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Why do questions remain re: Dave Cowens as 1973 MVP?

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 Back in 1973, the players chose the NBA MVP, not the sports writers and broadcasters that do the voting today. And the players chose Celtics center, Dave Cowens, as their Most Valuable Player. And remember, in 1973, players could not vote for a member of their own team.


But the 1973 choice of "Big Red" brought some criticism from many NBA followers. Here are a few of the arguments:

"Kareem deserved the award."

"John Havlicek had a better season"

"Tiny Archibald led the League in scoring and assists. He should have won."

Jabbar finished second in the MVP voting, while Tiny ended up third - and "Jarrin' John" was fifth. Personally, MVP to me means - take the specific player out of action, and how would the team have fared.

In the 1972-73 season, Boston finished the regular season with a 68-14 record - tops in the League. So it was no surprise to see two Celtics players in the top-5. Havlicek was high man for Boston in minutes, points and assists, but it was Cowens' insane rebounding, on-court ferocity and dedicated mindset to not lose that won him the award.

"It's not about wanting to win. Everybody wants to win. It's about hating to lose." -- Dave Cowens

The vote was not close. It came down to Dave (444 points) to Jabbar's 339 points. Cowens garnered 68 first-place votes to Kareem's 33. And it was non-Celtics players that voted him in. 

"Big Red" battled the players that voted for him, but in the end - those same players respected what he did for Boston. Hell, Dave took over for what many consider to be the best-NBA player-ever - namely Bill Russell. There should be no asterisk next to "Dave-as-MVP". He deserved the trophy.


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