Russell's MVP votes are pretty cool.
He played only 48 games his rookie year so only finished 7th but then finished either 1st or 2nd with Wilt for the next 6 years. Then 3rd behind Oscar and Wilt. Then 1st again. Then 4th twice and 3rd once in 3 of his final 4 years. Behind Wilt, West, Oscar. Then Wilt, Nate. Then Unseld, Reed and Billy Cunningham in 69.
Strange that Russell didn't make it in 1968 but did in 67 and 69. Wilt won that year. Lenny Wilkens was #2, E Baylor, Dave Bing and Oscar in 5th. Strange selections with Lenny and Bing. I suppose Lenny had become the pre-eminent little man in the league post-Cousy (20ppg 8apg).
It is a pretty amazing accomplishment. 1st 5 times, 2nd twice, 3rd twice, 4th twice. One time 7th probably due to missed games. And one time blanked.
11 of his 13 years in the top 5 for MVP. Just like thoes rings.
5 MVPs for Russell.
4 MVPs for Wilt.
1 MVP for Oscar. 1 MVP for Unseld. Cousy got it Russell's rookie year before Wilt was in the league. Pettit got in 59 before Wilt.
Wilt started in 60. So Russell and Wilt got 8 of the next 9 MVPs with only Oscar breaking their streak. Then Unseld in Russell's last year in 69.
Kareem's 1st 12 years he finished in the top 5 every single year. 6 wins, 1 2nd, 2 3rd, 2 4th, and 1 5th. He then finished 10th 2 straight years, before getting 2 more 4ths and 1 more 5th in 86. So 15 top 5 finishes for Kareem and 2 more top 10 finishes. Amazing.
Jordan wasn't top 5 his first 2 years (6th and then injured), but ran off 10 straight full seasons of top 3 finishes (his partial year in 95 he finished 11th) getting 5 wins, 3 2nd's, and 2 3rd's.
Lebron was 9th as a rookie and 6th in his 2nd year, but then ran off 13 straight top 5 finishes (4 wins), then 11th, then 2nd again, and he has been 13th and 10th the last 2 years.
Bird's 1st 9 years, all top 4 (and 4 was a rookie and just 1 other top was 3, so 3 1st's and 4 2nds). Magic also had 9 straight years of top 3 finishes (once he took the mantle from Kareem). Those 2 guys just dominated the 80's as we knew.
The NBA has had a lot of those amazing player runs. The torch just keeps getting passed from all time great to all time great (sometimes 2). So you just had the 60's with Wilt/Bill, 70's with Kareem, 80's with Bird/Magic, 90's with Jordan, early 00's with Duncan (perhaps you can add Shaq, but he was never a MVP darling in part because he missed a lot of regular season games), then late 00's and 10's to Lebron. Be interesting to see if Giannis or Jokic does enough to get into that territory or if it is someone like Luka that realy takes it over.