Source: NBA / NBA
A season of change continues for the NBA.
The league has been petitioned to change its iconic logo, and while that’s still wishful thinking, an update will honor several GOATs.
As the season closes annually, the NBA’s best and brightest are awarded for their effort with the Kia Performance Awards. To up the hype, they’ll be renamed, starting with the Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, now dubbed the Michael Jordan Trophy.
During his historic career, Jordan was awarded the MVP trophy five times as well as earning six NBA championships, six NBA Finals MVP Awards, 4 NBA All-Star selections, three NBA All-Star Game MVP Awards, 10 scoring titles, an NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, an NBA Rookie of the Year Award and immortalized into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
Aside from the name change, the trophy’s been redesigned too. It now stands at 23.6 inches tall and weighs a hefty 23.6 pounds to represent Jordan’s 23 jersey number and the amount of NBA championships he won during his two three-peats.
To make the details even more remarkable, the base of the bronze trophy has five sides as a nod to his league MVPs, and the crystal ball in the statue’s hands has 23 points and is 1.23 inches in diameter.
His Airness worked with retired VP of Innovation Special Projects at Nike and Jordan Brand designer Mark Smith to creatively design the new trophy as a way to pay homage to his career.
“I’m incredibly honored to have created the NBA’s MVP trophy in partnership with Michael Jordan,” said Smith. “Sculpting Michael’s vision of his own pursuit of athletic achievement into this award has been the opportunity and challenge of a lifetime. As we worked together on this project, it was very important to Michael that the figure not be a likeness of him, but instead that the recipient should be able to see himself in the award. For Michael, naming the award in his honor was recognition enough.”
The other Kia Performance awards have been renamed as well, with the Kia NBA Clutch Player of the Year award now being called The Kia Jerry West Trophy, NBA Defensive Player of the Year is now the Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy, and Kia NBA Rookie of the Year award renamed the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy. Other awards name changes include the NBA Sixth Man of the Year, now set to honor John Havlicek, and the NBA Most Improved Player of the Year, paying homage to George Mikan.
Get a better look at all the trophies below, which all nod to some of the most trailblazing players ever to step foot on the hardwood.
Source: NBA / NBA
Source: NBA / NBA
Source: NBA / NBA
Source: NBA / NBA
