Greatest player of all time to never win league MVP, the only player ever to earn Finals MVP in a losing cause and yet so synonymous with the NBA that his silhouette is unofficially the league’s logo. Played in eight NBA Finals losses with Los Angeles, six times as the leading scorer and assists leader, and finally a win in 1972. West was 1st-Team All-NBA 10 times, All-Defensive four times, and co-captained the 1960 U.S. Olympic team, earning a gold medal
FEATURED LISTS
Can’t blame me: 15 greatest individual NBA Finals performances in a losing effort
The NBA Finals is where legends are truly made and the 15 performances below are no exception. However, in these cases, the mythologizing was earned in a losing effort.
index
Click here for index
- As Lakers legend
- As television broadcaster
- As #2 overall NBA Draft pick
- Finished second in NBA league MVP voting but never won
- Great long distance shooter
- In the 1966 NBA Finals
- In the 1969 NBA Finals
- Missing out on league MVP in a controversial voting (1970)
- Never named NBA league MVP
- Nicknamed “The Logo”
- On ’71-’72 Los Angeles Lakers (greatest teams)
- On 1960 U.S. Olympic team
- Passed away in 2024
- Winning Finals MVP in a controversial voting (1969)
Associated topics
los angeles lakers
elgin baylor
nba finals
west virginia
olympics and world cup
coaches
executives and owners
names and nicknames
wilt chamberlain
rivalries and feuds
FULL archive
Head of the class: 18 greatest Naismith Hall of Fame NBA induction classes
There’s no doubt the 2020 Naismith Hall of Fame class was star studded but does it truly go down as the greatest of all time? We examine that with a ranking of the 16 greatest classes in the institution’s history.
In memoriam: 24 prominent basketball people who passed away in 2024
A singular defensive powerhouse, a legendary jovial big man, multiple college coach Hall of Famers, and “The Logo” are amongst those we lost in 2024.
Gold standards: Ranking the 18 U.S. men’s Olympic basketball teams
From the original “dream team” that brought home gold from Berlin in 1936 (with James Naismith watching) to the legendary 1992 edition to the latest American champions in 2016, we rank the 18 U.S. men’s basketball teams based on both their performance at the Olympics and their roster as a whole.
Fraudulent voting: 20 controversial NBA league MVP decisions
As is bound to be the case whenever humans are making objective decisions based on subjective criteria, the NBA MVP winners have not always made sense in retrospect. Sometimes, they don’t even make sense as they’re being awarded. These are the 20 most notable cases.