NBA naming MVP after Michael Jordan as top awards reimagined

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The NBA's regular-season Most Valuable Player award will now be known as the Michael Jordan Award.

The Michael Jordan trophy was unveiled by the league on Tuesday along with five other reimagined trophies named after league pioneers that will now be presented to the NBA's end-of- season performance award winners.

The league's Social Justice Champion award is named after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who won six of the league's Most Valuable Player awards.

The first version of the new trophy will be given retroactively to Jokic, who was named the Most Valuable Player.

The Jordan trophy is one of the renamed awards.

• The Hakeem Olajuwon trophy is given to the defensive player of the year.

• There is a trophy for rookies of the year.

• The winner of the sixth man of the year trophy.

• The George Mikan trophy is given to the most improved player.

The defensive player of the year in 1993 and 1994 was Olajuwon. He averaged 38.6 points per game in his first season and was named the Most Valuable Player. His career began before the creation of the Sixth Man of the Year Award and he was an 11-time All-NBA selection despite coming off the bench. Mikan led the Minneapolis Lakers to five championship titles in the 1940s and 1950s.

The Clutch Player of the Year award was named in honor of Jerry West, who was the only player to win Finals Most Valuable Player while losing the series.

Many of the NBA's most important awards are being reinvented. The NBA introduced an updated Larry O'Brien Championship trophy last season, as well as new conference championship trophies named after Oscar Robertson and Bob Cousy.

Some of the greatest and most impactful players in the history of the NBA are celebrated in the NBA's new trophy collection. We honor the legends who embody these prestigious awards as we recognize the league's top performers.

An NBA player breaking out of a rock to get a crystal basketball is depicted in the Michael Jordan trophy. Maurice Podoloff's name will no longer be attached to the league's Most Valuable Player trophy, which was previously named after him.

The NBA said that the new trophy grows more burnished from bottom to top, signifying the hard work and progression from entering the NBA to achieving its greatest individual honor.

Mark Smith, a retired VP of innovation special projects at Nike and a Jordan Brand designer, worked in creative partnership with Jordan to design the new trophy, which includes several details intended to honor specific elements of Jordan'slegacy The trophy is 23.6 inches tall and has a picture of Jordan on it.

The crystal basketball at the top of the trophy is 1.23 inches in diameter and is a nod to Jordan's five league Most Valuable Players.

Victor Solomon, the designer of the NBA's championship trophy last season, collaborated with all the new trophy designers. The individual award trophy has an embedded structure. The front face is flat to allow for a direct line of sight to the icon, and the engraving of the award and recipient is detailed at the bottom.

Solomon said that the goal was to create a cohesive collection of honors worthy of the athletes who raise them. The hard work of the players who reach the pinnacle of individual excellence while honoring the NBA legends who have defined that greatness is celebrated in the trophies.