Sam Davis Memorial Award Added to Basketball Reference

Last week we added the USBWA MVP (and voting) to Basketball Reference. Today we are happy to announce that we have added some more award to Basketball Reference, allowing us to more fully flesh out our coverage of historical MVP and ROY awards. The most important and notable addition in this group is the Sam Davis Memorial Award, which was awarded by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association to the MVP each season from 1949-50 (the first NBA season after the merger of the BAA and NBL) through 1974-75. The NBA would merge with the ABA after the 1975-76 season, so this is a nearly full accounting of 'unofficial' MVPs from the original incarnation of the NBA. The MBWA also awarded an NBA Rookie of the Year, called the Hy Turkin Memorial Award. The organization also briefly had ABA counterparts for both of these awards: MBWA Outstanding ABA Player of the Year and MBWA Outstanding ABA Rookie.

The NBA was formed by a merger of the BAA and NBL in 1949, completing its first season in 1949-50. However, the league never gave out an official MVP award until 1955-56, when the hardware was taken home by Bob Pettit. This means that the first six seasons of NBA play have no official MVP. Via our Leading All-NBA Vote Getters page, we know that George Mikan (1950, 1951), Paul Arizin (1952), Bob Cousy (1953, 1954) and Neil Johnston (1955) were the leading All-NBA vote-getters during these six seasons, which felt like a decent proxy for MVP. The Sam Davis Memorial Award winners almost perfectly match these leading All-NBA vote getters, with Mikan winning in 1950 and 1951, Arizin in 1952 and Cousy in 1953. The only difference is that Cousy and Johnston are swapped in 1954 and 1955. Johnston, one of the most accomplished and statistically dominant players left off of the 50th and 75th Anniversary teams would almost certainly not have been overlooked if he had an NBA MVP on his resume. It's no fault of his own that the award didn't exist for the first half of his career. Like Johnston, Arizin and Mikan never won the official NBA MVP Award. Mikan's two wins here likely even undersell his dominance, much of which came before the merger, and extended up until his last championship in 1954.

From 1955-56 through 1974-75, when the official award and the Sam Davis Memorial Award were both handed out, they generally agreed on the MVP. The official award was voted on by players at the time (while the Sam Davis Memorial Award was determined by polling of the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association). However the following seasons were exceptions:

1957-58: While Bill Russell won his first official NBA MVP, the Sam Davis Memorial Award was handed to Dolph Schayes. Schayes was a very close second to Russell in official balloting. Russell's Celtics won 8 more games than Schayes's Nationals, but Schayes had generally better, more efficient numbers with the massive caveat that blocks and steals (categories with Russell likely dominated) were not tracked at the time.

1961-62: Again here, the MBWA pivoted away from Bill Russell. This one should be slightly less controversial than the 1957-58 decision, however, because they gave the Sam Davis Memorial Award to Wilt Chamberlain in this instance. 1961-62 is the season in which Chamberlain set the still-standing NBA record of 50.4 PPG, while playing an almost impossible 48.5 MPG, while also leading the NBA in RPG (25.7) and finishing second in FG% (50.6%). He finished a pretty distant second to Russell in official voting, but Chamberlain was not exactly popular among his fellow players at this point in time. Russell's team took home the ring, but the statistical tale of the tape declares a pretty clear winner.

1962-63: At this point it's becoming pretty clear that the MBWA was not as enamored with Bill Russell as the players were. Russell won his 4th official NBA MVP in 1962-63, but the Sam Davis Memorial Award was given to Elgin Baylor. Baylor was a distant second to Russell in both official voting and USBWA voting, Baylor, one of the most dominant players to never win an official MVP, was arguably at his peak in 1962-63 and held the statistical advantage over Russell in most categories.

1968-69: Wes Unseld won both Rookie of the Year and MVP, with a fairly big margin over official MVP runner-up Willis Reed. Reed, who had better statistics and got the better of their head-to-head matchups that season, took home the Sam Davis Memorial Award, however. In 1969-70 Reed would repeat as the Sam Davis Memorial Award winner and also take home his lone official NBA MVP.

1971-72: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won his second official NBA MVP this season. Jerry West, perhaps the greatest player in NBA history to never win an official MVP award, finished second in the voting, while his teammate Wilt Chamberlain came in third. The Lakers finished 69-13, won 33 straight and won the NBA title, but West/Wilt split the vote. West had a tremendous season, but it is difficult to argue that it was better than Abdul-Jabbar's season.

1972-73: Dave Cowens was named official MVP in 1972-73. It is considered one of the more controversial MVPs ever awarded. Reviewing the statistics in the voting table will explain why: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was clearly the best player in the world at the time. However, the Sam Davis Memorial Award went to neither Cowens nor Abdul-Jabbar. Instead it went to Cowens's teammate: John Havlicek. Hondo is another player on the shortlist of greatest ever with no official MVP awards. He and Cowens did not have Abdul-Jabbar's numbers, but the Celtics did win 68 games. Here are Hondo and Cowens head-to-head in 1972-73. It's a very tough call.

1974-75: Two seasons earlier the MBWA snubbed Dave Cowens for John Havlicek. This season, however, they gave the Sam Davis Memorial Award to Cowens, instead of official NBA MVP Bob McAdoo. McAdoo had a substantial lead in the official voting. Cowens's Celtics won 11 more games than McAdoo's Braves. Mac's numbers were substantially better, however, especially in their head-to-head meetings.

The Hy Turkin Rookie of the Year Award had very few differences with the official NBA Rookie of the Year Award. They were: 1962-63 (John Havlicek instead of Terry Dischinger), 1966-67 (Lou Hudson instead of Dave Bing) and 1970-71 (Dave Cowens solo winner instead of sharing award with Geoff Petrie).

The MBWA ABA Most Outstanding Player Award was twice different from the official award: 1971-72 (Rick Barry over Artis Gilmore) and 1974-75 (Julius Erving solo winner instead of sharing with George McGinnis).

The MBWA ABA Most Outstanding Rookie was also twice different from the official award: 1973-74 (Larry Kenon over Swen Nater) and 1974-75 (Bobby Jones over Marvin Barnes).