 6.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game to go along with his scoring, and truly spurred L.A.’s game one upset in Boston. But it was Russell, as usual, as usual, coming up huge when it mattered most in game seven, with 25 points and 32 rebounds. Give him his sixth Finals MVP.

1968: Now 34 years old and acting as a player-coach, Russell wasn’t quite his dominant self anymore. This is the season where John Havlicek took over as the primary offensive threat, averaging 27.3 points per game, while also adding 8.7 points and 6.7 assists per game. Russell finished the series with 17.3 points and 21.8 rebounds per game. He also had a blocked shot at the buzzer that clinched a crucial game five victory.

Verdict: With a 40 point, 10 rebound performance in the clinching game six to cap off a series where he was often the best player on the court, Havlicek earns his first Finals MVP. Russell comes up short of claiming a seventh trophy, but he does still make history in this series by becoming the first Black coach to win an NBA championship.

Final Count: Six MVP trophies for Russell, one for Jones, one for Heinsohn, and one for Havlicek, who would eventually actually win one in 1974.

4) Dolph Schayes (1955)

Unfortunately for Schayes, his overall dominant ’54-’55 performance came before not just the Finals MVP but also the league MVP award. He would have undoubtedly won both. After averaging 18.5 points and 12.3 rebounds per game in the regular season, leading the Syracuse Nationals to the league’s best record, Schayes had an up-and-down playoffs. But in a strange and controversial NBA Finals against the Fort Wayne Pistons, Schayes clearly came away as the series’ best player. He led all scorers with 19.0 points per game, all rebounders with 11.9 per game, and finished third on his team in assists at 3.0 per game. Schayes actually struggled in the decisive game seven, shooting just 4-of-18 from the field, but the Nationals were victorious thanks to a balanced scoring attack. In a key game six Nats victory, Schayes was dominant with 28 points and 12 rebounds.

5) George Mikan (1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954)

There was no league MVP or Finals MVP in Mikan’s era but he got maybe the biggest compliment of all when the NBA changed some of its rules just to stop him. Mikan was ready to retire at that point anyway, having led the Lakers to five titles in six seasons. In that one season they didn’t win, it was only because Mikan was playing in the playoffs with a broken leg. The bespectacled giant scored 42 points in his NBA Finals debut, setting a single game Finals record that stood for almost a decade. Rebounding stats are unreliable from those days, but it seems evident that Mikan was the leading scorer and rebounder in all five NBA Finals series in which he played, and it’s difficult to see how he wouldn’t win the Finals MVP trophy every time, if it existed. That would have given him the most in NBA history for any player besides Michael Jordan.

“50 points, 18 rebounds, 19-of-34 from the field, 12-of-14 from the free throw line. That was [Bob] Pettit’s stat line in game six of the 1958 NBA Finals, and the Hawks needed every bit of it to hold off a feisty Celtics team featuring a tottered Bill Russell.”

6) Arnie Risen (1951)

The reign of George Mikan and Lakers was disturbed just once, in 1951 at the hands of Risen’s Rochester Royals. (That does come with a bit of an asterisk, as Mikan was hobbled with a broken leg). Risen had been battling Mikan going back to 1946, when he played for the Indianapolis Kautsyks of the NBL against Mikan’s Chicago American Gears. He joined the Royals in 1948 and was one of the premier centers of the NBA’s early years despite standing just 6’9″. In a memorable 1951 NBA Finals against the Knicks that went the full seven games after the Royals took a 3-0 lead, Risen was the series leader in scoring (21.7 points per game) and rebounding (14.3 per game). He also set the pace in the deciding game seven with 24 points and 13 rebounds. Risen ultimately never earned a major individual award in the NBA but he did capture a second championship later in his career, in 1957 with the Celtics.

7) Bob Pettit (1958)

50 points, 18 rebounds, 19-of-34 from the field, 12-of-14 from the free throw line. That was Pettit’s stat line in game six of the 1958 NBA Finals and the Hawks needed every bit of it to hold off a feisty Celtics team featuring a tottered Bill Russell. Considering the stakes, it may have been the greatest individual game performance in Finals history. Beyond setting the Finals single game scoring record, Pettit also scored 19 of the Hawks’ final 21 points in a 110-109 nail biter. It was the culmination of a dominant overall series for Pettit. He was the overall leading scorer in three of six games, averaging 27.0 points for the series, and the leading rebounder in four out of six, averaging 17.0. As noted above, it’s arguable that Pettit would have come away with the 1957 Finals trophy as well, in a losing effort, added to his actual two league MVP awards and four All-Star MVPs.

8) Paul Arizin (1956)

After leading the NBA in scoring in ’51-’52, Arizin took a leave of absence from the Warriors for two years of military service. He returned to a vastly different NBA, guard dominated and up-tempo, but managed to adjust and get even better. Arizin finished second in league MVP voting in ’55-’56, but was the undeniable best player in the subsequent postseason. His Warriors were a well-balanced team, with six players averaging double-digit scoring in their five game NBA Finals win over the Pistons. Not only did Arizin still lead all scorers with 27.6 points per game, he also added 8.0 rebounds per game, shot 28-of-32 from the free throw line, and matched up defensively against Fort Wayne’s best player, George Yardley. Arizin remained successful for six more NBA seasons, including earning another scoring title in ’56-’57, but never returned to the NBA Finals.

9) Joe Fulks (1947)

With 37 points, 29 of them coming in the second half, Fulks dominated game one of the 1947 BAA Finals so definitively that the Associated Press labeled his performance as “the greatest shooting exhibition ever seen.” Granted, basketball was still a relatively young sport and this was the inaugural NBA Finals. But Fulks lived up to that hype, innovating the jump shot, leading the BAA in scoring twice, and he surely would have earned league MVP in ’46-’47 if that existed too. In a five game Finals series win for his Warriors over the Chicago Stags, Fulks averaged 26.2 points per game. That was almost double the next highest scorer, Chicago’s Chick Halbert at 14.4 per game. Having reached the pro ranks at age 25 after serving a full tour of duty as a U.S. Marine in World War II, Fulks lasted just eight seasons in the NBA, winning one more scoring title in ’47-’48