Michael Jordan Went Six for Six in the Finals and Won Every Series MVP

Michael Jordan reached six NBA Finals, won all six, and was named Finals MVP in every one. He also holds the career records for regular season scoring average at 30.1 points a game and playoff scoring average at 33.4.

Jordan won ten scoring titles and five MVP awards. He never lost a Finals series and never trailed 3-2 in one. The playoff scoring average is the more revealing of his two records: most great scorers decline in the postseason as defenses tighten and rotations shorten. Jordan went up by more than three points a game, against the best defense available, every year.

The 1987-88 season is the single best answer to anyone who calls him a volume scorer. He won MVP, the scoring title and Defensive Player of the Year in the same year, averaging 35 points while leading the league with 3.6 steals a game. No other guard has won Defensive Player of the Year while averaging even 30. He was the best offensive player and the best perimeter defender in the league simultaneously.

What makes the Finals record so hard to attack is the absence of a bad night. Every other all-time great has a series they would like back: a Game 7 that got away, a Finals loss that hangs on the resume. Jordan has none. Six chances, six titles, six MVPs, and the last shot of the last one went in over Bryon Russell in Utah.

The honest case against him is longevity and era. He played 15 seasons to LeBron James more than 20, and he retired twice in the middle. He never had to beat a team as good as the 73-win Warriors. The Eastern Conference he escaped was weaker than the one that produced those Finals trips, and two of his six titles came in a league missing several of its best players to expansion.

None of that touches the central fact. The measure everyone reaches for in this argument is championships, and Jordan converted every single opportunity he had into one, while scoring more per game than anyone who has played.

The verdict: Michael Jordan. Perfect in the Finals, and the highest scoring average ever.