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2000 NBA MVP

Shaquille O'Neal was the 2000 NBA MVP. Shaq was born on March 6, 1972 (age 43 years).He was traded to many different teams.Shaq was in the NBA (National Basketball Association) for 19 straight years.Standing 7 feet tall and weighing 315 pounds, Shaquille O'Neal was one of the most dominant players in the NBA. After his 2011 retirement, he became an on-screen league analyst.Born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 6, 1972, Shaquille O'Neal went on to become one of the most dominant players in NBA history, helping his teams to win NBA Championships and Olympic gold. Following his 2011 retirement, Shaq became an NBA analyst, working alongside the likes of Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson.

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2001 NBA MVP

Allen Ezail Iverson (born June 7, 1975) is an American retired professional basketball player who played for four different teams (Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, and Memphis Grizzlies) during 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played both the shooting guard and point guard positions. Iverson was an eleven-time NBA All-Star, won the All-Star game MVP award in 2001 and 2005, and was the NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2001.Iverson attended Bethel High School in Hampton, Virginia and was a dual-sport athlete. He earned the Associated Press High School Player of the Year award in both football and basketball, and won the Division AAA Virginia state championship in both sports.^[1] After high school, Iverson attended Georgetown University for two years, where he set the school record for career scoring average (22.9 points per game) and won Big East Defensive Player of the Year awards both years.^[2]Following two successful years at Georgetown, Iverson declared eligibility for the 1996 NBA draft, and was selected by thePhiladelphia 76ers with the first overall pick. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in the 1996–97 season. Winning the NBA scoring title during the 1998–99, 2000–01, 2001–02, and 2004–05 seasons, Iverson was one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history, despite his small stature (listed at 6 feet, 0 inches). His regular season career scoring average of 26.7 points per game ranks sixth all-time, and his playoff career scoring average of 29.7 points per game is second only to Michael Jordan. Iverson was also the NBA Most Valuable Player of the 2000–01 season and led his team to the 2001 NBA Finals the same season. Iverson represented the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics, winning the bronze medal. He also played for the Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons and the Memphis Grizzlies, before ending his NBA career with the 76ers during the2009–10 season.

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2002,2003

Tim Duncan was a NBA MVP.he was born on April 25, 1976 (age 39 years).Basketball player Tim Duncan has led the San Antonio Spurs to multiple championships and is widely hailed as one of the greatest power forwards in NBA history.Future Hall of Famer basketball player Tim Duncan was born on St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1976. Despite waiting until his freshman year of high school to play basketball, Duncan was recruited by Wake Forest, where he became one of the Demon Deacons' best players. In the 1997 NBA draft, the San Antonio Spurs selected Duncan with the team's first overall pick. He's gone on to lead the team to five championships.Hailed as one of the best power forwards in NBA history, Timothy Theodore Duncan was born on April 25, 1976, on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The youngest of William and Ione Duncan's three children, and their only boy, Tim devoted his early athletic years to swimming, a sport in which he became the top U.S. competitor in his age group in the 400-meter freestyle.

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2004

Kevin Garnett was 2004 NBA MVP.He was born on May 19, 1976 (age 38 years).Kevin Garnett is an American professional basketball player who is considered one of the most versatile and dominant players of his time.Kevin Garnett was born May 19, 1976 in Mauldin, South Carolina. He was chosen by the Minnesota Timberwolves as the NBA draft's fifth overall selection. In his second season, he was chosen to play in the NBA All-Star Game. In 1997 he signed a contract extension that promised him $126 million over six years. After the 2006–2007 season, the Timberwolves' they traded him to the Boston Celtics.

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2005,2006 MVP

Stephen John "Steve" Nash,(born February 7, 1974) is a Canadian retired professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was an eight-time NBA All-Star and a two-time recipient of the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. The 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) point guard also led the league in assists five times.After a successful high school basketball career in British Columbia, Nash earned a scholarship to Santa Clara University in California. In his four seasons with the Broncos, the team made three NCAA Tournament appearances, and he was twice named the West Coast Conference (WCC) Player of the Year. Nash graduated from Santa Clara as the team's all-time leader in assists and was taken as the 15th pick in the 1996 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns. He made minimal impact and was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in 1998. By his third season with the Mavericks, he was voted to his first NBA All-Star Game and had earned his first All-NBA selection. Together with Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley, Nash led the Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals the following season. He became a free agent after the 2003–04 season and returned to the Phoenix Suns.

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Dirk Werner Nowitzki (born June 19, 1978) is a German professional basketball player who currently plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). An alumnus ofRöntgen Gymnasium and the DJK Würzburg basketball club, Nowitzki was chosen as the ninth pick in the 1998 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks and immediately traded to the Mavericks, where he has played since. Listed at 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m),^[1]Nowitzki is considered one of the greatest power forwards in basketball history.^[2]Nowitzki led the Mavericks to 14 NBA Playoffs (2001–2012; 2014–2015), including the franchise's first Finals appearance in 2006 and only championship in 2011. He is a 13-time All-Star, a 12-time All-NBA Team member, and the first European player to start in an All-Star Game as well as the first to receive the NBA Most Valuable Player Award (2007).^[3] Nowitzki is the highest-scoring foreign-born player in NBA-history, currently being ranked 7th in all-time scoring with +28,000 regular-season points.^[4] He is also one of six players who achieved a 50-40-90 season (2007). He is the first Maverick voted onto an All-NBA Team and holds several all-time Mavericks franchise records.^[5] Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Nowitzki are the only players to achieve four consecutive 30-point, 15-rebound post-season games (2001–2002).^[6]^[7]Nowitzki led the German national basketball team to a bronze medal in the 2002 FIBA World Championship and silver inEuroBasket 2005, and was the leading scorer and MVP in both tournaments. He was named the Euroscar European Basketball Player of the Year by the Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport for five years running from 2002 to 2006 and again in 2011.^[8] He was also named the Mister Europa European Player of the Year by the Italian sports magazine Superbasket in 2005, and the FIBA Europe Basketball Player of the Year twice in 2005 and 2011.^[5] He was named Eurobasket's All-Europeans Player of the Year from 2005 to 2008, and again in 2011.

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2008

Kobe Bryant was the 2008 NBA MVP.He was born on August 23, 1978 (age 36 years) .Kobe Bryant is an NBA athlete who's one of the leading players in career points, having earned multiple championship rings. He has also won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. basketball team.Born on August 23, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Kobe Bryant played for the Charlotte Hornets right out of high school. He was soon traded to the L.A. Lakers, where he went on to win five championships and become one of the leading scorers of the NBA. He has had a famous rivalry with one-time teammate Shaquille O'Neal and was once accused of sexual assault, though charges were later dropped. Bryant played on both the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic teams, winning two consecutive gold medals with teammates Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, among several other top players.

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2009,2010,2012,and 2013 MVP

NBA star LeBron James became both the first member of the Cavalier franchise and the youngest player to receive the Rookie of the Year Award at age 20, and the youngest player to score 20,000 points at age 28. He led the Miami Heat to NBA championship victories in both 2012 and 2013.Born on December 30, 1984, in Akron, Ohio, LeBron James showed an early talent for basketball and began to earn a reputation as a prodigy of the sport in high school. James was the first player picked (by the Cleveland Cavaliers) in the 2003 NBA Draft. During the 2003-04 season, he became the first member of the Cavalier franchise and the youngest player (at age 20) to win the Rookie of the Year Award. James played on the 2004, 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic basketball teams—winning a team bronze medal and two team golds overall—and led the Miami Heat to NBA championship victories in both 2012 and 2013. He has also achieved a number of NBA records, including becoming 20,000 points at age 28, in January 2013. In 2014, the youngest player to scoreit was announced that James will return to the Cavaliers.

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2011

Derrick Martell Rose (born October 4, 1988) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for theChicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one year of college basketball for the University of Memphis before being drafted first overall by Chicago in the 2008 NBA draft.^[1] Rose became the first guard to be drafted first overall in the NBA draft since Allen Iverson in 1996 and would subsequently win NBA Rookie of the Year. In 2011, Rose was named the NBA Most Valuable Player, becoming the youngest player to win this award at 22 years and 6 months old.^[2]Rose was born and raised in the Englewood area, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods on Chicago's South Side.^[4] He is the youngest son of Brenda Rose after Dwayne, Reggie, and Allan. All three were talented basketball players who taught Rose the in and outs of basketball on nearby courts.^[4]^[5] As his talent for the sport grew, Rose began to attract much more outside attention in Chicago's basketball circles, leading his mother and brothers to restrict outside contact to him. She feared his road to the NBA would be exploited and derailed by outside parties like street agents, similar to what happened to former Chicago prospect Ronnie Fields.^[6]

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2014

Kevin Wayne Durant (born September 29, 1988) is an American professional basketball player who plays with the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Standing at 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) and weighing 240 pounds (109 kg), he has played the small forward and power forward positions for the Thunder, formerly the Seattle SuperSonics. Durant has won an NBA Most Valuable Player Award, four NBA scoring titles, the NBA Rookie of the Year Award, and an Olympic gold medal. He has also been selected to five All-NBA teams and six All-Star teams.Durant was a heavily recruited high school prospect. He attended the University of Texas for one season of college basketball, where he won numerous year-end awards and became the first ever freshman to be named Naismith College Player of the Year. In the 2007 NBA draft, he was selected second overall by the Seattle SuperSonics. After his rookie season, the team moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. Durant helped lead the Thunder to the 2012 NBA Finals, losing to the Miami Heat in five games.Durant was born on September 29, 1988 in Washington, D.C. to Wanda (née Durant) and Wayne Pratt, who raised him with his grandmother, Barbara Davis.^[1][2][3] When Durant was around one, his father deserted the family; Wanda and Wayne eventually divorced.^[1] Durant has one sister, Brianna, and two brothers, Tony and Rayvonne.^[4] Durant's favorite team growing up was the Toronto Raptors,^[5] and he was a fan of Vince Carter.^[5] A basketball player from his earliest days, Durant played Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball for several teams in the Maryland area, and was teammates with future NBA players Michael Beasley, Greivis Vasquez, and Ty Lawson, the former of whom Durant remains friends with to this day.^[6]^[7]During this time, Durant began wearing #35 as his jersey number in honor of his AAU coach Charles Craig, who was murdered at the age of 35.^[8]

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2015

Wardell Stephen "Steph" Curry II (born March 14, 1988)^[1] is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Listed at 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) tall and weighing 190 lb (86 kg),^[2] Curry plays the point guard position. The 2015 NBA Most Valuable Player and a two-time NBA All-Star, he is the son of former NBA player Dell Curry.Curry played college basketball for Davidson. There, he was twice named Southern Conference Player of the Year and set the all-time scoring record for both Davidson and the Southern Conference. During his sophomore year, Curry also set the single-season NCAA record for three-pointers made.^[3]Curry was selected with the seventh overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors.^[4] During the 2012–13 season, he set the NBA record for three-pointers made in a regular season with 272. The next season, Curry and teammateKlay Thompson set the NBA record for combined threes in a season with 484^[5] as the pair were given the nickname the "Splash Brothers".^[6][7] In 2014–15, Curry eclipsed his own record by knocking down his 273rd three-pointer on April 9, 2015,^[8] finishing the regular season with 286 three-pointers and was named MVP after leading the Warriors to a franchise-record and NBA-best 67 wins on the season.^[9]Curry was born in Akron, Ohio but grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina where his father Dfor the Charlotte Hornets . Curry's father often took him and his younger brother Seth to his games, where they would sometimes shoot around with his team during warm-ups. As a child, he attended a Montessori school that had been started by his mother, Sonya.^[10]

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