Who won the most NBA Player of the Week Awards in the last decade

 
Every week one player from each conference gets awarded. Awarded for being the best player during that 7 day time span. I guess it’s unnecessary to say that only the very best are able to stand out enough to be recognized as the best players of the week. It doesn’t really award consistency because as few as 3 great consecutive games might be enough to get rewarded, but still, if a player wins that award frequently, it shows what kind of a player he is – a dominant player.

 
The first NBA Player of the Week Award of the previous decade was given to Chris Webber on January 2nd 2000. Then after the 2000-2001 season NBA started to reward two players every week – one from the Western Conference and one from the Eastern. Last awards of the decade were given to LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, less than 2 months ago.

 

 
Who didn’t make the top 10?

16.-18. Ray Allen, Gilbert Arenas, Chris Paul (7 times)

15. Steve Nash (8 times)

12.-14. Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter (9 times)

 

 
10./11. Dwyane Wade (10 times)

Dwyane entered the league only in 2003 but that didn’t stop him from making the top 10. He won the award 10 times and he would probably manage to do it a few more times if not for his injuries. Wade is one of the best shooting guards of the decade and his most important accomplishment is the championship he and the Miami Heat won in 2006. Not to mention that Dwyane was the leader of that Heat team and his importance couldn’t be overrated. Still he’s often overshadowed by another stud from the 2003 draft class. Although not everyone agrees that DW isn’t as good as LBJ.

 

 
10./11. Dirk Nowitzki (10 times)

Dirk was one of the most consistent players of the 00′s. He rarely missed any games and always delivered. He has been a perennial All-Star since 2002 and won the MVP in 2007. Nowitzki has never won the Player of the Week award more than 2 times in a single season but his consistency lets him jump in to this top 10 (top 11)

 

 
8./9. Shaquille O’Neal (11 times)

He has accomplished much and if this article would be called “top 10 players of the decade” than Shaq would definitely be higher, probably top 3. Big Diesel was absolutely dominant during the first few seasons of the decade but then his game slowly started to fade. 2005-2006 was the last season in which Shaq averaged at least 20 ppg and the last time he won the Player of the week award was in December of 2004. Still his career has been nothing short of amazing as he is 5th on the all-time scoring list.

 

 
8./9. Jason Kidd (11 times)

Jason has been playing in the NBA since 1994 and he’s already 36 years old. Just like O’Neal, Kidd played his best ball at the beginning of this past decade and is probably going to retire some time soon. He managed to be the best player of the week for 11 times from 2000 until 2010, including 3 times in 2001-2002 which could be his best season as he finished second in MVP voting that year.

 

 
6./7. Paul Pierce (12 times)

I don’t know about you but I’m a bit surprised about this. Not that Pierce hasn’t been good, he has been great but I didn’t expect him to be higher than Dirk and Shaq. I guess this is just a proof of how underrated he has been. For a large part of this decade Pierce wasn’t recognized as one of the NBA’s elite players but his game was up there with the elite. Paul got rewarded in 2008 when he finally lead the Celtics to NBA championship.

 

 
6./7. Tracy McGrady (12 times)

T-Mac’s career has been affected badly by injuries. When he was putting up MVP-like numbers at the beginning of the 00′s, many thought he will become an unstoppable force for years to come. He averaged 32.1 (!!!) points per game in 2002-2003. Unfortunately Tracy fell short of the expectations. He was an All-Star caliber player but he missed a lot of games and never got pass the 1st round of the playoffs. He won the NBA Player of the week 4 times in 2004-2005 season.

 

 
5. Kevin Garnett (16 times)

From season to season Kevin Garnett continued to put up monster numbers for the Minnesota Timberwolves but he got pass the first round only once. For 13 times he was recognized as the best player of the week from the year 2000 until he was traded to the Boston Celtics. He then won the award 3 more times in 2007-2008 and finished the season off by winning his first NBA championship ring.

 

 
4. Tim Duncan (17 times)

Tim is arguably the best player of the decade but he made his name mostly by winning championships not Player of the Week Awards, yet he still managed to win 17 of those during the past 10 years. His best two years were 2001-2002 and 2002-2003. He won a staggering amount of 11 Player of the Week Awards in those two seasons and also was the NBA Regular Season MVP in both of these seasons.

 

 
3. Allen Iverson (21 times)

One of the best scorers in NBA history. Iverson has averaged more than 30 points per game several times in his career. AI isn’t the 3rd best player of the decade but he’s certainly top 10 material. He is in the twilight of his career now but Allen still averaged 26 ppg as recently as 2008.

 

 
2. LeBron James (22 times)

Nowadays it seems that LeBron is named Eastern Conference player of the week at least once every two weeks and it is not very far from the truth as he won the award 7 times in 2008-2009 and 5 times this season already. LBJ is arguably the best player in the NBA right now, although still without a ring, he’s in a good position to win one this year.

 

 
1. Kobe Bryant (27 times)

Wasn’t very hard to guess the winner eh? The start of the decade was extremely successful for Kobe – 3 consecutive championship titles. The middle part of the decade was tough for him (rape allegations, Lakers not making it further than the 1st round for 3 consecutive years) but now he has returned to glory. During his illustrious career he certainly has been a “love me or hate me” type of player.

You might also like

• Miami big 3 – the complete list of opinions
• Who should play in the Western Conference All-Star team?
• Top 10 power forwards of the decade.