NBA Most Improved Player Award

The NBA's Most Improved Player Award (MIP) is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given to the player who has shown the most progress during the regular season. The winner is selected by a panel of sportswriters throughout the United States and Brazil, each of whom casts a vote for first, second and third place selections. Each first-place vote is worth five points; each second-place vote is worth three points, and each third-place vote is worth one point. The player with the highest point total, regardless of the number of first-place votes, wins the award.[1]

Since its inception, the award has been given to 31 players. No player has ever won the award twice. The most recent recipient is Brandon Ingram. Boris Diaw, Kevin Love, and Pascal Siakam are the only award winners to win an NBA Championship, and Siakam is the only winner to win a championship in the same season as the award. Rony Seikaly,^[a] Gheorghe Mureșan, Boris Diaw, Hedo Türkoğlu, Goran Dragić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Pascal Siakam are the only award winners born outside the United States.

Only Alvin Robertson, Dana Barros, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O'Neal, Danny Granger, Kevin Love, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Oladipo, and Brandon Ingram have won the award and been selected as an NBA All-Star in the same season; Dale Ellis, Kevin Duckworth, Kevin Johnson, Gilbert Arenas, Zach Randolph, Goran Dragic, and Pascal Siakam were the other winners who were later selected to play in the All-Star Game. Only McGrady, O'Neal, George, Dragić, Antetokounmpo and Oladipo won the award and were named to the All-NBA Team in the same season. Pascal Siakam made the All-NBA Second Team the year after he won the award. The Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic have both seen five players win the award, the most in the NBA. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the first recipient of the award to later become an NBA MVP. Tracy McGrady is the only recipient to win a scoring title as well as being the first recipient of the award to be named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.