Which is more prestigious: Regular Season MVP or Finals MVP?

[BigShotBob]

MVP: 82 games, best player among 30 teams
FMVP: 4-7 games, best player among 2 teams

82 Games among 30 teams (some teams injured, on a back-to-back, resting players, not putting in full effort, coasting, etc)

FMVP: 4-7 games, best player among the best 2 teams (even being the best/most impactful player on your own team)

FMVP wins

[Bronbron23]

Im surprised so many people say mvp. Its probably because its fits the narrative for their favorite player better. The regular season is to easy especially in this era. Guys like westbrook, Harden and curry who have all won mvp recently are consistently significantly worse come playoff time. You could probably throw greek in there 2 although with the growth of his game my guess is that wont happen much longer. playoffs and finals are a much truer test. Its more physical, refs let way more things go, defenses are usually one of the best in the league and teams have more time to focus on the best player and develop strategies ro stop them. Yeah your always gonna have an anomaly once in awhile like with iggy in 15 but usually its a decent reflection of who the best players in the league are.

[StrongLurk]

Regular season MVP.

[warriorfan]

Regular season mvp because the low iq voters screw up the fmvp half the time.

[Carbine]

Iggy, Cornbread Maxwell, 14' Kawhi (a role player then) have FMVP's. The list of all-star game MVP's is more impressive than the FMVP list. FMVP lost a lot of credibility when the clear best player in the series repeatedly doesn't win the award because his team lost. So it is not even a real award for the most valuable player in the finals.

'14 a role player to who? The guy who scored 3 more PPG?

It was a total team effort, Kawhi was one of the four major contributors. Danny Green was a role player, a good one. Kawhi was one of the main cogs on a true "team" oriented style offense.

[TheGoatest]

1 regular season MVP is probably better on your resumé than 1 Finals MVP, because there have been some really random one-time Finals MVPs in history, won by players who are clearly not true all-time greats.
But 2 or more Finals MVPs look better than the same amount of regular season MVPs.

[SouBeachTalents]

It's obv that FMVP is at times prone to have mere all-stars and even role players win the award. So while MVP can only really be won by superstar caliber players, what I find interesting is that when a legitimate superstar player does win FMVP, it seems to always be someone who's top 3 in the league or in the argument for BITW. Look at the last 30 years, who's the "worst" superstar to win FMVP; Dirk, Wade, Kawhi, Durant? All top 25 level talents, all top 3 players in the world the year that they won. Compare that to the worst MVP's, you see there's a clear drop off; Iverson, Nash, Rose, Westbrook, Harden, Giannis.

Not only that, look at the players on the top 10 list, over that same 30 year time period, not a single one has more MVP's; Jordan, Shaq, Duncan, Hakeem & Kobe all have more FMVP's, while LeBron has the same amount of each. So in conclusion, while all-star caliber and even role players have won FMVP, which is no doubt a significant factor in this argument, there's a clear pattern of superstar caliber players separating themselves in the FMVP category more than MVP. Just look at the winners each year since '91, discounting the obvious outliers ('04, '07, '08, '14 & '15), which seasons are you taking the MVP over the FMVP? If you'd take anyone besides '09 & '10 LeBron I'd be extremely surprised

[Stephonit]

It's obv that FMVP is at times prone to have mere all-stars and even role players win the award. So while MVP can only really be won by superstar caliber players, what I find interesting is that when a legitimate superstar player does win FMVP, it seems to always be someone who's top 3 in the league or in the argument for BITW. Look at the last 30 years, who's the "worst" superstar to win FMVP; Dirk, Wade, Kawhi, Durant? All top 25 level talents, all top 3 players in the world the year that they won. Compare that to the worst MVP's, you see there's a clear drop off; Iverson, Nash, Rose, Westbrook, Harden, Giannis.

Not only that, look at the players on the top 10 list, over that same 30 year time period, not a single one has more MVP's; Jordan, Shaq, Duncan, Hakeem & Kobe all have more FMVP's, while LeBron has the same amount of each. So in conclusion, while all-star caliber and even role players have won FMVP, which is no doubt a significant factor in this argument, there's a clear pattern of superstar caliber players separating themselves in the FMVP category more than MVP. Just look at the winners each year since '91, discounting the obvious outliers ('04, '07, '08, '14 & '15), which seasons are you taking the MVP over the FMVP? If you'd take anyone besides '09 & '10 LeBron I'd be extremely surprised

What's the difference between Dirk, Wade, Kawhi, Durant on one hand and Nash, Harden, Giannis on the other? Rings. Oh guess what the FMVP award does? It rides on the coattails of championship winners. It is not the FMVP award that is important—it is the ring. After the embarrassment of not being giving to Bill Russell it has been exclusively been given to a player on the winning team. It's a fake accomplishment that tries to pass itself off as a real one from the reflected glory of the true achievement.

[Stanley Kobrick]

does 3 nickelodeon awards = a couple fmvp votes?

[Airupthere]

does 3 nickelodeon awards = a couple fmvp votes?

How many in the history of basketball have won 3 nickelodeon awards? You may be underestimating the value of that award.

[Stanley Kobrick]

How many in the history of basketball have won 3 nickelodeon awards? You may be underestimating the value of that award.

stephen curry has 2 nickelodeon and 1 teen choice awards. that should be good for a couple fmvp votes

[Axe]

stephen curry has 2 nickelodeon and 1 teen choice awards. that should be good for a couple fmvp votes

No need for fmvp votes anymore, since nickelodeon kids/teens choice are more iconic than media-created awards like fmvp itself.

[dankok8]

It's obv that FMVP is at times prone to have mere all-stars and even role players win the award. So while MVP can only really be won by superstar caliber players, what I find interesting is that when a legitimate superstar player does win FMVP, it seems to always be someone who's top 3 in the league or in the argument for BITW. Look at the last 30 years, who's the "worst" superstar to win FMVP; Dirk, Wade, Kawhi, Durant? All top 25 level talents, all top 3 players in the world the year that they won. Compare that to the worst MVP's, you see there's a clear drop off; Iverson, Nash, Rose, Westbrook, Harden, Giannis.

Not only that, look at the players on the top 10 list, over that same 30 year time period, not a single one has more MVP's; Jordan, Shaq, Duncan, Hakeem & Kobe all have more FMVP's, while LeBron has the same amount of each. So in conclusion, while all-star caliber and even role players have won FMVP, which is no doubt a significant factor in this argument, there's a clear pattern of superstar caliber players separating themselves in the FMVP category more than MVP. Just look at the winners each year since '91, discounting the obvious outliers ('04, '07, '08, '14 & '15), which seasons are you taking the MVP over the FMVP? If you'd take anyone besides '09 & '10 LeBron I'd be extremely surprised

I get your point and agree but many times you'd take the regular season MVP and quite clearly too.

2004 KG > Billups
2007 Dirk > Parker
2008 Kobe > Pierce
2014 Durant > Kawhi
2015 Steph > Iggy

... plus a whole bunch more debatable ones like 2009, 2010, 2018.

The way I'd answer the question is FMVP is more prestigious because it means you won a ring. Rings matter more than any single achievement in the sport and especially if you're the best player on the team which the FMVP usually is. But the regular season MVP award is also very meaningful and is a major award for sure.