Most MVPs and championships
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Bill Russell | Michael Jordan | |
| College championships | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| NBA championships | 6 | 11 | 6 |
| MVPs | 6 | 5 | 5 |
Note that based on this criteria (and you clicked this link because this is your criteria), that Jordan is no better than the THIRD best player in history. I make my point about Russell on a different section of this site. So to keep from repeating myself, I will argue why Kareem is better than Jordan, but I will list Russell on tables.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, like Jordan, won six championships. However, he won more Most Valuable Player awards (six to five). Pretty open-and-shut. However, Jordan-supporters often say, "yeah, but where would he be with Magic Johnson?" This is a fair question. Similarly, I ask, "What did Jordan do without Scottie Pippen?"
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar without Magic (10 seasons) | Bill Russell without Bob Cousy (6 seasons) | Michael Jordan without Pippen (5 seasons) | |
| NBA championships | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| MVPs | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| NBA Finals | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Best record in NBA* | 3 | 2 | 0 |
( * Irrelevant, but good for grins)
The answer is that he did quite nicely without Magic...much better than Jordan did without Pippen. But to be fair, Jabbar played 10 seasons without Magic and Jordan only played 5 seasons without Pippen, so let's compare this for their first 3 seasons. Before we do, let's also put into context that Jabbar joined an expansion team that was in their 2nd year of existence and Jordan was on the Bulls, who had been around for nearly 20 years.
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, first 3 years | Bill Russell, first 3 years | Michael Jordan, first 3 years | |
| NBA championships | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| MVPs | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| NBA Finals | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Best record in NBA | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Playoff record | 23-12 | 23-9 | 1-9 |
| Losing Records | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Scoring Titles* | 2 | 0 | 1 |
( * Irrelevant, but good for grins)
So you see, no matter how often Jordan fans whine and try to make up excuses and rationalizations, it all comes down to Kareem has more MVPs and rings than Michael Jordan.
Thank you for playing.