NBA Finals MVP: Ranking the 10 Greatest Finals MVP's EVER

#2 Jerry West in the 1968-69 NBA Finals vs Boston Celtics

Jerry West

Finals averages: 37.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 7.4 assists

Jerry West is the only player to ever win the Finals MVP trophy despite finishing on the losing side. West, playing alongside a 34-year-old Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain, gave the Boston Celtics with their 5 Hall of Famers their biggest test of the decade in an NBA Finals series.

After winning the first two games at home, in which West scored 94 points combined, the Lakers were beaten by the superior Celtics at the Garden - despite the Logo scoring 40 points in a nailbiting game 4 in which the final score was 88-89. The Lakers rallied to win their next home game and take a 3-2 lead - with West again supplying the majority of the ammunition in a 117-104 win.

The Celtics pulled up their defensive socks and held the Lakers to 90 points in a 9-game win at home in game 6, before pulling off possibly the greatest game 7 win in NBA Finals history at the Staples Center with a 108-106 win - despite West's 42 point contribution.

This was the first season that the Finals MVP trophy was introduced, and for all the talk about racial discrimination leading to West winning the award, it is abundantly clear that he was the best player through the course of one of the best NBA Finals series ever played.