Changing the Game: 5 Rule changes the NBA must consider

1) Multiple MVP winners

Here’s another proposal with multiple variations for the league to choose from. Since the award’s inception after the 1955–56 NBA season, the MVP trophy has been awarded to a single player deemed to have had the “greatest” performance and excelled above all his peers that season. Multiple players deserve the award every season, but there can only be one. This leads one to wonder, why not multiple MVP awards? 

Instead of an NBA MVP, there could be an Eastern Conference MVP and a Western Conference MVP. This isn’t some off-the-wall, innovative idea. The NFL and the MLB award two MVP winners each season, selecting one player from each conference. It makes perfect sense for the NBA to adopt a similar MVP system given that each team plays 63.4 percent of its games against teams within their conference.

If Adam Silver and his disciples don’t want to use the blueprint laid out by the MLB and NFL, they can always follow in the footsteps of the NHL. The NHL gives out two MVP awards, but things are done differently from the MLB and NFL.

The Hart Memorial Trophy is awarded to the player deemed most valuable to his team and is voted on by hockey writers; the Ted Lindsay Award is presented to the player deemed the “most outstanding player” that season by his peers in the NHL Players Association. 

If the NBA were to adopt a similar model as the NHL, it wouldn’t be the first time NBA players had a voice in who won MVP. From the 1955-56 to the 1979-80 season, the players voted for the NBA MVP award, with the only condition being that players could not vote for themselves or their teammates. After that, voting rights were transferred to sportswriters and broadcasters. Why not let both sides have a say? NBA players already get to vote on All-Star selections, why not MVP?