The Lost MVP: 1953-54
End of an Era
The 1953-54 NBA season marked the end of an era in basketball’s grand history. This was the last season played without a shot clock, that wonderful invention that essentially demarcates basketball into its two major historical halves. It would take time over the years for other leagues and levels of play to follow the NBA’s lead on adopting the shot clock, but the game was on the move.
Also, this was the last season that George Mikan’s Minneapolis Lakers won the NBA title. The seventh professional championship in eight seasons for Big George.
But could Mikan retain the Lost MVP belt? His challengers remain largely unchanged (at least in name) from the 1953 showdown, but Mikan is a year older and he’d retire after winning his final title. As for those challengers, they were improved and closing the gap with Mikan.
STRONG CONTENDERS
#5 Harry Gallatin
For once I finally feel comfortable singling out a particular New York Knick for this MVP vote as Gallatin had his finest NBA season. Sucks that he peaked just as other players were being superb. We’ll obviously get to the awesome folks who pushed Gallatin down the list here, but first praise for ole hustlin’ Harry.
The power forward averaged 13.2 PPG and a league-leading 15.3 RPG as the Knicks leaned quite mightily on him and Carl Braun (both 26 years old) given that New York’s famous balance was starting to look creaky as others on the roster were aging… or just not cutting it like they used to. Looking at you Vince Boryla.
Gallatin’s persistent play earned him his first and only berth on the All-NBA 1st Team.
#4 Bob Cousy
At this point, it’s safe to credit Cousy as the engine driving the Celtics. Sorry, Ed Macauley, but you’ve seen better days. And Macauley was no slouch this year (NBA record .486 FG% this season!), but Cousy was the captain now.
The Cooz finished first in APG (7.2) and second in PPG (19.2) across the entire league as he pushed Boston to once again have the NBA’s best offense… or at least the offense most capable of putting up buckets. The defense still sucked—and would continue sucking until Bill Russell arrived—but having a savant point guard orchestrating the offensive side of the ball propelled Boston to 42 wins as the Celtics, Knicks, and Syracuse Nationals once again finished virtually tied for first place in the East.
BATTLE ROYALE
Like the previous season, the final three players contending for MVP are George Mikan, Neil Johnston, and Dolph Schayes. Their cases don’t change in substance, but by degrees.
Mikan once again was the dominant offensive force on the team with the NBA’s best record (Minneapolis went 46-26). Johnston once again was an outstanding scoring machine on an otherwise bad Philadelphia Warriors squad. Schayes once more was the sole superstar on a Syracuse team that featured lots of great role players.
But this is where the degrees matter.
Mikan’s PPG slipped to 18.1 a night, which was still great! Good enough for fourth in the NBA. However, that was his worst showing yet in the category. It was probably a matter of age, but also a function that the Lakers only played him 33 MPG as they had rookie center Clyde Lovellette to back him up. Yep, the Lakers added yet another future All-Star to their stable that already included Mikan, Vern Mikkelsen, Jim Pollard, and Slater Martin.
Then there’s Johnston in Philadelphia. He once again blew the league away in PPG with 24.4. Remember that Cousy was second with 19.2 PPG. The Warriors were no longer awful either, just bad. The additions of forward Joe Graboski and guard Jack George gave Johnston some desperately needed help, but the team still finished with a lackluster 29-43 record.
Lastly, we got Schayes in Syracuse. The Nationals finished with a 42-30 record. And according to Basketball-Reference, had the strongest team performance overall with an estimated SRS of 4.27. Despite having a better record, the Lakers had an SRS of 2.71, which was next best in the NBA.
(SRS basically tries to measure a team’s strength of schedule with its margins of victory).
Furthermore, the Nationals’ point differential was +4.9. Once again best in the league.
The Lakers mustered a +3.1 differential. Gallatin’s Knicks were lucky in crunch time as they finished with a slightly negative differential (-0.1), but still posted a 44-28 record. Well, come the playoffs, the Nationals showed their bona fides by sweeping the Eastern Division playoffs and falling to the Lakers in seven games in the Finals only because the club was littered with injuries.
This is a regular season award, but the playoff action was illustrative of Syracuse being the best team in the East and NBA that season. Schayes was the linchpin of that team’s success averaging 17.1 PPG and 12.8 RPG.
And the verdict is….
#3 George Mikan
#2 Neil Johnston
#1 Dolph Schayes (WINNER!)
You’ll get no quibbles from me if you pick Mikan or Johnston, but I’m picking Schayes. The arguments are indeed solid for all three.
But the argument that works for me, given how close all three are, is that Schayes was the key/best player on the league’s best team that season.
Is it fair to hold Johnston’s poor teammates against him? Probably not. But it’s also hard to give an MVP award to a guy on a team that missed the playoffs and didn’t get close to .500. Plus, Schayes at least had another All-Star player in Paul Seymour on the roster. That was it, but it was something. (Johnston’s Warriors teammate Jack George would soon be an All-Star).
And Mikan? He was still MVP-worthy, but his team put up a comparable record to the Nationals (46-26 vs 42-30) while having four All-Star players against Syracuse’s two. And I’m a Paul Seymour partisan, but he wasn’t of the caliber of Mikkelsen and Martin at that point. Probably akin to Pollard by this stage. Throwing Lovellette in the mix (an All-Star caliber player only deprived of the honor in 1954 because he was stuck behind Mikan) was just overkill for the Lakers.
Helped the Lakers edge out the Nationals in the NBA Finals, but it submarines Mikan’s chances for a final Lost MVP.
He’ll have to settle for three in five seasons. Not bad.
Gladys Knight & the Pips are here to serenade the end of this era!