NBA Power Rankings: Dwyane Wade and the 10 Greatest Players to Never Win MVP

In spite of posting one of the highest PERs in NBA history and being arguably one of the three best players of his generation, Dwyane Wade has never won an MVP award. 

It's hard to say he's been "wronged" in some way. When you look at the career accomplishments, he looks like he should have won, but when you look at specific seasons, it's hard to find one where you can really say he was robbed. 

He's had injuries some seasons, and the rest of the time his teammates were either too good (Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James) and took away votes, or they weren't good enough and the team wasn't able to attain a high enough level of success to bring him consideration. 

Still, I got to wondering, are there players who were even greater that never won the MVP? Here are the 10 greatest players in the history of the league who never won MVP. 

10: Dolph Schayes

Dolph Schayes was one of the original great players. He won one NBA championship with the Syracuse Nationals in 1955. Over the course of his 16-year career, he led his team to the playoffs 15 times, and made the All Star Game 12 times.

He is 23rd all-time on the NBA Win Share list. His best was 1956-57 when he averaged 22 points and 13 boards, and finished second in the MVP voting.  

Schayes also had the "good fortune" of playing at the same time as the likes of Bob Cousy, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, so he was never able to win an MVP award. 

9: Reggie Miller

There will be those who are aghast at the notion that Reggie Miller is on this list. He got similar respect while he was playing. In fact, in his entire career he only ever received two votes of any kind for MVP, the least of any player with a 25,000-point career. 

Miller is one of only 10 players in league history to accumulate 25,000 points, 4,000 boards and 4,000 assists.  Miller is also 11th all time on the Win Share list with 174.4—more than Kobe Bryant. I'm not arguing that he's better than Kobe, but it puts in perspective how under acknowledged his career was.

Probably the year he should have at least gotten some serious consideration was the 1999-2000 season when the Pacers had the best record in the Eastern Conference and Miller led them in scoring. Miller only received one-third place vote, only good enough for a 13th place tie.

Shaquille O'Neal was the winner that year, as he should have been, but Miller should have been given more "career achievement" consideration. 

8: Gary Payton

Gary "the Glove" Payton was a perennial All-Star from 1995 to 2003, missing only one year in that span. He was the 1996 defensive player of the year. Over that span of time he averaged an amazing 21.4 points and 8.1 assists per game. 

On the other end of the court, he made the All-NBA first team defense every single year. 

He also had the "good fortune" of having the best year of his career coincide with Michael Jordan's last year with the Bulls. After that, Seattle's three-year run at the title also happened to end. 

In short, Payton and the Supersonics just peaked at the wrong time. 

7: Robert Parrish

In the history of the game, no player has stepped on the court more times than Robert Parish, whose career spanned 20 years and 1611 games. In that span, Parish played in nine All Star Games and was a member of four championship teams. 

Three of those were with the Boston Celtics, where he played alongside Larry Bird and Kevin McHale as the greatest front court in the history of the game. 

Parish is the league's eighth all-time leading rebounder and 24th all-time leading scorer. He is generally regarded as one of the 50 greatest players of all time, and was named to the list of "50 Greatest Players in NBA History." 

The closest he ever came to MVP was when he finished fourth in the 1991-92 season, averaging about 20 points and 11 rebounds a game.  He was named to the second team All-NBA.

The biggest reason he never won is the fact that his front court mate, Larry Bird, was even greater.  

6: Patrick Ewing

Patrick Ewing is one of only five players in NBA history to amass 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 2,500 blocks. The other four—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon—all won MVPs. 

Ewing never finished better than fourth, which he did three times. He may have actually been wronged in 1993 when Charles Barkley won. While there's a case for Barkley, who helped the Suns to the best record in the NBA, Ewing's offensive numbers were very close, and he was a superior defensive player.

Ewing's greatest problem was that he never really played with another truly great player. There were good players who were with him over his career; Allan Houston and John Starks were hardly "great" though.

If Ewing had ever had a Pippen, he might have one or two of Jordan's rings, and maybe one of his MVP awards.  

5: Scottie Pippen

There are only two players in NBA history with 18,000 points, 6,000 assists, 6,000 rebounds and 2,000 steals. Neither of them won the MVP and both are on this list. The first is Scottie Pippen. I'll let you know the other when his name comes up. 

Pippen won six NBA championships alongside the greatest player in the history of the game. Being called a "Pippen" is now apparently an insult in some people's book, but Pippen was one of the truly great players in the history of the game. 

What people fail to recognize with Pippen is what it cost him to stay with Jordan all those years. In terms of both contract and fame (and because of that—endorsements) he was never regarded for being as great as he really was. 

4: John Stockton

John Stockton is without question the best "pure" point guard in the history of the league. What does a pure point guard do? He distributes and he guards the perimeter.

He has 36 percent more assists than Jason Kidd, who is second all time. He has 30 percent more steals than Michael Jordan, who is second all time. 

Are there better point guards? Yes, Oscar Robertson (if you call him a point guard) and Magic Johnson were better point guards, but they were not "pure" point guards, in the sense that there was more to their games than running the offense.

Stockton, in spite of dominating two career stat lines like no other player, never won an MVP award. In part, he played in an age when point guards weren't recognized with the award as they are now. It can be argued that one of his teammate Karl Malone's awards should have gone to him.

The best he ever did was in 1991-92, when he finished seventh in the voting.   

3: Dwyane Wade

I recently wrote an article in which I distinguished between "greatest" and "best." Some people were confused as to the distinction. 

Better is a contemporary term, indicating a player's relative impact right now. Greatness implies the legacy, the totality of a player's career. So for instance, (and please don't get into a diatribe trying to dissect the analogy) you could argue that Blake Griffin is better than Kevin Garnett, but there's absolutely no way you could argue he is greater than Garnett, not yet. 

The reason I bring this up is that right now Wade might be the best player to never win the MVP, but he has more legacy to go before he passes the two players in front of him in terms of greatness. His career PER of 28.6 is sixth best in history, but his total numbers are in need of more years to accumulate "greatness." 

He's about three seasons from the 20,000-point mark and once he surpasses that, he'll start moving up in the conversation for greatest to never win the MVP, provided he doesn't win it in the meantime. 

2: Clyde Drexler

Remember the 18,000-point, 6,000 rebound, 6,000 assists, 2,000 steal number I was telling you about? The second player is Clyde Drexler. The main difference is that Drexler scored nearly 3,000 more points in fewer seasons.

His best season was his 1991-92 season when he finished second in MVP voting to Michael Jordan, and then lost the NBA finals to Michael Jordan.

Needless to say a big part of the reason that Drexler never won was Michael Jordan.

He also suffered from a disease known as micromarketosis, which is also known now as "Drexler's Disease." The only known cure is H.O.T.: "Hakeem Olajuwon Teammate" serum. Being traded to Houston got him a ring, but not an MVP. 

As such, Drexler is the second greatest player never to win the MVP. 

1: Jerry West

This is not a mistake. Jerry West, known as "The Logo" because he is literally the face of the NBA, or at least the silhouette of it, never won the MVP. West finished second four times, and three years in a row, but never actually won.

In 1970, he scored a league-leading 31.2 points and averaged 7.5 assists, but finished second. In 1972, he led the league in assists with 9.7 while scoring 25.8 points, and led his Lakers to an NBA championship. He didn't win though.

In NBA history, only Oscar Robertson has more points, rebounds and assists than West.

Jerry West is very much in the conversation for top 10 players in NBA history, and easily the greatest who never won the MVP.